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Why is Africa poor?
Annotated Bibliography
100 Points (HW)
Your task is to pick one African country and investigate why it is poor. You will share your
findings in an annotated bibliography.
What does each entry need to contain?
• An annotated bibliography contains all the usual info, like web page URL/date
accessed or book title/author/publication city and year.
• Entries are to be listed alphabetically and spaced properly.
• In addition, each entry includes your evaluation about this source: how useful it was,
what specific help it gave you, etc.
• Your evaluation should also identify whether the sources is a primary or secondary
source.
How should each entry look?
Format it in MLA style. Here an example of a book about the Congo:
Hochschild, Adam. King Leopoldʼs Ghost. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Print.
This book was a gold mine of information about life in Congo under Leopoldʼs ownership. It
describes well the feeling among European leaders during the Scramble. The story has
good guys and bad guys, which many historical events have, but few authors seem willing
to frame it that way. Maybe the fact that Hochschild teaches writing, not History, explains
that. Leopoldʼs actions and his police forceʼs murderous cruelty were so awful, and the
men who exposed the brutality so relentless, I was quite anxious to learn how it all turned
out. So the book is quite readable. Hochschild has a habit of ending a chapter with a hook
of sorts, a teaser for what the next chapter will cover. He is fair to Leopold, yet still
manages to reveal monstrous greed and diabolical manipulations. The book even sheds
light on the extent to which Joseph Conradʼs famous novel “Heart of Darkness” was based
on specific people and events. Hochschild did research in both English and French, and
used many Belgian sources. His treatment is fair, even though he clearly has a bias in
favor of defending human rights. His bibliography runs over 12 pages of small print, and
includes a few unpublished sources. So it is clear he has done his homework. Overall, a
fascinating history, well told. It is a secondary source.
What sources should every studentʼs annotated bibliography include?
• An encyclopedia source for basic info on geography, population, ethnic groups.
• Any books or videos at SAS library that focus on your country.
• At least five current events articles (from 2011) about your country.
How many sources should the annotated bibliography include?
The minimum number of sources varies, depending on which materials are available about
your country. (For South Africa, there are many sources, but not for Ivory Coast.) The
absolute minimum number for all students is seven entries—and that applies only for
countries about which SAS library has no materials whatsoever.
Excellent
(7-6)
Good
(5-4)
Fair to Poor
(3-0)
Your Score
↓
Completeness
of annotations:
type of source,
key info, how
useful it was.
(x2)
# of high quality
sources used,
relative to the #
available for
your country.
______ / 5 current events articles
______ / _______ SAS library books
______ other sources
Proper MLA
formatting; neat
presentation
Raw Score:
/28
Converted Score:
/100
School of Liberal Arts
University Writing Center
“Because writers need readers”
Cavanaugh Hall 427
University Library 2125
(317)274-2049
(317)278-8171
www.iupui.edu/~uwc
Preparing an Annotated Bibliography
Classes that require you to do research often require an annotated bibliography. An annotated
bibliography is a useful way to start a research project because it asks you to collect and
summarize sources that you might use later in a research paper. Collecting and summarizing
sources early in the research process helps you narrow your research topic. The bibliography
can also help you evaluate the possible usefulness of source material for later use in a paper.
This handout is designed to show you how to create an annotated bibliography. Specifically, it
will guide you through the process of creating an annotated bibliography by
1) describing in general terms the meaning of the words “annotated bibliography,”
2) explaining in general terms how to write an annotated bibliography, and
3) offering an example of what an annotated bibliography could look like.
However, it is important to note that individual instructors may have different requirements for
their annotated bibliography assignments. Please check with your teacher or assignment sheet
BEFORE following the advice in this handout.
What is an Annotated
Bibliography?
If you have been assigned to write an annotated bibliography, you might be confused about what
the words "annotated" and "bibliography" mean. The word “annotated” is the past tense form of
the verb “to annotate” which means to summarize. An annotation is simply a summary of a
book, article, or some other written source. A bibliography is a list of sources on a particular
topic. Put together, an annotated bibliography is a list of sources on a topic that offers a summary
for each source.
1
What does an Annotated
Bibliography look like?
An annotated bibliography has two parts. The first part is the bibliography line which should
be written according to the format your teacher requires, which could be MLA format, APA
format, or some other format. (The University Writing Center can give you handouts on these
formats.) The second part is the summary paragraph. Both parts taken together are called an
“entry.” Entries are typically organized in alphabetical order according to the bibliography
information, such as the last name of an author or the title of a book.
The number of entries in a bibliography depends upon the assignment. The attached example is
made up of two entries which offer a good example of the bibliography line and summary that are
the key parts of any good annotated bibliography.
How is an Annotated
Bibliography summary
written?
What is included in the summary part of an annotated bibliography also depends upon the
guidelines the instructor has given you. However, if the instructor is flexible about these
guidelines, Timothy Crusius and Carolyn Channell in The Aims of Argument suggest that your
summary should include the following elements:
(1) a sentence or two that describes the author's credentials, purpose, and audience,
(2) a brief “capsule” summary of its content, and
(3) a sentence at the end of the summary that explains “why this source seems valuable
and how you might use it” (255).
Both of the summaries in the attached example include the three kinds of details listed above.
When looking at the example summaries, look at the way the writer has blended these three
components together rather than listing them one after another.
Created by Teresa B. Henning, Updated 2011
Work Cited:
Crusius, Timothy and Carolyn E. Channell. The Aims of Argument. 3rd ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 2000. Print.
2
Student’s Name
Teacher’s Name
Course
Date
A Selected Annotated Bibliography on Privacy and Technology
Alderman, Ellen, and Caroline Kennedy. Right to Privacy. New York: Vintage, 2004. Print.
The authors of this informative national bestseller, who have experienced privacy
violations of their own, make the claim that since there is no comprehensive agenda to
solve the problem of informational privacy, American citizens will have to be concerned
These lines
list the
sources’
bibliography
info. in MLA
format.
about protecting their personal information. One reason the authors give to support their
claim is that most of citizens’ personal information is already being stored on computers
This part
of the
sentence
describes
the
authors,
their
purpose
&
audience.
A summary
of the book
is offered
here.
that may not be well protected. For instance, as Alderman and Kennedy point out, most
bank, insurance, medical and pharmaceutical records are stored on computers others may
be able to access. A good example the authors provide of such ease of access is an
incident in which a reporter was able to get Dan Quayle's credit report with a phone call,
This
sentence
describes
the useful
part of the
source.
fifty dollars, and a home computer.
Furger, Roberta. “Washington Tackles Internet Law.” PC World. PC World, 1 Sept. 2007. Web.
9 Dec. 2007. Internet expert and best-selling author, Roberta Furger informs the general
public of the many Internet related bills that congress is considering. Furger claims that a
more comprehensive law to govern the collecting of sharing on the Internet is needed that
This part
of the
sentence
describes
the author,
purpose, &
audience.
meets the needs of both privacy advocates and internet service providers. Furger
supports this claim by detailing the ways that proposed bills fail to adequately meet the
needs of either of these two groups. The article offers a useful listing of bills that are
currently before congress.
This sentence
describes what
is useful in the
article.
SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
University Writing Center
IUPUI
3
A
summary
is offered
here.
How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography
http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/print/3187
olinuris.library.cornell.edu
Published on olinuris.library.cornell.edu (http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu)
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How to Prepare an Annotated
Bibliography
How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography
Versión española: Cómo Preparar una Bibliografía Anotada
WHAT IS AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY?
ANNOTATIONS VS. ABSTRACTS
THE PROCESS
CRITICALLY APPRAISING THE BOOK, ARTICLE, OR DOCUMENT
CHOOSING THE CORRECT FORMAT FOR THE CITATIONS
SAMPLE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRY FOR A JOURNAL ARTICLE
WHAT IS AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY?
An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each
citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative
paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the
relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.
ANNOTATIONS VS. ABSTRACTS
Abstracts are the purely descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly
journal articles or in periodical indexes. Annotations are descriptive and critical; they
expose the author's point of view, clarity and appropriateness of expression, and authority.
Return to the top
THE PROCESS
Creating an annotated bibliography calls for the application of a variety of intellectual skills:
concise exposition, succinct analysis, and informed library research.
First, locate and record citations to books, periodicals, and documents that may contain
useful information and ideas on your topic. Briefly examine and review the actual items.
Then choose those works that provide a variety of perspectives on your topic.
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How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography
http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/print/3187
Cite the book, article, or document using the appropriate style.
Write a concise annotation that summarizes the central theme and scope of the book or
article. Include one or more sentences that (a) evaluate the authority or background of the
author, (b) comment on the intended audience, (c) compare or contrast this work with
another you have cited, or (d) explain how this work illuminates your bibliography topic.
CRITICALLY APPRAISING THE BOOK, ARTICLE, OR DOCUMENT
For guidance in critically appraising and analyzing the sources for your bibliography, see
How to Critically Analyze Information Sources. For information on the author's background
and views, ask at the reference desk for help finding appropriate biographical reference
materials and book review sources.
Return to the top
CHOOSING THE CORRECT FORMAT FOR THE CITATIONS
Check with your instructor to find out which style is preferred for your class. Online citation
guides for both the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological
Association (APA) styles are linked from the Library's Citation Management page.
SAMPLE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRY FOR A JOURNAL ARTICLE
The following example uses the APA format for the journal citation.
Waite, L. J., Goldschneider, F. K., & Witsberger, C. (1986). Nonfamily living and the
erosion of traditional family orientations among young adults. American Sociological
Review, 51 (4), 541-554.
The authors, researchers at the Rand Corporation and Brown University, use data
from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women and Young Men to test their
hypothesis that nonfamily living by young adults alters their attitudes, values, plans,
and expectations, moving them away from their belief in traditional sex roles. They
find their hypothesis strongly supported in young females, while the effects were
fewer in studies of young males. Increasing the time away from parents before
marrying increased individualism, self-sufficiency, and changes in attitudes about
families. In contrast, an earlier study by Williams cited below shows no significant
gender differences in sex role attitudes as a result of nonfamily living.
This example uses the MLA format for the journal citation. NOTE: Standard MLA
practice requires double spacing within citations.
Waite, Linda J., Frances Kobrin Goldscheider, and Christina Witsberger. "Nonfamily Living
and the Erosion of Traditional Family Orientations Among Young Adults." American
Sociological Review 51.4 (1986): 541-554. Print.
The authors, researchers at the Rand Corporation and Brown University, use data
from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women and Young Men to test their
hypothesis that nonfamily living by young adults alters their attitudes, values, plans,
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How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography
http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/print/3187
and expectations, moving them away from their belief in traditional sex roles. They
find their hypothesis strongly supported in young females, while the effects were
fewer in studies of young males. Increasing the time away from parents before
marrying increased individualism, self-sufficiency, and changes in attitudes about
families. In contrast, an earlier study by Williams cited below shows no significant
gender differences in sex role attitudes as a result of nonfamily living.
Return to the top
Go to Library Research: A Hypertext Guide
Last revised 1 April 2011 [MOE]
Michael Engle, Amy Blumenthal, and Tony Cosgrave
Olin Reference, Research & Learning Services
Conditions for the use of this Web page
Section:
services_research_guides
Page Contact:
moe1
services_research_guides
Subject Guides
Source URL: http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/skill28.htm
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Primary vs Secondary Sources
http://www.princeton.edu/~refdesk/primary2.html
What is a Primary Source?
A primary source is a document or physical object which was written or created during
the time under study. These sources were present during an experience or time period
and offer an inside view of a particular event. Some types of primary sources include:
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS (excerpts or translations acceptable): Diaries,
speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, news film footage, autobiographies,
official records
CREATIVE WORKS: Poetry, drama, novels, music, art
RELICS OR ARTIFACTS: Pottery, furniture, clothing, buildings
Examples of primary sources include:
Diary of Anne Frank - Experiences of a Jewish family during WWII
The Constitution of Canada - Canadian History
A journal article reporting NEW research or findings
Weavings and pottery - Native American history
Plato's Republic - Women in Ancient Greece
What is a secondary source?
A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are one or
more steps removed from the event. Secondary sources may have pictures, quotes or
graphics of primary sources in them. Some types of seconday sources include:
PUBLICATIONS: Textbooks, magazine articles, histories, criticisms,
commentaries, encyclopedias
Examples of secondary sources include:
A journal/magazine article which interprets or reviews previous findings
A history textbook
A book about the effects of WWI
Search by keyword for Primary Sources in the Main Catalog
You can search the Main Catalog to find direct references to primary source material.
Perform a keyword search for your topic and add one of the words below:
(these are several examples of words that would identify a source as primary)
charters
correspondence
diaries
early works
interviews
manuscripts
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Primary vs Secondary Sources
http://www.princeton.edu/~refdesk/primary2.html
oratory
pamphlets
personal narratives
sources
speeches
letters
documents
Selected Primary Sources on the Internet
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Berlin Conference (1884) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference
Berlin Conference (1884)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Berlin Conference)
The Berlin Conference (German: Kongokonferenz or "Congo
Conference") of 1884–85 regulated European colonization and
trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and
coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial
power. Called for by Portugal and organized by Otto von
Bismarck, first Chancellor of Germany, its outcome, the General
Act of the Berlin Conference, is often seen as the formalisation
of the Scramble for Africa. The conference ushered in a period
of heightened colonial activity on the part of the European
powers, while simultaneously eliminating most existing forms of
African autonomy and self-governance.
The conference of Berlin
Contents
1 Early history of the conference
2 Conference
3 General Act
3.1 Common Misconception
3.1.1 Principle of Effectivity
4 Agenda
5 Consequences
6 References
7 Bibliography
8 External links
Early history of the conference
In the early 1880s, European interest in Africa increased dramatically, due to Africa's abundance of
valuable resources such as gold, spices, tea, and opium. Henry Morton Stanley's charting of the Congo
River Basin (1874–1877) removed the last bit of terra incognita from European maps of the continent.
In 1878, King Léopold II of Belgium, who had previously founded the International African Society in
1876, invited Stanley to join him. The International African Society had the goal of researching and
'civilizing' the continent. In 1878, the International Congo Society was also formed, having more
economic goals, but still closely related to the former society. Léopold secretly bought off the foreign
investors in the Congo Society, which was turned to imperialistic goals, with the African Society serving
primarily as a philanthropic front.
From 1879 to 1885, Stanley returned to the Congo, this time not as a reporter, but as an envoy from
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Léopold with the secret mission to organize a Congo state, which would become known as the Congo
Free State. At the same time, the French marine officer Pierre de Brazza traveled into the western Congo
basin and raised the French flag over the newly-founded Brazzaville in 1881, in what is currently the
Republic of Congo. Portugal, which also claimed the area due to old treaties with the Kongo Empire,
made a treaty with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 26 February 1884 to block off
the Congo Society's access to the Atlantic.
At the same time, other European countries gained colonial footholds in Africa. France occupied Tunisia
and today's Republic of the Congo in 1881 — which partly convinced Italy to become part of the Triple
Alliance — and also Guinea in 1884. In 1882, the United Kingdom occupied nominally Ottoman Egypt,
which in turn ruled over the Sudan and what would later become British Somaliland.
Conference
King Leopold II was able to convince France and Germany that common trade in Africa was in the best
interests of all three countries. On the initiative of Portugal, Otto von Bismarck, German Chancellor,
called on representatives of Austria–Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Italy,
the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway (union until 1905), the Ottoman Empire, and
the United States to take part in the Berlin seven Conference to work out policy. However, the United
States did not actually participate in the conference.
General Act
The General Act fixed the following points:
The Free State of the Congo was confirmed as private property of the Congo Society. Thus the
territory of today's Democratic Republic of the Congo, some two million square kilometers, was
made essentially the property of Léopold II (because of the terror regime established, it would
eventually become a Belgian colony). It was primarily because of this point that Joseph Conrad
sarcastically referred to the conference as "the International Society for the Suppression of Savage
Customs" in his novel Heart of Darkness.[1]
The 14 signatory powers would have free trade throughout the Congo basin as well as Lake
Niassa and east of this in an area south of 5° N.
The Niger and Congo Rivers were made free for ship traffic.
An international prohibition of the slave trade was signed.
A Principle of Effectivity (see below) was introduced to stop powers setting up colonies in name
only.
Any fresh act of taking possession of any portion of the African coast would have to be notified by
the power taking possession, or assuming a protectorate, to the other signatory powers.
Which regions each European power had a exclusive right to 'pursue' the legal owership of land
(legal in the eyes of the other European powers).[2]:44
It is also noteworthy that the first reference in an international act to the obligations attaching to "spheres
of influence" is contained in the Berlin Act.
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Berlin Conference (1884) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference
Common Misconception
There is a common misconception that the main purpose of the conference was to allow the European
powers to simply divide up Africa amongst each other. Olusoga and Erichsen describe it in the following
way:
It is a common misconception that the Berlin Conference simply 'divvied up' the African
continent between the European powers. In fact, all the foreign ministers who assembled in
Bismarck's Berlin villa had agreed was in which regions of Africa each European power had
the right to 'pursue' the legal ownership of land, free from interference by any other. The
land itself remained the legal property of Africans.[2]:44
Principle of Effectivity
The Principle of Effectivity stated that powers could hold colonies only if they actually possessed them:
in other words, if they had treaties with local leaders, if they flew their flag there, and if they established
an administration in the territory to govern it with a police force to keep order (see Uti Possidetis). The
colonial power also had to make use of the colony economically. If the colonial power did not do these
things, another power could do so and take over the territory. It therefore became important to get
leaders to sign a protectorate treaty and to have a presence sufficient to police the area.
Agenda
Portugal - Britain The Portuguese government presented a project, known as the "Pink Map"
(also called the "Rose-Colored Map"), in which the colonies of Angola and Mozambique were
united by co-option of the intervening territory (land that later became Zambia, Zimbabwe, and
Malawi.) All of the countries attending the conference, except for the United Kingdom, endorsed
Portugal's ambitions. A little more than five years later, in 1890, the British government, in breach
of the Treaty of Windsor (and of the Treaty of Berlin itself[citation needed]), issued an ultimatum
demanding that the Portuguese withdraw from the disputed area.
France - Britain A line running from Say in Niger to Baroua, on the north-east coast of Lake
Chad determined what part belonged to whom. France would own territory to the north of this
line, and the United Kingdom would own territory to the south of it. The Nile Basin would be
British, with the French taking the basin of Lake Chad. Furthermore, between the 11th and 15th
degrees latitude, the border would pass between Ouaddaï, which would be French, and Darfur in
Sudan, to be British. In reality, a no man's land 200 kilometres wide was put in place between the
21st and 23rd meridians.
France - Germany The area to the north of a line formed by the intersection of the 14th meridian
and Miltou was designated French, that to the south being German.
Britain - Germany The separation came in the form of a line passing through Yola, on the
Benoué, Dikoa, going up to the extremity of Lake Chad.
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France - Italy Italy was to own what lies north of a line from the intersection of the Tropic of
Cancer and the 17th meridian to the intersection of the 15th parallel and 21st meridian.
Consequences
The Scramble for Africa sped up after the
Conference, since even within areas
designated as their sphere of influence, the
European powers still had to take possession
under the Principle of Effectivity. In central
Africa in particular, expeditions were
dispatched to coerce traditional rulers into
signing treaties, using force if necessary, as
for example in the case of Msiri, King of
Katanga, in 1891.
Within a few years, Africa was at least
nominally divided up south of the Sahara.
By 1895, the only independent states were:
Liberia, founded with the support of
the USA for returned slaves;
Abyssinia (Ethiopia), the only free
native state, which fended off Italian
invasion from Eritrea in what is
known as the First Italo-Abyssinian
War of 1889-1896.
European claims in Africa, 1913
Belgium
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
Spain
France
Portugal
Independent
The following states lost their independence to the British Empire roughly a decade after (see below for
more information):
Orange Free State, a Boer republic founded by Dutch settlers;
South African Republic (Transvaal), also a Boer republic;
By 1902, 90% of all the land that makes up Africa was under European control. The large part of the
Sahara was French, while after the quelling of the Mahdi rebellion and the ending of the Fashoda crisis,
the Sudan remained firmly under joint British–Egyptian rulership with Egypt being under British
occupation before becoming a British protectorate in 1914.
The Boer republics were conquered by the United Kingdom in the Boer war from 1899 to 1902.
Morocco was divided between the French and Spanish in 1911, and Libya was conquered by Italy in
1912. The official British annexation of Egypt in 1914 ended the colonial division of Africa. Lastly,
Ethiopia was invaded and annexed by Italy.
By this point, all of Africa, with the exception of Liberia, was under European rule.
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Berlin Conference (1884) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference
References
1. ^ "Historical Context: Heart of Darkness." EXPLORING Novels, Online Edition. Gale, 2003. Discovering
Collection (http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/DC) . Subscription required
2. ^ a b Olusoga, David; Erichsen, Casper W. (2010). The Kaisers's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide
and the Colonial Roots of Nazism. London, UK: Faber and Faber. pp. 394. ISBN 978-0-571-23141-6.
Bibliography
Chamberlain, Muriel E. (1999). The Scramble for Africa. London: Longman, 1974, 2nd ed. ISBN
0582368812.
Crowe, Sybil E. (1942). The Berlin West African Conference, 1884–1985. New York: Longmans,
Green. ISBN 0837132878 (1981, New ed. edition).
Förster, Stig, Wolfgang J. Mommsen, and Ronald Edward Robinson (1989). Bismarck, Europe,
and Africa: The Berlin Africa Conference 1884–1885 and the Onset of Partition. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. ISBN 0199205000.
Hochschild, Adam (1999). King Leopold's Ghost. ISBN 0-395-75924-2.
Petringa, Maria (2006). Brazza, A Life for Africa. ISBN 9781-4259-11980.
External links
Geography.about.com - Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 to Divide Africa
(http://geography.about.com/cs/politicalgeog/a/berlinconferenc.htm) .
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference_(1884)"
Categories: Colonialism | History of Morocco | Treaties of Denmark | Treaties of the Ottoman Empire |
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conferences in Germany | 19th-century diplomatic conferences | 1884 treaties | 1884 in international
relations | 1885 in international relations | Treaties of the Russian Empire | Treaties of the German
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Scramble for Africa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa
Scramble for Africa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race
for Africa,[1] was a process of invasion, attack,
occupation, and annexation of African territory by
European powers during the New Imperialism
period, between 1881 and World War I in 1914.
As a result of the heightened tension between
European states in the last quarter of the 19th
century, the partitioning of Africa may be seen as a
way for the Europeans to eliminate the threat of a
Europe-wide war over Africa.[2]
The last 59 years of the nineteenth century saw
transition from ‘informal imperialism’ of control
through military influence and economic dominance
to that of direct rule.[3] Attempts to mediate imperial
competition, such as the Berlin Conference
(1884–1885), failed to establish definitively the
competing powers' claims.[citation needed]
Many African polities, states and rulers (such as the
The Rhodes Colossus, a caricature of Cecil Rhodes
Ashanti, the Abyssinians, the Moroccans and the
after announcing plans for a telegraph line from
Dervishes) sought to resist this wave of European
Cape Town to Cairo. For Punch by Edward Linley
[4]
Sambourne.
aggression. However, the industrial revolution had
provided the European armies with advanced
weapons such as machine guns, which African
armies found difficult to resist.[5] Also, unlike their European counterparts, African rulers, states and
people did not at first form a continental united front although within a few years, a Pan-African
movement did emerge.[6]
Contents
1 Background
2 Causes
2.1 Africa and global markets
2.2 Strategic rivalry
2.2.1 Bismarck's Realpolitik
2.2.2 Clash of rival imperialisms
2.2.3 American Colonization Society and foundation of Liberia
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3 Crises prior to the First World War
3.1 Colonization of the Congo
3.2 Suez Canal
3.3 Berlin Conference
3.4 Britain's occupation of Egypt and South Africa
3.5 Fashoda Incident
3.6 Moroccan Crisis
3.7 Dervish resistance
4 Colonial encounter
4.1 Colonial consciousness and exhibitions
4.1.1 Colonial lobby
4.1.2 Colonial propaganda and jingoism
4.1.2.1 Colonial exhibitions
4.1.2.2 Anthropology
4.2 Extermination of the Namaqua and the Herero
5 Conclusions
6 African colonies listed by colonizing power
6.1 Belgium
6.2 France
6.3 Germany
6.4 Italy
6.5 Portugal
6.6 Spain
6.7 United Kingdom
6.8 Independent states
7 See also
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links
Background
The Portuguese had been the first Europeans to firmly establish
settlements, trade posts, permanent fortifications and ports of call
along the oceanic coasts of the African continent, from the beginning
of the Age of Discovery, in the 15th century.
This article is part of
the New Imperialism
series.
Origins of New Imperialism
Imperialism in Asia
The Scramble for Africa
Theories of New Imperialism
European exploration of the African interior began in earnest at the
end of the 18th century. By 1835, Europeans had mapped most of
northwestern Africa. In the middle decades of the 19th century, the
most famous of the European explorers were David Livingstone and
H. M. Stanley, both of whom mapped vast areas of Southern Africa and Central Africa. Arduous
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expeditions in the 1850s and 1860s by Richard Burton, John Speke and
James Grant located the great central lakes and the source of the Nile. By
the end of the 19th century, Europeans had charted the Nile from its
source, traced the courses of the Niger, Congo and Zambezi Rivers, and
realized the vast resources of Africa.
Even as late as the 1870s, European states still controlled only 10
percent of the African continent, all their territories being near the coast.
The most important holdings were Angola and Mozambique, held by
Portugal; the Cape Colony, held by the United Kingdom; and Algeria,
held by France. By 1914, only Ethiopia and Liberia were independent of
European control.
David Livingstone, early
explorer of the interior of
Africa.
Technological advancement facilitated overseas expansionism.
Industrialisation brought about rapid advancements in transportation and
communication, especially in the forms of steam navigation, railways,
and telegraphs. Medical advances also were important, especially
medicines for tropical diseases. The development of quinine, an effective
treatment for malaria, enabled vast expanses of the tropics to be accessed
by Europeans.
Causes
Africa and global markets
Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the last regions of the world largely untouched by 'informal imperialism',
was also attractive to Europe's ruling elites for economic and racial reasons. During a time when
Britain's balance of trade showed a growing deficit, with shrinking and increasingly protectionist
continental markets due to the Long Depression (1873–1896), Africa offered Britain, Germany, France,
and other countries an open market that would garner them a trade surplus: a market that bought more
from the colonial power than it sold overall.[3] Britain, like most other industrial countries, had long
since begun to run an unfavourable balance of trade (which was increasingly offset, however, by the
income from overseas investments).
As Britain developed into the world's first post-industrial nation, financial services became an
increasingly important sector of its economy. Invisible financial exports, kept Britain out of the red,
especially capital investments outside Europe, particularly to the developing and open markets in Africa
such as to the white settler colonies, the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia.[citation needed]
In addition, surplus capitals was often more profitably invested overseas, where cheap materials, limited
competition, and abundant raw materials made a greater premium possible. Another inducement for
imperialism arose from the demand for raw materials unavailable in Europe, especially copper, cotton,
rubber, palm oil, cocoa, diamonds, tea, and tin, to which European consumers had grown accustomed
and upon which European industry had grown dependent. Additionally, Britain wanted the southern and
eastern coasts of Africa for stopover ports on the route to Asia and its empire in India.[7]
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However, in Africa – exclusive of the area which
became the Union of South Africa in 1910 – the
amount of capital investment by Europeans was
relatively small, compared to other continents.
Consequently, the companies involved in tropical
African commerce were relatively small, apart from
Cecil Rhodes's De Beers Mining Company. Rhodes
had carved out Rhodesia for himself; Léopold II of
Belgium later, and with considerably greater
brutality, exploited the Congo Free State. These
events might detract from the pro-imperialist
arguments of colonial lobbies such as the
Alldeutscher Verband, Francesco Crispi and Jules
Ferry, who argued that sheltered overseas markets in
Africa would solve the problems of low prices and
over-production caused by shrinking continental
markets.
John A. Hobson argued, in Imperialism, that this
shrinking of continental markets was a key factor of
the global "New Imperialism" period.
Areas controlled by European colonial powers on
the African continent in 1914
William Easterly of New York University, however,
disagrees with the link made between capitalism and imperialism, arguing that colonialism is used
mostly to promote state-led development rather than 'corporate' development. He has stated that
"imperialism is not so clearly linked to capitalism and free markets... historically there has been a closer
link between colonialism/imperialism and state-led approaches to development."[8]
Strategic rivalry
While tropical Africa was not a large zone of investment, other regions overseas were. The vast interior
between the gold and diamond-rich Southern Africa and Egypt, had, however, key strategic value in
securing the flow of overseas trade. Britain was thus under intense political pressure to secure lucrative
markets against encroaching rivals, in China and the British Empire's eastern colonies, most notably
India, Malaya, Australia and New Zealand. Thus, securing the key waterway between East and West –
the Suez Canal – was crucial. The rivalry between the UK, France, Germany and the other European
powers account for a large part of the colonization. Thus, while Germany, which had been unified under
Prussia's rule only after the 1866 Battle of Sadowa and the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, was hardly a
colonial power before the New Imperialism period, it would eagerly participate in the race. A rising
industrial power close on the heels of Britain, it had not yet had the chance to control overseas
territories, mainly due to its late unification, its fragmentation in various states, and its absence of
experience in modern navigation. This would change under Bismarck's leadership, who implemented the
Weltpolitik (World Politics) and, after putting in place the basis of France's isolation with the Dual
Alliance with Austria-Hungary and then the 1882 Triple Alliance with Italy, called for the 1884–1885
Berlin Conference which set the rules of effective control of a foreign territory. Germany's expansionism
would lead to the Tirpitz Plan, implemented by Admiral von Tirpitz, who would also champion the
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various Fleet Acts starting in 1898, thus engaging in an arms race with Britain. By 1914, they had given
Germany the second largest naval force in the world (roughly 40% smaller than the Royal Navy).
According to von Tirpitz, this aggressive naval policy was supported by the National Liberal Party rather
than by the conservatives, thus demonstrating that the main supports of the European nation states'
imperialism were the rising bourgeoisie classes.[9]
The scramble for African territory also reflected a concern for the acquisition of military and naval bases
for strategic purposes and the exercise of power on an international scene. The ability to influence
international events depended largely upon new weapons – steel ships driven by steam power – and for
the maintenance of these growing navies, coaling stations and ports of call were required. Defence bases
were also needed for the protection of sea routes and communication lines, particularly of expensive and
vital international waterways such as the Suez Canal.[10]
Colonies were also seen as important aspects of 'balance of power' negotiations – useful as items of
exchange at times of international bargaining. Colonies carrying a heavy native population were also
important as a source of military power; Britain and France used large numbers of British Indian and
North African soldiers respectively in many of their colonial wars. In the great age of nationalism there
was strong pressure for a nation to acquire an empire as a status symbol; the idea of 'greatness' became
inextricably linked with the sense of 'duty' that many European nations used to justify their imperialistic
ambitions.[10]
Bismarck's Realpolitik
Germany began its world expansion in the 1880s under Bismarck's leadership, encouraged by the
national bourgeoisie. Some of them, claiming themselves of Friedrich List's thought, advocated
expansion in the Philippines and in Timor; others proposed to set themselves in Formosa (modern
Taiwan), etc. At the end of the 1870s, these isolated voices began to be relayed by a real imperialist
policy, which was backed by mercantilist thesis. In 1881, Hübbe-Schleiden, a lawyer, published
Deutsche Kolonisation, according to which the ‘development of national consciousness demanded an
independent overseas policy’.[11] Pan-germanism was thus linked to the young nation's imperialist
drives. In the beginning of the 1880s, the Deutscher Kolonialverein was created, and got its own
magazine in 1884, the Kolonialzeitung. This colonial lobby was also relayed by the nationalist
Alldeutscher Verband. Wilhelm II continued the idea of colonial expansion in the 1900s with the
Weltpolitik (‘World Politics’) strategy.
Germany thus became the third largest colonial power in Africa. Nearly all of its overall empire of 2.6
million square kilometres and 14 million colonial subjects in 1914 was found in its African possessions
of Southwest Africa, Togoland, the Cameroons, and Tanganyika. The scramble for Africa led Bismarck
to propose the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference. Following the 1904 Entente cordiale between France and
the UK, Germany tried to isolate France in 1905 with the First Moroccan Crisis. This led to the 1905
Algeciras Conference, in which France's influence on Morocco was compensated by the exchange of
other territories, and then to the Agadir Crisis in 1911. Along with the 1898 Fashoda Incident between
France and the UK, this succession of international crises reveals the bitterness of the struggle between
the various imperalist nations, which ultimately led to World War I.
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Clash of rival imperialisms
While de Brazza was exploring the Kongo Kingdom for
France, Stanley also explored it in the early 1880s on behalf
of Léopold II of Belgium, who would have his personal
Congo Free State. While pretending to advocate
humanitarianism and denounce slavery, Leopold II used the
most inhumane tactics to exploit his newly acquired lands.
His crimes were revealed by 1905, but he remained in
control until 1908, when he was forced to turn over control
to the Belgian government.
This scene from an Ethiopian tapestry
France occupied Tunisia in May 1881 (and Guinea in 1884),
depicts the Ethiopian triumph against
which partly convinced Italy to adhere in 1882 to the
European forces at the Battle of Adwa. The
German-Austrian Dual Alliance, thus forming the Triple
Italo-Ethiopian War of 1895–1896
Alliance. The same year, Britain occupied the nominally
distinguished Ethiopia as the only African
Ottoman Egypt, which in turn ruled over the Sudan and
state to maintain independence in the 19th
parts of Somalia. In 1870 and 1882, Italy took possession of
century with a decisive show of force.
the first parts of Eritrea, while Germany declared Togoland,
the Cameroons and South West Africa to be under its
protection in 1884. French West Africa (AOF) was founded in 1895, and French Equatorial Africa
(AEF) in 1910.
Italy continued its conquest to gain its ‘place in the sun’. Following the defeat of the First Italo–
Ethiopian War (1895–1896), it acquired Italian Somaliland in 1889–1890 and the whole of Eritrea
(1899). In 1911, it engaged in a war with the Ottoman Empire, in which it acquired Tripolitania and
Cyrenaica (modern Libya). Enrico Corradini, who fully supported the war, and later merged his group in
the early fascist party (PNF), developed in 1919 the concept of Proletarian Nationalism, supposed to
legitimise Italy's imperialism by a mixture of socialism with nationalism: ‘We must start by recognizing
the fact that there are proletarian nations as well as proletarian classes; that is to say, there are nations
whose living conditions are subject...to the way of life of other nations, just as classes are. Once this is
realised, nationalism must insist firmly on this truth: Italy is, materially and morally, a proletarian
nation.’[12] The Second Italo-Abyssinian War (1935–1936), ordered by Mussolini, would actually be one
of the last colonial wars (that is, intended to colonize a foreign country, opposed to wars of national
liberation), occupying Ethiopia which had remained the last African independent territory apart from
Liberia, for five years. The Spanish Civil War, marking a new phase of what some call the European
Civil War, began in 1936.
On the other hand, the British abandoned their "splendid isolation" in 1902 with the Anglo-Japanese
Alliance, which would enable the Empire of Japan to be victorious during the war against Russia
(1904–1905). The UK then signed the Entente cordiale with France in 1904, and, in 1907, the Triple
Entente which included Russia, thus pitted against the Triple Alliance which Bismarck had patiently
assembled.
American Colonization Society and foundation of Liberia
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Main articles: American Colonization Society and History of Liberia
The United States took part, marginally, in this enterprise, through the American Colonization Society
(ACS), established in 1816 by Robert Finley. The ACS offered emigration to Liberia (‘Land of the
Free’), a colony founded in 1820, to free black slaves; emancipated slave Lott Carey actually became the
first American Baptist missionary in Africa. This colonisation attempt was resisted by the native people.
The ACS was led by Southerners, and its
first president was James Monroe, from
Virginia, who became the fifth president
of the United States from 1817 to 1825.
Thus, ironically one of the main
proponents of American colonisation of
Africa was the same man who
proclaimed, in his 1823 State of the
Union address, the US opinion that
European powers should no longer
colonise the Americas or interfere with
the affairs of sovereign nations located in
James Monroe, first
the Americas. In return, the US planned
president of the ACS and US
to stay neutral in wars between European
president (1817–1825). He
powers and in wars between a European
invented the Monroe
power and its colonies. However, if these
Doctrine, base of the US
latter type of wars were to occur in the
isolationism during the 19th
Americas, the U.S. would view such
century.
action as hostile toward itself. This
famous statement became known as the
Monroe Doctrine and was the base of United States isolationism during
the nineteenth century.
Joseph Jenkins Roberts
became the first president of
Liberia, one of only two
independent African nations
(alongside Ethiopia) at the
time of European control and
domination.
Although the Liberia colony never became quite as big as envisaged, it was only the first step in the
American colonisation of Africa, according to its early proponents. Thus, Jehudi Ashmun, an early
leader of the ACS, envisioned an American empire in Africa. Between 1825 and 1826, he took steps to
lease, annex, or buy tribal lands along the coast and along major rivers leading inland. Like his
predecessor Lt. Robert Stockton, who in 1821 established the site for Monrovia by ‘persuading’ a local
chief referred to as ‘King Peter’ to sell Cape Montserado (or Cape Mesurado) by pointing a pistol at his
head, Ashmun was prepared to use force to extend the colony's territory. In a May 1825 treaty, King
Peter and other native kings agreed to sell land in return for 500 bars of tobacco, three barrels of rum,
five casks of powder, five umbrellas, ten iron posts, and ten pairs of shoes, among other items. In March
1825, the ACS began a quarterly, The African Repository and Colonial Journal, edited by Rev. Ralph
Randolph Gurley (1797–1872), who headed the Society until 1844. Conceived as the Society's
propaganda organ, the Repository promoted both colonisation and Liberia.
The Society controlled the colony of Liberia until 1847 when, under the perception that the British might
annex the settlement, Liberia was proclaimed a free and independent state, thus becoming the first
African decolonised state. By 1867, the Society had sent more than 13,000 emigrants. After the
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American Civil War (1861–1865), when many blacks wanted to go to Liberia, financial support for
colonisation had waned. During its later years the society focused on educational and missionary efforts
in Liberia rather than further emigration.
Crises prior to the First World War
Colonization of the Congo
David Livingstone's explorations, carried on by Henry Morton Stanley,
excited imaginations. But at first, Stanley's grandiose ideas for
colonisation found little support owing to the problems and scale of
action required, except from Léopold II of Belgium, who in 1876 had
organised the International African Association. From 1869 to 1874,
Stanley was secretly sent by Léopold II to the Congo region, where he
made treaties with several African chiefs along the Congo River and by
1882 had sufficient territory to form the basis of the Congo Free State.
Léopold II personally owned the colony from 1885 and used it as a
source of ivory and rubber.
While Stanley was exploring Congo on behalf of
Léopold II of Belgium, the Franco-Italian marine
officer Pierre de Brazza travelled into the western
Congo basin and raised the French flag over the
Henry Morton Stanley
newly founded Brazzaville in 1881, thus
occupying today's Republic of the Congo.
Portugal, which also claimed the area due to old treaties with the native Kongo
Empire, made a treaty with Britain on February 26, 1884 to block off the Congo
Society's access to the Atlantic.
Pierre Savorgnan
de Brazza in his
version of ‘native’
dress,
photographed by
Félix Nadar
By 1890 the Congo Free State had consolidated its control of its territory between
Leopoldville and Stanleyville and was looking to push south down the Lualaba
River from Stanleyville. At the same time the British South Africa Company of
Cecil Rhodes (who once declared, ‘all of these stars... these vast worlds that
remain out of reach. If I could, I would annex other planets’[13]) was expanding
north from the Limpopo River sending the Pioneer Column, guided by Frederick
Selous, through Matabeleland and starting a colony in Mashonaland. To the West,
attention was drawn to the land where their expansions would meet Katanga, site of the Yeke Kingdom
of Msiri. As well as being the most powerful ruler militarily in the area, Msiri traded large quantities of
copper, ivory and slaves, and rumours of gold reached European ears. The scramble for Katanga was a
prime example of the period. Rhodes and the BSAC sent two expeditions to Msiri in 1890 led by Alfred
Sharpe, who was rebuffed, and Joseph Thomson who failed to reach Katanga. In 1891 Leopold sent four
CFS expeditions. The Le Marinel Expedition could only extract a vaguely worded letter. The
Delcommune Expedition was rebuffed. The well-armed Stairs Expedition had orders to take Katanga
with or without Msiri's consent; Msiri refused, was shot, and the expedition cut off his head and stuck it
on a pole as a 'barbaric lesson' to the people. The Bia Expedition finished off the job of establishing an
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administration of sorts and a 'police presence' in Katanga.
The half million square kilometres of Katanga came into
Leopold's possession and brought his African realm up to
2,300,000 square kilometres (890,000 sq mi), about 75 times
larger than Belgium. The Congo Free State imposed such a terror
regime on the colonised people, including mass killings with
millions of victims, and slave labour, that Belgium, under
pressure from the Congo Reform Association, ended Leopold II's
rule and annexed it in 1908 as a colony of Belgium, known as
the Belgian Congo.
A hard-hitting 1906 Punch
cartoon depicting King
Leopold II of Belgium as a
rubber vine entangling a
Congolese man.
King Leopold II of Belgium's
brutality in his former colony of
the Congo Free State,[14][15] now
the DRC, was well documented;
up to 8 million of the estimated
16 million native inhabitants died
between 1885 and 1908.[16]
According to the former British
diplomat Roger Casement, this
Native Congo Free State labourers
depopulation had four main
who failed to meet rubber collection
causes: "indiscriminate war",
quotas were often punished by having
starvation, reduction of births
their hands cut off
and diseases.[17] Sleeping
sickness ravaged the country and
must also be taken into account for the dramatic decrease in population.
Estimates of the total death toll vary considerably. As the first census did
not take place until 1924, it is difficult to quantify the population loss of
the period. Casement's report set it at three million.[18] See Congo Free
State for further details including numbers of victims.
A similar situation occurred in the neighbouring French Congo. Most of the resource extraction was run
by concession companies, whose brutal methods resulted in the loss of up to 50 percent of the
indigenous population.[19] The French government appointed a commission, headed by de Brazza, in
1905 to investigate the rumoured abuses in the colony. However, de Brazza died on the return trip, and
his "searingly critical" report was neither acted upon nor released to the public.[20] In the 1920s, about
20,000 forced labourers died building a railroad through the French territory.[21]
Suez Canal
Main article: Suez Canal
Ferdinand de Lesseps had obtained many concessions from Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and
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Sudan, in 1854–1856, to build the Suez Canal. Some sources estimate the workforce at 30,000,[22] but
others estimate that 120,000 workers died over the ten years of construction due to malnutrition, fatigue
and disease, especially cholera.[23] Shortly before its completion in 1869, Khedive Isma'il borrowed
enormous sums from British and French bankers at high rates of interest. By 1875, he was facing
financial difficulties and was forced to sell his block of shares in the Suez Canal. The shares were
snapped up by Britain, under its Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, who sought to give his country
practical control in the management of this strategic waterway. When Isma'il repudiated Egypt's foreign
debt in 1879, Britain and France seized joint financial control over the country, forcing the Egyptian
ruler to abdicate, and installing his eldest son Tewfik Pasha in his place. The Egyptian and Sudanese
ruling classes did not relish foreign intervention. In 1881, the Mahdist revolt erupted in Sudan under
Muhammad Ahmad, severing Tewfik's authority in Sudan. The same year, Tewfik suffered an even more
perilous rebellion by his own Egyptian army in the form of the Urabi Revolt. In 1882, Tewfik appealed
for direct British military assistance, commencing Britain's occupation of Egypt. A joint BritishEgyptian military force ultimately defeated the Mahdist forces in Sudan in 1898. Thereafter, Britain
(rather than Egypt) seized effective control of Sudan.
Berlin Conference
Main article: Berlin Conference
The occupation of Egypt, and the acquisition of the Congo were the first major moves in what came to
be a precipitous scramble for African territory. In 1884, Otto von Bismarck convened the 1884–1885
Berlin Conference to discuss the Africa problem. The diplomats put on a humanitarian façade by
condemning the slave trade, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages and firearms in certain regions,
and by expressing concern for missionary activities. More importantly, the diplomats in Berlin laid down
the rules of competition by which the great powers were to be guided in seeking colonies. They also
agreed that the area along the Congo River was to be administered by Léopold II of Belgium as a neutral
area, known as the Congo Free State, in which trade and navigation were to be free. No nation was to
stake claims in Africa without notifying other powers of its intentions. No territory could be formally
claimed prior to being effectively occupied. However, the competitors ignored the rules when
convenient and on several occasions war was only narrowly avoided.
Britain's occupation of Egypt and South Africa
Britain's occupations of Egypt and the Cape Colony
contributed to a preoccupation over securing the
source of the Nile River. Egypt was occupied by
British forces in 1882 (although not formally
declared a protectorate until 1914, and never an
actual colony); Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda
were subjugated in the 1890s and early 1900s; and
in the south, the Cape Colony (first acquired in
1795) provided a base for the subjugation of
neighbouring African states and the Dutch Afrikaner
settlers who had left the Cape to avoid the British
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and then founded their own republics. In 1877,
Boer women and children in a concentration camp
Theophilus Shepstone annexed the South African
during the Second Boer War (1899–1902)
Republic (or Transvaal – independent from 1857 to
1877) for the British. The UK consolidated its power
over most of the colonies of South Africa in 1879 after the Anglo-Zulu War. The Boers protested and in
December 1880 they revolted, leading to the First Boer War (1880–1881). British Prime Minister
William Gladstone signed a peace treaty on March 23, 1881, giving self-government to the Boers in the
Transvaal. The Jameson Raid of 1895 was a failed attempt by the British South Africa Company and the
Johannesburg Reform Committee to overthrow the Boer government in the Transvaal. The Second Boer
War was about control of the gold and diamond industries and was fought between 1899 to 1902; the
independent Boer republics of the Orange Free State and of the South African Republic (Transvaal)
were this time defeated and absorbed into the British empire.
Fashoda Incident
Main article: Fashoda Incident
The 1898 Fashoda Incident was one of the most crucial conflicts on Europe's way to consolidating
holdings in the continent. It brought Britain and France to the verge of war but ended in a major strategic
victory for Britain, and provided the basis for the 1904 Entente Cordiale between the two rival countries.
It stemmed from battles over control of the Nile headwaters, which caused Britain to expand in the
Sudan.
Jules Ferry, French
Republican who, as prime
minister, directed the
negotiations which led to the
establishment of a
protectorate in Tunis (1881),
prepared the December 17,
1885 treaty for the
occupation of Madagascar;
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The French thrust into the African interior was mainly from West Africa
(modern day Senegal) eastward, through the Sahel along the southern
border of the Sahara, a territory covering modern day Senegal, Mali,
Niger, and Chad. Their ultimate aim was to have an uninterrupted link
between the Niger River and the Nile, thus controlling all trade to and
from the Sahel region, by virtue of their existing control over the
Caravan routes through the Sahara. The British, on the other hand,
wanted to link their possessions in Southern Africa (modern South
Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Zambia), with
their territories in East Africa (modern Kenya), and these two areas with
the Nile basin. Sudan (which in those days included modern day
Uganda) was obviously key to the fulfilment of these ambitions,
especially since Egypt was already under British control. This 'red line'
through Africa is made most famous by Cecil Rhodes. Along with Lord
Milner (the British colonial minister in South Africa), Rhodes advocated
such a ‘Cape to Cairo’ empire linking by rail the Suez Canal to the
mineral-rich Southern part of the continent. Though hampered by
German occupation of Tanganyika until the end of World War I, Rhodes
successfully lobbied on behalf of such a sprawling East African empire.
If one draws a line from Cape Town to Cairo (Rhodes' dream), and one
from Dakar to the Horn of Africa (now Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and
Somalia), (the French ambition), these two lines intersect somewhere in
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directed the exploration of
the Congo and of the Niger
region; and organised the
conquest of Indochina. He
resigned after the 1885
Tonkin incident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa
eastern Sudan near Fashoda, explaining its strategic importance. In short,
Britain had sought to extend its East African empire contiguously from
Cairo to the Cape of Good Hope, while France had sought to extend its
own holdings from Dakar to the Sudan, which would enable its empire
to span the entire continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
A French force under Jean-Baptiste Marchand arrived first at the
strategically located fort at Fashoda soon followed by a British force
under Lord Kitchener, commander in chief of the British army since 1892. The French withdrew after a
standoff, and continued to press claims to other posts in the region. In March 1899 the French and
British agreed that the source of the Nile and Congo Rivers should mark the frontier between their
spheres of influence.
Moroccan Crisis
Main articles: First Moroccan Crisis and Second Moroccan Crisis
Although the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference had set the rules for
the scramble for Africa, it had not weakened the rival
imperialisms. The 1898 Fashoda Incident, which had seen
France and the UK on the brink of war, ultimately led to the
signature of the 1904 Entente cordiale, which reversed the
influence of the various European powers. As a result, the new
German power decided to test the solidity of the influence, using
the contested territory of Morocco as a battlefield.
Thus, on 31 March 1905 Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Tangiers and
made a speech in favor of Moroccan independence, challenging
French influence in Morocco. France's influence in Morocco had
been reaffirmed by Britain and Spain in 1904. The Kaiser's
speech bolstered French nationalism and with British support the
French foreign minister, Théophile Delcassé, took a defiant line.
The crisis peaked in mid-June 1905, when Delcassé was forced
The Moroccan Sultan Abdelhafid,
out of the ministry by the more conciliation minded premier
who led an anti-imperialist resistance
Maurice Rouvier. But by July 1905 Germany was becoming
during the Agadir Crisis.
isolated and the French agreed to a conference to solve the crisis.
Both France and Germany continued to posture up until the
conference, with Germany mobilizing reserve army units in late December and France actually moving
troops to the border in January 1906.
The 1906 Algeciras Conference was called to settle the dispute. Of the thirteen nations present the
German representatives found their only supporter was Austria-Hungary. France had firm support from
Britain, Russia, Italy, Spain, and the U.S. The Germans eventually accepted an agreement, signed on
May 31, 1906, where France yielded certain domestic changes in Morocco but retained control of key
areas.
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However, five years later the second Moroccan crisis (or Agadir Crisis) was sparked by the deployment
of the German gunboat Panther, to the port of Agadir on July 1, 1911. Germany had started to attempt to
surpass Britain's naval supremacy – the British navy had a policy of remaining larger than the next two
naval fleets in the world combined. When the British heard of the Panther's arrival in Morocco, they
wrongly believed that the Germans meant to turn Agadir into a naval base on the Atlantic.
