Colonial African History Lecture 3 PDF

Colonial African History VLSS201: African History, Literature and Society Lecture 3 Europeans in Africa The Portuguese were the first to land on African coast in 1471. Led by Prince Henry. They first came to Ghana which they named Gold Coast because of the abundant gold that they found...

Colonial African History VLSS201: African History, Literature and Society Lecture 3 Europeans in Africa The Portuguese were the first to land on African coast in 1471. Led by Prince Henry. They first came to Ghana which they named Gold Coast because of the abundant gold that they found at the shore and in the rivers. They built the first castle in Africa in 1482, at the coast of Elmina in present day Ghana, which they called “da Mina”, meaning “The Mine”. The castle was used as their warehouse and place of abode. After the Portuguese were defeated by the Dutch in the Dutch-Portuguese war in1642, the Dutch took over. History of the Europeans that occupied Ghana before independence The Dutch in 1872, found occupation of Gold Coast unprofitable and gave their forts free to the British. The Swedes built Cape Coast Castle in 1653. But it was captured by the Danes and the Fetu chief and finally by the British 1665. The Danes also occupied Accra arear in Ghana in the 17th Century and they built the Christiansborg Castle in 1661. They also sold the castle to the English in 1850 Prussian/ German occupied what is now the Volta Region of Ghana in 1682-1720. They built Fort Gross Fredericksburg in 1683. The British occupied colonized Ghana from 1867- 1957 This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND Trading activities The Europeans brought guns, gunpowder, biscuit, beads, cloth, mirrors, metal knives, alcohol (gin, rum, schnapps), chocolates etc. Africans exchanged enslaved Africans, gold, bauxite, ivory, salt, palm oil, cocoa, rubber, diamond, kola nuts etc. Scramble for the partitioning of Africa Europeans began to fight among themselves over territories in Africa. This led to the Berlin conference in 1884- 1885 14 Europeans met at the conference. They included Great Britain, France, Germany, US, Sweden, Portugal and Belgium. No African was invited or present. Europeans agreed at the conference to partition Africa and colonize it. The partitioning of Africa had a lot of adverse effect on Africans. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY  Great Britain had the largest portion of African territories. They practiced the policy of indirect rule in their colonies, which allowed British policy of them to use existing local structures, chiefs and kings to govern. Where there were no existing chiefs or kings, they appointed one and indirect rule imposed him on the indigenous people. They also developed areas that had economic benefit creating an imbalance in the areas they colonized.  France got the second largest of the African territories. They practiced direct rule and the policy of assimilation. French policy of They believed they had achieved the highest civilization in the world and direct rule made it their goal to ‘civilize’ the people they colonized to make them behave like them. Like the British, they created imbalance in the development of Africa. Group assignment 1. British colonial rule in Gold Coast 2. French colonial rule in Senegal 3. Belgian colonial rule in Congo 4. Portuguese colonial rule in Angola 5. African resistance to European colonialism – Anglo-Asante wars 6. History of the Elmina castle in Ghana 7. History of Cape Coast Castle 8. History of Christiansborg castle This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY