Review:

Describe the causes of 19th Century European Imperialism

•The desire for economic gain and resources•The missionary impulse•The search for strategic advantage and national pride

Today:

Identify major developments of African history in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

•Africa’s interaction with imperialism•Agricultural changes and new patterns of employment•The origins of African nationalism

Up until the late 1800s, there were just a few European colonies on the African coastline. No Europeans had really explored the interior of what they called the “Dark Continent”.

In the early 1880s, King Leopold II of Belgium paid for expeditions to the the Congo in the center of the African continent.

He claimed that, “millions of men still plunged in barbarism will be at the dawn of a better era.”

But he really wanted the Congo’s natural resources: copper, rubber and ivory. He forced the locals to work for almost nothing and had them killed and tortured if they complained or disobeyed.

We come in peace –

We swear!

Many Africans gave up traditional agriculture to work for European companies. Some worked on rubber plantations or in copper mines. Others built railroads to bring these natural resources to ports, where they could be shipped to Europe and used in factories.

Berlin Conference (1884):

European countries decided they could claim African colonies just by setting up government offices in African territory.

This set off a Great Scramble as Europeans rushed to colonize Africa.

Why???

British Colonies

Britain had managed to get some of the most valuable land in Africa.

The most important gain was Egypt because of the Suez Canal.

This provided a much quicker and safer route to India – the “Jewel in the Crown” of the British Empire.

EGYPT

SUDAN

SOUTH AFRICA

BECHUANALAND

RHODESIA

NIGERIA

BRITISHEAST AFRICA

French Colonies

MADAGASCAR

FRENCH WEST AFRICA

ALGERIA

MOROCCO TUNIS

FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA

France had also built up a large colonial empire, mostly in the north west of Africa.

This had caused problems and there had been serious arguments over colonies such as Morocco and Tunis.

Arguments over colonies caused bad feeling between Britain and France.

German Colonies

KAMERUN

GERMANEAST AFRICA

GERMAN SOUTH WEST AFRICA

Germany did not enter the race for colonies until very late and, as a result, much of the land gained was not very valuable.

Despite this, Kaiser William II was determined that Germany should have a major empire.

Italian Colonies

LYBIA

ITALIAN SOMALILAND

ERITREA

TUNIS

ABYSSINIA

Italy did gain a few colonies but also had its failures.

It tried to take over Tunis but was beaten to it by France.

It tried to take over Abyssinia but failed.

Belgian Colonies

Even tiny Belgium had an African colony – the Belgian Congo.

This was one of the reasons that Kaiser William II of Germany decided that his country must also have colonies.

BELGIANCONGO

By 1914, there were only two independent countries left in all of Africa.

What new countries were growing empires?

“We do not want to put anyone in the shade, but we also demand our place in the sun” –Germany Where do these lines come from???

“We have been engaged in drawing lines upon maps where no white man’s foot has ever trod.

We have been giving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each other, only hindered by the small impediment that we never knew exactly where the mountains and rivers were.”

-British Official

Who is missing from this picture???

Europeans: Carving up a Continent

Remember?

“Whatever happens, we have gotthe Maxim gun, and they have not.”

When Africans rebelled, Europeans killed thousands of Yao, Zulu, Asante, Shona, Herero, and Maji-Maji people.

Ethiopia was the only exception…

Emperor Haile Selassie I

“Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, King of Kings of Ethiopia and Elect of God”

“Ras Tafari”

Halie Selassie’s cousin, Emperor Menelik II, had modernized Ethiopia by hiring Europeans to build roads, bridges and schools. He bought weapons from Great Britain to fight the Italian invaders, and defeated the Italians in 1896.

When Italy invaded again in 1935, Haile Selassie I made a famous speech to the League of Nations.

Bob Marley used his speech as lyrics to a song, “War”

“That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned:

That until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation;

That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes;

That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race;

That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained…”

“And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed…

Until that day, the African continent will not know peace.

We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil.”

Haile Selassie was an example for the rest of Africa. Today, every African nation is free and independent.

Yet there are still many problems in Africa today. From looking at these maps, can you think of one reason why?