The German move was aimed at reinforcing claims for compensation for acceptance of effective French
control of the North African kingdom, where France's pre-eminence had been upheld by the 1906
Algeciras Conference. In November 1911 a convention was signed under which Germany accepted
France's position in Morocco in return for territory in the French Equatorial African colony of Middle
Congo (now the Republic of the Congo).
France subsequently established a full protectorate over Morocco (March 30, 1912), ending what
remained of the country's formal independence. Furthermore, British backing for France during the two
Moroccan crises reinforced the Entente between the two countries and added to Anglo-German
estrangement, deepening the divisions which would culminate in World War I.
Dervish resistance
Following the Berlin conference at the end of the 19th century, the British,
Italians and Ethiopians sought to claim lands owned by the existing Somali
empires such as the Warsangali Sultanate, the Ajuuraan State and the
Gobroon Dynasty.
The Dervish State was a response established by Muhammad Abdullah
Hassan, a Somali religious leader who gathered Muslim soldiers from
across the Horn of Africa and united them into a loyal army known as the
Dervishes. This Dervish army enabled Hassan to carve out a powerful state
through conquest of lands sought after by the Ethiopians and the European
powers. The Dervish State successfully repulsed the British Empire four
times and forced it to retreat to the coastal region.[24] Due to these
successful expeditions, the Dervish State was recognized as an ally by the
Ottoman and German empires. The Turks also named Hassan Emir of the
Somali nation,[25] and the Germans promised to officially recognize any
territories the Dervishes were to acquire.[26]
After a quarter of a century of holding the British at bay, the Dervishes were
finally defeated in 1920 as a direct consequence of Britain's new policy of
aerial bombardment.[27]
Statue of Sayyid
Mohammed Abdullah
Hassan, the "Mad
Mullah", who led a
twenty-year long
anti-imperial resistance
war.
Colonial encounter
Colonial consciousness and exhibitions
Colonial lobby
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In its earlier stages, imperialism was generally the act of individual
explorers as well as some adventurous merchantmen. The colonial
powers were a long way from approving without any dissent the
expensive adventures carried out abroad. Various important political
leaders such as Gladstone opposed colonisation in its first years.
However, during his second premiership in 1880–1885 he could not
resist the colonial lobby in his cabinet, and thus did not execute his
electoral promise to disengage from Egypt. Although Gladstone was
personally opposed to imperialism, the social tensions caused by the
Long Depression pushed him to favor jingoism: the imperialists had
become the ‘parasites of patriotism’ (Hobson[28]). In France, then
Radical politician Georges Clemenceau also adamantly opposed himself
to it: he thought colonisation was a diversion from the ‘blue line of the
Vosges’ mountains, that is revanchism and the patriotic urge to reclaim
the Alsace-Lorraine region which had been annexed by the 1871 Treaty
Pygmies and a European.
of Frankfurt. Clemenceau actually made Jules Ferry's cabinet fall after
Some pygmies would be
the 1885 Tonkin disaster. According to Hannah Arendt in The Origins of
exposed in human zoos, such
Totalitarianism (1951), this expansion of national sovereignty on
as Ota Benga displayed by
overseas territories contradicted the unity of the nation state which
eugenicist Madison Grant in
provided citizenship to its population. Thus, a tension between the
the Bronx Zoo.
universalist will to respect human rights of the colonised people, as they
may be considered as ‘citizens’ of the nation state, and the imperialist
drives to cynically exploit populations deemed inferior began to surface. Some, in colonising countries,
opposed what they saw as unnecessary evils of the colonial administration when left to itself; as
described in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) – contemporary of Kipling's The White Man's
Burden – or in Louis-Ferdinand Céline's Journey to the End of the Night (1932).
Thus, colonial lobbies were progressively set up to legitimise the Scramble for Africa and other
expensive overseas adventures. In Germany, in France, in Britain, the bourgeoisie began to claim strong
overseas policies to insure the market's growth. In 1916, Lenin would publish Imperialism, the Highest
Stage of Capitalism describing this phenomenon. Even in lesser powers, voices like Corradini began to
claim a ‘place in the sun’ for so-called ‘proletarian nations’, bolstering nationalism and militarism in an
early prototype of fascism.
Colonial propaganda and jingoism
Colonial exhibitions
However, by the end of World War I the colonial empires had become very popular almost everywhere
in Europe: public opinion had been convinced of the needs of a colonial empire, although most of the
metropolitans would never see a piece of it. Colonial exhibitions had been instrumental in this change of
popular mentalities brought about by the colonial propaganda, supported by the colonial lobby and by
various scientists. Thus, the conquest of territories were inevitably followed by public displays of the
indigenous people for scientific and leisure purposes. Karl Hagenbeck, a German merchant in wild
animals and future entrepreneur of most Europeans zoos, thus decided in 1874 to exhibit Samoa and
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Sami people as ‘purely natural’ populations. In 1876, he sent one
of his collaborators to the newly conquered Egyptian Sudan to
bring back some wild beasts and Nubians. Presented in Paris,
London and Berlin, these Nubians were very successful. Such
‘human zoos’ could be found in Hamburg, Antwerp, Barcelona,
London, Milan, New York, Warsaw, etc., with 200,000 to
300,000 visitors attending each exhibition. Tuaregs were
exhibited after the French conquest of Timbuktu (discovered by
René Caillé, disguised as a Muslim, in 1828, thereby winning the
prize offered by the French Société de Géographie); Malagasy
after the occupation of Madagascar; Amazons of Abomey after
Behanzin's mediatic defeat against the French in 1894. Not used
to the climatic conditions, some of the indigenous exposed died,
such as some Galibis in Paris in 1892.[29]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa
Poster for the 1906 Colonial
Exhibition in Marseilles (France)
Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire, director of the Parisian Jardin d'acclimatation, decided in 1877 to organise
two ‘ethnological spectacles’, presenting Nubians and Inuit. The public of the Jardin d'acclimatation
doubled, with a million paying entrances that year, a huge success for these times. Between 1877 and
1912, approximatively thirty ‘ethnological exhibitions’ were presented at the Jardin zoologique
d'acclimatation.[30] ‘Negro villages’ would be presented in Paris's 1878 and 1879 World's Fair; the 1900
World's Fair presented the famous diorama ‘living’ in Madagascar, while the Colonial Exhibitions in
Marseilles (1906 and 1922) and in Paris (1907 and 1931) would also display human beings in cages,
often nudes or quasi-nudes.[31] Nomadic ‘Senegalese villages’ were also created, thus displaying the
power of the colonial empire to all the population.
In the U.S., Madison Grant, head of the New York Zoological Society, exposed Pygmy Ota Benga in the
Bronx Zoo alongside the apes and others in 1906. At the behest of Grant, a prominent scientific racist
and eugenicist, zoo director Hornaday, placed Ota Benga in a cage with an orangutan and labeled him
‘The Missing Link’ in an attempt to illustrate Darwinism, and in particular that Africans like Ota Benga
are closer to apes than were Europeans.
Such colonial exhibitions, which include the 1924 British Empire Exhibition and the successful 1931
Paris Exposition coloniale, were doubtlessly a key element of the colonisation project and legitimised
the ruthless Scramble for Africa. In the same way, the popular comic-strip The Adventures of Tintin, full
of clichés, were an obvious carrier of an ethnocentric and racist ideology, reflecting the masses' consent
to the imperialist phenomenon; see Hergé's Tintin in the Congo (1930–1931) or The Broken Ear (1935).
While comic-strips played the same role as westerns to legitimise the Indian Wars in the United States,
colonial exhibitions were both popular and scientific, being an interface between the crowds and serious
scientific research. Thus, anthropologists such as Madison Grant or Alexis Carrel built their pseudoscientific racism, inspired by Gobineau's An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853–1855).
Human zoos provided both a real-size laboratory for these racial hypotheses and a demonstration of their
validity: by labelling Ota Benga as the ‘missing link’ between apes and Europeans—as was done in the
Bronx Zoo—social Darwinism and the pseudo-hierarchy of races were ‘proved’, and the layman could
observe this ‘scientific truth.’
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Anthropology
Anthropology, the daughter of colonisation, participated in this so-called scientific racism based on
social Darwinism by supporting, along with social positivism and scientism, the claims of the superiority
of the Western civilisation over ‘primitive cultures’. However, the discovery of ancient cultures would
dialectically lead anthropology to criticise itself and revalue the importance of foreign cultures. Thus,
the 1897 Punitive Expedition led by the British Admiral Harry Rawson captured, burned, and looted the
city of Benin, incidentally bringing to an end the highly sophisticated West African Kingdom of Benin.
However, the sack of Benin distributed the famous Benin bronzes and other works of art into the
European art market, as the British Admiralty auctioned off the confiscated patrimony to defray costs of
the Expedition. Most of the great Benin bronzes went first to purchasers in Germany, though a sizable
group remain in the British Museum. The Benin bronzes then catalysed the beginnings of a long
reassessment of the value of West African culture, which had strong influences on the formation of
modernism.
Several contemporary studies have focused on the construction of the racist discourse in the nineteenth
century and its propaganda as a precondition of the colonisation project and of the Scramble of Africa,
made with total disconcern for the local population, as exemplified by Stanley, according to whom ‘the
savage only respects force, power, boldness, and decision.’ Anthropology thrived on these explorations,
as had geography before them and ethnology would afterwards. According to several historians, the
formulation of this racist discourse and practices would also be a precondition of ‘state racism’ (Michel
Foucault) as incarnated by the Holocaust (see also Olivier LeCour Grandmaison's description of the
conquest of Algeria and Sven Lindqvist, as well as Hannah Arendt).
Extermination of the Namaqua and the Herero
Main article: Herero and Namaqua genocide
A nineteenth-century
caricature of the ‘Hottentot
Venus’. Saartje Baartman, a
Khoisan woman, was
exhibited naked and in a
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In 1985, the United Nations'
Whitaker Report recognised
Germany's turn of the century
attempt to exterminate the Herero
and Namaqua people of
South-West Africa as one of the
earliest attempts at genocide in
the 20th century. In total, some
65,000 Herero (80% of the total
Surviving Herero, emaciated, after
Herero population), and 10,000
their escape through the Omaheke
Namaqua (50% of the total
desert.
