The Age of Imperialism: Africa

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The Age of ImperialismAfrica
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THE DARK CONTINENT

• Dark Continent racist terminology referred to
  both the peoples of Africa and their alleged
  ignorance
• In reality, Africa has always had diverse groups
  of people with their own unique cultures and
  histories
• Civilizations
• Languages
• Religions

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Imperialism in Africa

• During the 18th and 19th centuries, Europeans
  began to explore the interior of the African
  continent

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Imperialism in Africa

• Reasons for exploration in the 1700s 1800s
• Nationalism competition among European
  countries to enhance their power, wealth, and
  prestige
• Racism ideas of white superiority and the need
  to civilize the savages
• Missionaries spread Christianity to the
  heathens some were motivated by humanitarianism
  (improve lives of others)
• Industrial Revolution always looking for more
  sources of raw materials and more markets to sell
  their manufactured goods
• Key countries involved Great Britain, France,
  Germany, Belgium, Italy

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Imperialism in Africa

• Reasons for exploration in Africa
• Atlantic slave trade was ending and Europeans saw
  the great potential wealth of Africa in trade
• Africa was the Dark Continent scientists and
  geographers wanted to explore and document what
  Africa contained

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Imperialism in Africa - Explorers

• James Bruce 1770
• Discovered source of Blue Nile in Ethiopia

Mungo Park 1795 Explored Niger River his
reports spur more exploration
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Imperialism in Africa - Explorers

• 1840 Johann Krapf Johannes Rebmann
• German missionaries
• 1st Europeans to see Mt. Kilimanjaro Mt. Kenya
• Many people couldnt believe there were
  snow-capped mountains in Africa

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Imperialism in Africa - Explorers

• David Livingstone
• Scottish missionary, doctor
• Made 1st trip 1831
• Abolitionist believed ending slavery was
  possible if new commerce was brought into Africa
• Made several trips into interior of Africa
• Guided 1st European crossing of Kalahari Desert
• By 1860 could claim to be 1st European to cross
  African continent
• Explored source of White Nile

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David Livingstone
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David Livingstone

• Disappeared in mid-1860s
• Family feared he had died
• NYC newspaper hires Henry Morton Stanley to go to
  Africa and find him
• Stanley found Livingstone in 1871
• His trip kindled European interest in Africa
• Both men the maps they made opened Africa for
  different reasons

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Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?
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Henry Morton Stanley

• Spent time in Africa exploring the Congo River
• His maps and knowledge of the area enabled King
  Leopold of Belgium to claim the area

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KARL PETERS (1856-1918)

• German explorer in Africa
• Organized and propagandized for Germanys
  colonial expansion
• Founded the Society for German Colonization
• Acquired German East Africa (modern-day Tanzania)
• Convinced Otto von Bismarck to take over German
  East Africa and increase Germanys colonies in
  Africa

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CECIL RHODES (1853-1902)

• British businessman and politician in southern
  Africa
• Made a fortune from African diamond mines
• Established South African Company
• Land later became Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)
• Prime minister of Cape Colony (1890-1896)
• Wanted British control over South Africa
• Wanted Cape-to-Cairo Railroad
• Architect of British imperialism in southern
  Africa
• Great Britain became leading colonial power in
  southern Africa

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CECIL RHODES (1853-1902)
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European Attitudes Toward Africans

• White superiority/black inferiority
• People to be exploited and civilized need to
  change their pagan or heathen ways
• Childlike, ignorant, cruel, superstitious

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The Scramble for Africa1870-1914

• Before 1885, European countries had minimal
  presence in Africa

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What two areas of Africa were not taken over and
why?
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The Berlin Conference 1884-1885
Major powers met in Berlin to draw up rules for
dividing the African continent needed to
prevent war among them
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The Berlin Conference Rules to Claim a Territory

• Make a formal, public announcement of claim
• Effectively occupy territory (ex. using roads or
  railroads)
• Extend control from coast to interior
• Negotiate treaty with local peoples that would
  constitute a claim to sovereignty

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The Berlin Conference Rules

• Agreed traders and missionaries have access to
  interior
• Agreed Congo and Niger rivers were international
  waterways
• Agreed Christianity should be brought to all
  Africans
• Agreed what was left of slave trade should be
  destroyed

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The Berlin Conference

• Africa was divided by Europeans for Europeans
• Primary nations
• Great Britain
• France
• Belgium
• Spain
• Portugal
• Germany
• Italy

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Types of European Control

• British Indirect Rule
• French Direct Rule
• Belgians Paternalism
• Portuguese Assimilation

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KING LEOPOLD II OF BELGIUM (1835-1909)

• Took over land in central Africa
• Berlin Conference (1885)
• Leopolds control over Congo Free State
  recognized by major powers
• Belgian Congo (1908)
• Leopold criticized for the cruelty of his rule in
  the Congo
• Leopold forced to sell Congo Free State to
  Belgian government
• Renamed Belgian Congo
• Created European race for African colonies
  Scramble for Africa
• Diamonds, foodstuffs, gold, ivory, rubber

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Belgian Congo
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Leopold the Snake
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African Resistance

• 1890 Chief Macemba in Tanganyika to German
  officer
• I have listened to your words but can find no
  reason why I should obey you I would rather die
  first. I have no relations with you and cannot
  bring it to my mind that you have given me so
  much as a pesa (small maount of money) of the
  quarter of a pesa or a needle or a thread.

