Transcript European Imperialism and Africa During the Age of Industry

EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM AND AFRICA
DURING THE AGE OF INDUSTRY
SSWH15:d.
Time and Geography
POLITICAL
BACKGROUND OF THE
NEW IMPERIALISM, 1790-1880
• Prior to 1880, only Algeria and Cape Colony (South
Africa) under European control
• By 1914, all Africa claimed except Ethiopia and
Liberia
A political
cartoon
ECONOMIC
BACKGROUND OF THE
NEW IMPERIALISM, 1790-1880
Why Africa?
• Rivalry for New Markets
– Britain faced competition from Germany and America and
balance of trade in deficit
– Long Depression in Europe, 1873 to 1896
– Sought new markets and sources of raw materials
– Financiers sought investment opportunities
– New markets had cheap labor and little/no competition
Strategic Issues
• British government under pressure from
industrialists/financiers to secure lucrative
markets in India and East Asia from their
European rivals
• Britain had Suez Canal and Egypt which
assured passage from East to West
• Germany under unification became a rising
industrial power
• Portugal concerned with protecting her
colonies: Angola and Mozambique, so forged an
alliance with Britain
“White Man’s Burden”
• To “civilize” the Asians and Africans
• Missionary David Livingstone, advocated
“legitimate trade” instead of slave trade
• Westerners view of Africans and their lands:
– They could “save” Africans from themselves,
and bring them Bible and Western civilization
– An act of duty toward fellow humans who
needed the West’s magnanimous aid
THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA
1880–1914
Nationalism and the Clash of Rival Imperialisms
Germany
• Wanted to be taken seriously, needed overseas empire
• Became third largest colonial power in Africa: Togo,
Cameroon, Namibia and Tanzania
France
• Needed to assert glory, wounded national honor with
loss of Alsace-Lorraine
• Added “French West Africa”
Portugal
• Angola and Mozambique
THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA,
1880–1914
Italy
• Sought its “place in the sun”
• Took desert land in Libya and scrubland (Sahel) in
Somaliland and Eritrea – little commercial value
• Only colonial power to be defeated by an African
army (Abyssinia/Eithopia in 1896-Battle of Adowa)
Belgium
• King Leopold II got resource-rich Congo Basin
Spain
• Claimed part of Morocco and “Rio d’Oro”
(Mauritania)
“Informal Empire” to
Colonial Occupation
• Rapid shift and “process” was messy
• Led to international instability - treatened Europe’s peace
• Bismarck - Berlin Conference in 1884
The Berlin
Conference of
1884
“Informal Empire” to
Colonial Occupation
• Agreed-upon formula to regulate contest and temper
disputes
• Defined: effective occupation
– Colonies to prove local Africans ceded their
sovereignty to the “protecting power”
– “Occupying power” to establish “presence” –
administration to maintain order, interdict slave
trading and govern
– New rules set off treaty-making, conquest
• Impact on Africa: armed force against states and
peoples
Partition of Continent
• By 1900, all of Africa under
European rule, except Ethiopia
and Liberia
• No attention to local custom or
economic relations when
borders drawn
• Whole peoples were split, broke
ancient ethnic and social
affiliations
Partition of Continent
• Disregard for African geographic and ecological
traditions
• Egregious mistake clear after colonial system
dismantled after World War II and border
disputes occurred all across the continent
African troops
Different Countries
Different Goals
• French
– Central office in Dakar with close links to Paris government
– Direct Rule: Assimilation and Association – pressured Africans to learn
French manners, values
– Tried to convert Africans to Catholicism, little success
– Very little economic development until 20th century
Different Countries
Different Goals
• British indirect rule
– Attracted more attention from profit-seekers
– Relied heavily on local assistants – indirect rule
– Tried to reduce administrative costs, ease
transition
1895 cartoon of Frederick Lugard, considered the
pioneer of indirect rule in colonial Africa
Different Countries
Different Goals
South Africa mine dispute a
symptom of 'intense poverty and
inequality'
• Colonies integrated gradually into world markets, a mixed blessing
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While prices were high, colonies prospered
Replacing food crops with cash cropping was a disaster
Discouraged industrial development
When prices fell, intense poverty hit
REACTIONS TO
EUROPEAN DOMINATION
Africans did not passively submit to European overlords
African resistance:
Primary Resistance
• Small scale violent reaction by an ethnic group (tribe)
• Attacks on activities: tax collection, forcible recruitment
of labor and arrests
• Colonial retaliation - “hammering”: homes and crops set
afire, livestock confiscated and resisters killed
The Askari colonial troops
in German East Africa, circa
1906
REACTIONS TO
EUROPEAN DOMINATION
Africans did not passively submit to European overlords
African resistance:
Secondary Resistance
• Large scale by many ethnic groups, over a wide region
• Took form of spirit-possession cults, led by prophets
• Promised immunity to white man’s weapon
• In Muslims areas, Islam was basis for resistance to
“Christian” regimes
Promised immunity to white
man’s weapon
Outcome
• Europeans’ superiority in weaponry and tactics
won out
• African elites could submit and assimilate, or
withdraw from contact
– Assimilation in French, British colonies
– Flight in Belgian, Italian, Portuguese, German
colonies
• Missionaries educated small groups of Africans
– these went on to become nationalist leaders
Changes in African Society
• By early 20th C, Europeans demolished division
of lands, commercial and cultural relations
– Old boundaries based on topography, clan and
ethnicity were gone
– Traditional power relations destroyed
– Relations between masters and underlings varied
RELIGIOUS
Changes in African Society
• At beginning of 20th C
– Islam had more
prestige, adherents
than Christianity
– Cities grew, but most
people still rural
– Simple standard of
living, universal
illiteracy
– Poverty, social
disruption
A mosque
SOCIAL/ ECONOMIC
Social and Economic Changes
• Undermining of the old ways
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Old ways lingered in villages, but changed
Native rulers appointed by authorities abused powers
Youth chose European religion, schools, cities, jobs
Modern medicine deemed better
Cumulative erosion of old ways
• Few long-range plans for development early
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Wanted to control expense, made Africans pay
Hoped cash cropping would create cost-free colonies
Hope for large internal markets never developed
Only bonanzas were copper, rubber, diamonds, gold
Economic Change
• Considerable variation in colonial economies
– Congo: royal plantation, source of industrial raw
materials
– 20th C scandals showed how brutal regime had been
• In a few colonies, economic impact was visible,
direct
– Whole agricultural districts taken from Africans
– Africans forced into wage labor to get money to pay
taxes
– Africans forced into capitalist economies
– Undermined centuries-old lifestyles, beliefs
– Shifted prestige to those who accumulated wealth
Post-Independence Africa
• Independent Africa
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Extreme problems in stability, prosperity, survival
Mixed results of transitions
Famines, civil wars, terrorism
Cycle shows no sign of ending, most indicators are still dropping
• Decolonization went rapidly, fairly peacefully
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1955-65, 35 colonies became independent
Armed action in Portuguese colonies, Rhodesia, Eritrea
New states not anxious to destroy all European presence
African nationalism behind independence, but is tied to
modernization and equality
Discussion Questions
1. Misguided and racist as they were, most Europeans
genuinely believed that they were bringing Africa the
benefits of modern society. Yet, by the mid-20th century,
the list of benefits was far outweighed by the harm done
to Africa and the Africans. Why? What is involved in the
disastrous legacy of European colonialism in Africa?
2. What do you see in the future for Africa? What signs
can you pinpoint to indicate a more peaceful and
prosperous century than the last one? Conversely, what
do you see as the five greatest problems facing African
societies in the 21st century? Be specific.