Namaqua population) were killed
between 1904 and 1907.
Characteristic of this genocide was death by starvation and the poisoning
of the population's wells whilst they were trapped in the Namib Desert.
Conclusions
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During the New Imperialism period, by the end of the century, Europe
added almost 9,000,000 square miles (23,000,000 km2) – one-fifth of the
land area of the globe – to its overseas colonial possessions. Europe's
formal holdings now included the entire African continent except
Ethiopia, Liberia, and Saguia el-Hamra, the latter of which would be
integrated into Spanish Sahara. Between 1885 and 1914 Britain took
nearly 30% of Africa's population under its control; 15% for France,
11% for Portugal, 9% for Germany, 7% for Belgium and 1% for Italy.
[citation needed]
Nigeria alone contributed 15 million subjects, more than
in the whole of French West Africa or the entire German colonial
empire. It was paradoxical that Britain, the staunch advocate of free
trade, emerged in 1914 with not only the largest overseas empire thanks
to its long-standing presence in India, but also the greatest gains in the
‘scramble for Africa’, reflecting its advantageous position at its inception. In terms of surface area
occupied, the French were the marginal victors but much of their territory consisted of the sparsely
populated Sahara.
cage as a sideshow attraction
in England, fueling the
African Association's
indignation. After her death,
her genitals were dissected
and cast in wax. Nelson
Mandela formally requested
France to return her remains,
which had been kept at the
Parisian Musée de l'Homme
until 1974.
The political imperialism followed the economic expansion, with the ‘colonial lobbies’ bolstering
chauvinism and jingoism at each crisis in order to legitimise the colonial enterprise. The tensions
between the imperial powers led to a succession of crises, which finally exploded in August 1914, when
previous rivalries and alliances created a domino situation that drew the major European nations into the
First World War. Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia to avenge the murder by Serbian agents of Austrian
crown prince Francis Ferdinand, Russia would mobilise to assist allied Serbia, Germany would intervene
to support Austria-Hungary against Russia. Since Russia had a military alliance with France against
Germany, the German General Staff, led by General von Moltke decided to realise the well prepared
Schlieffen Plan to invade France and quickly knock her out of the war before turning against Russia in
what was expected to be a long campaign. This required an invasion of Belgium which brought Britain
into the war against Germany, Austria-Hungary and their allies. German U-Boat campaigns against ships
bound for Britain eventually drew the United States into what had become World War I. Moreover, using
the Anglo-Japanese Alliance as an excuse, Japan leaped onto this opportunity to conquer German
interests in China and the Pacific to become the dominating power in Western Pacific, setting the stage
for the Second Sino-Japanese War (starting in 1937) and eventually World War II.
African colonies listed by colonizing power
Belgium
Congo Free State and Belgian Congo (today's Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Ruanda-Urundi (comprising modern Rwanda and Burundi, 1922–1962)
France
French West
Africa :
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French Equatorial
Africa :
French North
Africa :
French East
Africa :
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Mauritania
Senegal
Albreda
(1681–1857,
now part of
Gambia)
French
Sudan (now
Mali)
French
Guinea
(now
Guinea)
Ivory Coast
Niger
French
Upper Volta
(now
Burkina
Faso)
French
Dahomey
(now Benin)
French
Togoland
(1916–1960,
now Togo)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa
Gabon
French
Cameroun
(1922–1960)
French Congo
(now the
Republic of
the Congo)
Oubangi-Chari
(now the
Central
African
Republic)
Chad
French
Algeria
French
Protectorate
of Tunisia
French
Morocco
Madagascar
Comoros
Scattered
islands in
the Indian
Ocean
French
Somaliland
(now
Djibouti)
French map of Africa c. 1898 with
colonial claims. British possessions
are in yellow; French possessions in
pink; Belgian in orange; German in
green; Portuguese in purple; Italian in
striped pink; Spanish in striped
orange; independent Ethiopia in
brown
Germany
German Kamerun (now Cameroon and part of Nigeria, 1884–1916)
German East Africa (now Rwanda, Burundi and most of Tanzania, 1885–1919)
German South-West Africa (now Namibia, 1884–1915)
German Togoland (now Togo and eastern part of Ghana, 1884–1914)
Italy
Italian North Africa
Italian Libya
Italian East Africa
Italian Eritrea
Italian Somaliland
Portugal
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Portuguese West Africa
(now Angola)
Mainland Angola
Portuguese Congo
(now Cabinda Province of Angola)
Portuguese East Africa
(now Mozambique)
Portuguese Guinea
(now Guinea-Bissau)
Cape Verde Islands
São Tomé e Príncipe
São Tomé Island
Príncipe Island
Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá
(now Ouidah, in Benin)
Spain
Spanish Sahara
(now Western Sahara)
Río de Oro
Saguia el-Hamra
Spanish Morocco
Tarfaya Strip
Ifni
Spanish Guinea
(now Equatorial Guinea)
Fernando Po
Río Muni
Annobon
United Kingdom
The British were primarily interested in maintaining secure communication lines to India, which led to
initial interest in Egypt and South Africa. Once these two areas were secure, it was the intent of British
colonialists such as Cecil Rhodes to establish a Cape-Cairo railway. It is also important to stress that the
United Kingdom had perhaps the most valuable possession in Africa: the Nile.
Egypt
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
(1899–1956)
British Somaliland (now part
of Somalia)
British East Africa:
Kenya Colony
Uganda Protectorate
Tanzania :
Tanganyika
Territory
(1919–1961)
Zanzibar
Bechuanaland (now
Botswana)
Southern Rhodesia (now
Zimbabwe)
Northern Rhodesia (now
Zambia)
British South Africa
South Africa :
Transvaal
Colony
Cape Colony
Colony of Natal
Orange River
Colony
South-West Africa
(from 1915, now
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The Gambia
Sierra Leone
Nigeria
British Togoland
(1916–1956, today part
of Ghana)
Cameroons
(1922–1961, now parts
of Cameroon and
Nigeria)
British Gold Coast
(now Ghana)
Nyasaland (now
Malawi)
Basutoland (now
Lesotho)
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Namibia)
Swaziland
Independent states
Liberia, founded by the American Colonization Society of the United States in 1821; declared
independence in 1847
Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia) had its borders re-drawn with Italian Eritrea briefly occupied by
Italy from 1936–1941 during the Abyssinia Crisis;
Sudan, independent under Mahdi rule between 1885 and 1899.
Dervish State (Somalia) from 1889–1920, they had successfully repulsed the English colony and
recaptured a third of the land under the leadership of Mohammed Abdullah Hassan.
See also
African Atlantis
Banana Wars
Chronology of colonialism
Civilizing mission
Decolonization of Africa
Impact and evaluation of colonialism and colonization
List of Colony and possessions of France
List of former sovereign states#Pre-colonial Africa
List of largest empires
Scientific racism
White African
References
1. ^ McKay, John P.; Hill, Bennett D.; Buckler,
John; Ebrey, Patricia Buckley; Beck, Roger B.;
Crowston, Clare Haru; Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E.
A History of World Societies: From 1775 to
Present (http://books.google.com
/books?id=ZLkOVE93dX8C&dq=0312682980&
hl=en&ei=8QaRTOr-LJT2swON_62yDg&
sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&
ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA) . Eighth edition. Volume
C – From 1775 to the Present. (2009).
Bedford/St. Martin's
(http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/) :
Boston/New York. ISBN 978-0-312-68298-9.
ISBN 0-312-68298-0. "By 1883 Europe had
caught 'African fever,' and the race for territory
was on." (McKay 738).
2. ^ R, Robinson, J.Gallagher and A. Denny, Africa
and the Victorians, London, 1965, Page. 175.
3. ^ a b Kevin Shillington, History of Africa:
20 of 22
Revised Second Edition, (New York: Macmillian
Publishers Limited, 2005), 301
4. ^ "| The Fall of the Asante Empire: The
Hundred-Year War For Africa's Gold Coast"
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0743236386) .
Amazon.co.uk. http://www.amazon.co.uk
/dp/0743236386. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
5. ^ "The Matabele Campaign: being a narrative of
the campaign in suppressing the native rising in
Matabeleland and Mashonaland, 1896"
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0543848086) .
Amazon.co.uk. http://www.amazon.co.uk
/dp/0543848086. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
6. ^ "Pan-Africanism and nationalism in West
Africa, 1900–1945; a study in ideology and social
classes, by J. Ayodele Langley"
(http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2129768) .
Catalogue.nla.gov.au. http://catalogue.nla.gov.au
/Record/2129768. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
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7. ^ Lynn Hunt, The Making of the west: volume C,
Bedford/ St. Martin 2009
8. ^ Easterly, William (September 17, 2009). "The
Imperial Origins of State-Led Development"
(http://blogs.nyu.edu/fas/dri/aidwatch/2009/09
/the_imperial_origins_of_statel.html) . New York
University Blogs. http://blogs.nyu.edu/fas/dri
/aidwatch/2009/09
/the_imperial_origins_of_statel.html. Retrieved
2009-09-23.
9. ^ Alfred von Tirpitz, Erinnerungen (1919),
quoted by Hannah Arendt, The Origins of
Totalitarianism, section on Imperialism, chapter I,
part 3
10. ^ a b H.R. Cowie, Imperialism and Race Relations
– Revised Edition, Nelson Publishing: Volume 5,
1982
11. ^ German colonial imperialism: a late and
short-term phenomenon
(http://www.paris4.sorbonne.fr/fr/IMG
/pdf/navette-7.pdf) (PDF) by Bernard Poloni, in
‘Imperialism, hegemony, leadership’, March 26,
2004 Conference in the Sorbonne University,
Paris (French)
12. ^ Enrico Corradini, Report to the First
Nationalist Congress: Florence, December 3,
1919.
13. ^ S. Gertrude Millin, Rhodes, London, 1933,
p.138
14. ^ Bourne, Henry Richard Fox (1903).
Civilisation in Congoland: A Story of
International Wrong-doing
(http://books.google.com
/?id=jWccAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&
dq=%22Civilisation+in+Congoland%22#PPR3,
M1) . London: P. S. King & Son. p. 253.
http://books.google.com
/?id=jWccAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&
dq=%22Civilisation+in+Congoland%22#PPR3,
M1. Retrieved 2007-09-26.