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• I look for some reason why I should obey you and
  find not the smallest. If it should be
  friendship that you desire, then I am ready for
  it, today and always. But to be your subject,
  that I cannot be. If it should be war you
  desire, then I am ready, but never to your
  subject.

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AFRICANS IN AFRICA

• By the time of the First World War (1914)
• Only 2 independent African countries
• Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
• Ruled by dynasty stretching back to at least the
  13th century
• Last emperor was Haile Selassie, deposed in 1974
• Home to Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church
  (strongly tied to Egyptian Coptic Church)
• Liberia
• Formed by freed slaves under auspices of the
  United States government

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African Resistance - Ethiopians

• In 1887 1896 Ethiopian army defeated Italians
• Emperor Menelik II created modern state of
  Ethiopia, including modern military
• Ethiopia remained independent until 1930s when
  Benito Mussolini sought revenge and occupied
  Ethiopia

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African Resistance - Ashanti

• Built empire on West Africas Gold Coast
• By early 1800s, covered 150,000 square miles
• Included between 3-5 million people
• Strong king bureaucracy
• Capital of Kumasi was bustling commercial center

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African Resistance - Ashanti
Clashed with British for 75 years 1873 full
scale attack against Ashanti using modern
weaponry and African allies
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BRITISH IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

• 1815 British took Cape Colony from the Dutch
• Boers moved north
• Transvaal
• 1886 gold discovered and British moved in
• 1881 and 1895 British attempted to take
  Transvaal from the Boers
• Orange Free State
• Boer War (1899-1892)
• Dutch led by President Paul Kruger
• British won

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UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA

• Created in 1910
• Included Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Natal,
  and Transvaal
• Self-government

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BRITISH COLONIES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

• Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
• Named for Cecil Rhodes
• North of Union of South Africa
• Bechuanaland (now Botswana)
• 1885 became a British protectorate
• Kenya
• 1888 became a British protectorate

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BRITISH IN NORTH AFRICA

• Egypt in name ruled by Ottoman Turks, but
  largely independent
• European capital investments
• Suez Canal opened in 1869
• Built by the Egyptians and French
• Taken over by the British (1875)
• British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli
• Bought shares in Suez Canal Company from Egypt
• Egypt was nearly bankrupt from the expense of
  building the Suez Canal
• British government became largest shareholder

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EUROPEANS IN EGYPT

• 1870s with the Egyptian government bankrupt,
  the British and French took over financial
  control of the country
• Egyptian monarchs (technically Ottoman viceroys)
  ruled as puppet leaders
• 1882 Egyptian nationalist rebellion
• France withdrew its troops
• Great Britain left in control of Egypt
• Lord Cromer introduced reforms
• De facto British protectorate
• Made official in 1914
• Independence came in 1922

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BRITISH IN NORTHERN AFRICA

• Sudan
• Area south of Egypt
• Under Anglo-Egyptian control
• Cotton needed for British textile mills
• Entente Cordiale (1904)
• Great Britain controlled Sudan
• France controlled Morocco
• Cape-to-Cairo Railroad
• Idea of Cecil Rhodes
• Would secure Great Britains dominance in Africa
• Never completed sections missing through modern
  Sudan and Uganda

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Cape-to-Cairo Railway Crossing over Victoria
Falls
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FRENCH IN AFRICA

• Algeria
• 1830 invasion
• 1831 annexation
• Tunis
• 1881 controlled by France
• Led Italy to join the Triple Alliance with
  Austria-Hungary and Germany
• Morocco
• 1881 large part under French control
• 1905 and 1911 nearly sparked a European war
  between France and Germany
• 1906 Algeciras Conference Germany recognized
  French rights in Morocco
• 1911 Agadir Crisis Germany recognized French
  protectorate over Morocco in exchange for part of
  Frances territory in the Congo

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FRENCH IN AFRICA

• Madagascar
• 1896 controlled by France
• Somaliland
• 1880s partly under French control
• West Africa
• Late 1800s largely under French control
• Sudan
• 1898 met Britains area of control and nearly
  went to war
• Entente Cordiale settled British-French disputes
  in Africa

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FRENCH IN AFRICA

• By World War I 1914
• France controlled 3,250,000 square miles in
  Africa
• 14 times the area of France
• France ruled 30,000,000 Africans
• 75 of the population of France

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GERMANS IN AFRICA

• Togoland (now Togo and Ghana)
• Cameroons (now Cameroon and Nigeria)
• Southwest Africa (now Namibia)
• East Africa (now Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania)

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ITALIANS IN AFRICA

• 1882-1896
• Eritrea (along the Red Sea)
• Somaliland (along the Indian Ocean, part of
  todays Somalia)
• 1896
• Defeated in attempt to conquer Abyssinia
  (Ethiopia)
• 1912
• Won Tripoli from Ottoman Turks

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Effects of European Rule on Africa

• Improved Medicine
• Positive
• Negative

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Effects of European Rule on Africa

• Improved Medicine
• Positive
• Negative
• Europeans stressed cash crop agriculture
• Did not necessarily produce enough food for
  Africans to eat

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Effects of European Rule on Africa

• Europeans made Africans into tenants instead of
  the tribe controlling the land
• Taxes were charged by Europeans Africans had to
  work for the Europeans to pay the taxes
• Africans had to move to urban areas to find work
  led to break up of families and clans
• Europeans separated traditional ethnic groups and
  put together traditional enemies when creating
  new boundaries

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Effects of European Rule on Africa

• Improved transportation and communication systems
• Positive
• Negative