Imperialism in Africa

1
Imperialism in Africa
2
The Scramble for Africa

• During the 19th century, France, Britain and
  other European colonial powers fought for the
  acquisition of African territory. This feverish
  wave of interest in the African continent and its
  resources came to be known as the Scramble for
  Africa 1880-1914

3
(No Transcript)
4
(No Transcript)
5
EuropeanNationalism
Source for Raw Materials
MissionaryActivity
Industrial Revolution
European Motives For Imperialism
Markets forFinishedGoods
Military NavalBases
SocialDarwinism
Places toSend Excess Population
EuropeanRacism
HumanitarianReasons
Social EconomicOpportunities
WhiteMansBurden
6
Africa in the 1880s
7
Africa in 1914
8
Exploration of Africa

• Until 1880, Europeans maintained a limited
  presence in Africa (controlled 10 of continent)
• Adventurers began to excite merchants about
  business possibilities in Africa
• Quinine protects from Malaria
• Machine gun strong military advantage
• Rails, Steamships, Telegraphs make logistcs
  possible

9
European Explorers in Africa
10
Dr. Livingstone the Dark Continent

• David Livingstone went to Africa as a missionary
  but was a combination of missionary, doctor,
  explorer, scientist and anti-slavery activist.
• Reached and named Victoria Falls in 1855.
• Remained in Africa, learning languages customs,
  teaching treating Africans medically
  well-received by the Africans

11
Henry Stanley

• British/American Journalist who went to Africa in
  search of Livingstone when it appeared that he
  had been lost. Livingstone had traveled inland
  to find the source of the Nile
• His discovery of Livingstone newspaper stories
  inspired widespread economic, political and
  cultural interest in Africa.

12
Expeditions of Henry Stanley
13
In 1871 journalist Henry Stanley found him at
Lake Tanganyika, greeting him with the famous
words Dr. Livingstone, I presume?
14
Search for the Source of the Nile
John Speke
Sir Richard Burton
15
The Congo

• In the 1870s King Leopold II of Belgium employed
  Henry Stanley to help develop commercial ventures
  and establish a colony called Congo Free State in
  the basin of the Congo River
• Leopold said the Congo Free State would be a
  free-trade zone open to all European merchants in
  order to forestall competition from his more
  powerful European neighbors

16

• In reality, Leopold ran the Congo Free State as a
  personal colony and filled it with lucrative
  rubber plantations run under brutal conditions
• Humanitarians protested Leopolds colonial regime
• In 1908 the Belgium government took control of
  the colony and it became known as Belgian Congo

17
(No Transcript)
18

• It is blood-curdling to see them (the soldiers)
  returning with the hands of the slain, and to
  find the hands of young children amongst the
  bigger ones evidencing their bravery...The rubber
  from this district has cost hundreds of lives,
  and the scenes I have witnessed, while unable to
  help the oppressed, have been almost enough to
  make me wish I were dead... This rubber traffic
  is steeped in blood, and if the natives were to
  rise and sweep every white person on the Upper
  Congo into eternity, there would still be left a
  fearful balance to their credit.
• -- Belgian Official

19
(No Transcript)
20
The Berlin Conference 1884-1885The Partition of
Africa

• Tensions among the European powers seeking
  African colonies led to the Berlin Conference
• Otto von Bismarck presided
• Delegates from 14 European states and the US (no
  Africans were present) devised the rules for the
  colonization of Africa

21
Berlin Conference Rules

• The European power with holdings on the coastline
  had prior rights in the back country
• Occupation had to be real, i.e., settlers,
  soldiers, administrators
• A European power was required to give proper
  notice of its intention to move into an area

22
(No Transcript)
23
(No Transcript)
24

• The Berlin Conference gave European diplomats the
  justification they needed to draw lines on maps
  and carve Africa into colonies
• By 1900, all of Africa was divided into European
  colonies except for Ethiopia, where native forces
  had fought off Italian efforts at colonization,
  and Liberia, a small republic populated by freed
  slaves that was effectively a dependency of the
  US

25

• The invention of rigid tribal categories and the
  establishment of artificial tribal boundaries
  became one of the greatest obstacles to nation
  building and regional stability in much of Africa
  during the second half of the 20th Century (e.g.
  Rwandan genocide)
• The arbitrary boundaries of the Berlin Conference
  did not take into consideration the natural
  divisions of the African people (religion,
  culture, language, ethnicity, etc)