15. ^ Forbath, Peter (1977). The River Congo: The
Discovery, Exploration and Exploitation of the
World's Most Dramatic Rivers. [Harper & Row].
p. 374. ISBN 0-06-122490-1.
16. ^ The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com
/books/98/08/30/daily/leopold-book-review.html.
17. ^ Hochschild p. 226–232
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa
18. ^ http://www.urome.be/fr2/reflexions
/casemrepo.pdf
19. ^ Vansina, Jan (1966). Paths in the Rainforest.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 239.
20. ^ Hochschild, Adam (1998). King Leopold's
Ghost. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 280–281.
21. ^ Coquéry-Vidrovitch, Catherine (1971). Le
Congo au temps des grandes compagnies
concessionaires 1898–1930. Paris: Mouton.
p. 195.
22. ^ L'Aventure Humaine: Le canal de Suez, Article
de l'historien Uwe Oster (http://www.arte.tv
/fr/connaissance-decouverte/aventure-humaine
/Cette_20semaine/1291022.html) .
23. ^ BBC News website:The Suez Crisis — Key
maps (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east
/5195068.stm) .
24. ^ Kevin Shillington, Encyclopedia of African
history, (CRC Press: 2005), p.1406.
25. ^ I.M. Lewis, The modern history of Somaliland:
from nation to state, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson:
1965), p. 78
26. ^ Thomas P. Ofcansky, Historical dictionary of
Ethiopia, (The Scarecrow Press, Inc.: 2004),
p.405
27. ^ Samatar, Said Sheikh (1982). Oral Poetry and
Somali Nationalism. Cambridge University Press.
pp. 131 & 135. ISBN 0521238331.
28. ^ John A. Hobson, Imperialism, 1902, p.61
(quoted by Arendt)
29. ^ From human zoos to colonial apotheoses: the
era of exhibiting the Other
(http://www.africultures.com/anglais
/articles_anglais/43blanchard.htm) , by Pascal
Blanchard, Nicolas Bancel, and Sandrine Lemaire
30. ^ ‘These human zoos of the Colonial Republic’
(http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2000/08
/BANCEL/14145.html) , Le Monde diplomatique,
August 2000, (French) (Translation
(http://mondediplo.com/2000/08/07humanzoo)
(English))
31. ^ "February 2003, the end of an era"
(http://www.discoverparis.net
/newsletter.html?insight=3162983825694464) .
Discoverparis.net. http://www.discoverparis.net
/newsletter.html?insight=3162983825694464.
Retrieved 2010-08-08.
Further reading
Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951, second section on imperialism) ISBN
0-15-670153-7
Sections of The Age of Empire Eric Hobsbawm
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa
Lindqvist, Sven. Exterminate All the Brutes (Utrota varenda jävel, 1992)
Pakenham, Thomas. The Scramble for Africa. Abacus, 1991 ISBN 0-349-10449-2
Maria Petringa. Brazza, A Life for Africa. AuthorHouse, 2006. ISBN 978-1-4259-1198-0
Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, London
and Tanzanian Publishing House, Dar-Es-Salaam 1973.
Primm, JT. ‘Causes/Effects of Imperialism’ DK Publications, 1999.
Wesseling, Henk Divide and Rule. The Partition of Africa, 1880–1914. Westport: Praeger
Publishers, 1996 (Translation of Verdeel en Heers: De Deling van Afrika, 1880–1914. 1991)
External links
Belgium exhumes its colonial demons (http://www.guardian.co.uk/print
/0,3858,4460659-103681,00.html)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa"
Categories: 19th century in Africa | 19th century in international relations | 20th century in international
relations | European colonisation in Africa | Geopolitical rivalry | History of Africa | History of
international relations | New Imperialism
This page was last modified on 27 April 2011 at 04:38.
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Decolonization of Africa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Decolonization of Africa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The decolonization of Africa followed World War II as colonized peoples agitated for independence
and colonial powers withdrew their administrators from Africa.[1]
Contents
1 Background
2 Causes
3 Timeline
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
Background
Main article: Scramble for Africa
During the Scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth
century, European powers divided Africa and its resources
into political partitions at the Berlin Conference of
1884-85. By 1905, African soil was almost completely
controlled by European governments, with the only
exceptions being Liberia (which had been settled by
African-American former slaves) and Ethiopia (which had
successfully resisted colonization by Italy). Britain and
France had the largest holdings, but Germany, Spain, Italy,
Belgium, and Portugal also had colonies. As a result of
colonialism and imperialism, Africa suffered long term
effects, such as the loss of important natural resources like
gold and rubber, economic devastation, cultural confusion,
geopolitical division, and political subjugation.
[citation needed]
Europeans often justified this using the
concept of the White Man's Burden, an obligation to
"civilize" the peoples of Africa.
Causes
World War II saw the colonies help their colonial masters
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Cecil Rhodes: Cape-Cairo railway project.
Founder of the De Beers Mining Company,
one of the first diamond companies, Rhodes
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was also the owner of the British South
fight against an unknown enemy, but with no mention of
independence for African nations. Future Prime Ministers
Africa Company, which carved out Rhodesia
Henrik Verwoerd and B.J. Vorster of South Africa
for itself. He wanted to "paint the map
supported Adolf Hitler while most French colonial
[British] red," and once famously declared:
governors loyally supported the Vichy government until
"all of these stars... these vast worlds that
1943. German wartime propaganda had a part in this
remain out of reach. If I could, I would
defiance of British rule. Imperial Japan's conquests in the
annex other planets."[2]
Far East caused a shortage of raw materials such as rubber
and various minerals. Africa was therefore forced to
compensate for this shortage and greatly benefited from this change. Another key problem the
Europeans faced were the U-boats patrolling the Atlantic Ocean. This reduced the amount of raw
materials being transported to Europe and prompted the creation of local industries in Africa. Local
industries in turn caused the creation of new towns, and existing towns doubled in size. As urban
community and industry grew so did trade unions. In addition to trade unions, urbanization brought
about increased literacy, which allowed for pro-independence newspapers.
On February 12th 1941, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill met to discuss the postwar world. The result was the Atlantic Charter. One of the
provisions, introduced by Roosevelt, was the autonomy of imperial colonies. After World War II, the US
and the African colonies put pressure on Britain to abide by the terms of the Atlantic Charter. When
Winston Churchill introduced the Charter to Parliament, he purposely mistranslated the colonies to be
recently captured countries by Germany in order to get it passed. After the war, the British still
considered their African colonies as "children" and "immature"; they introduced democratic government
only at the local levels.
By the 1930s, the colonial powers had cultivated a small elite of leaders educated in Western universities
and familiar with ideas such as self-determination. These leaders, including leading nationalists such as
Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya); Kwame Nkrumah (Gold Coast, now Ghana); Senghor (Senegal); and Félix
Houphouët-Boigny (Côte d'Ivoire), came to lead the struggles for independence.
Timeline
The "colonial power" and "colonial name" columns are merged when
required to denote territories, where current countries are established,
that have not been decolonized, but achieved independence in different
way.
Dates of independence of
African countries
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African countries in order of
independence
Country[3]
Ethiopia
establishment as the Kingdom of
Aksum
Liberia
American
Commonwealth Colonization
of Liberia
Society
Libya
Libya
Egypt
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Colonial name Colonial power[4] Independence
date[5]
Egypt
Italy;
Britain/France
War for
First head of independence
state
4th century BC Menelik I
-
July 26, 1847
Joseph
Jenkins
Roberts
-
December 24,
1951
Idris
-
Britain
1922/1936/1953 n/a
Urabi Revolt,
Suez Crisis
-
Sudan
Sudan
Britain
Ismail
January 1, 1956 al-Azhari
Tunisia
Tunisia
France
Muhammad
March 20, 1956 VIII al-Amin -
Morocco
Protectorate of
Morocco
France/Spain
[6]
April 7, 1956
Mohammed
V
Rif War, Ifni
War
Kwame
Nkrumah
-
Ghana
Gold Coast
Britain/Germany;[7]
Britain
March 6, 1957
Guinea
French West
Africa
France
October 2, 1958 Sékou Touré
-
Cameroon
Cameroun
Germany;
France/Britain
January 1,
1960[8]
Ahmadou
Ahidjo
UPC rebellion
Senegal
French West
Africa
France
April 4, 1960
Léopold
Senghor
-
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Togo
French
Togoland
Germany; France
April 27, 1960
Sylvanus
Olympio
Mali
French West
Africa
France
June 20, 1960
Modibo Keita -
Madagascar
Malagasy
Protectorate
France
June 26, 1960
Philibert
Tsiranana
Malagasy
Uprising
June 30, 1960
Joseph
Kasa-Vubu
Congo Crisis
Britain
Italy
June 26, 1960
July 1, 1960
Muhammad
Haji Ibrahim
Egal
Aden
Abdullah
Osman Daar Hubert Maga -
DR Congo
Belgian Congo Belgium
-
Somalia
British
Somaliland
Italian
Somaliland
Benin
French West
Africa
France
August 1,
1960[10]
Niger
French West
Africa
France
August 3, 1960 Hamani Diori -
Burkina Faso Upper Volta
France
Maurice
August 5, 1960 Yaméogo
-
France
Félix
HouphouëtAugust 7, 1960 Boigny
-
France
August 11,
1960
François
Tombalbaye
-
France
August 13,
1960
David Dacko -
France
August 15,
1960
Fulbert
Youlou
-
France
August 17,
1960
Léon M'ba
-
Britain
October 1, 1960 Nnamdi
Azikiwe
[11]
[9]
Côte d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire
Chad
French
Equatorial
Africa
Central
African
Republic
French
Equatorial
Africa
Congo
French
Equatorial
Africa
Gabon
French
Equatorial
Africa
Nigeria
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Nigeria
-
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Mauritania
French West
Africa
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone
South Africa South Africa
November 28,
1960
Moktar Ould
Daddah
-
Britain
April 27, 1961
Milton
Margai
-
Britain
1910/1931
/1961[12]
n/a
-
Germany; Britain
Britain
December 9,
1961
December 10,
1963
Julius
Nyerere
Jamshid ibn
Abdullah
-
France
Tanzania
Tanganyika
Zanzibar
Rwanda
Ruanda-Urundi Germany; Belgium July 1, 1962
Grégoire
Kayibanda
-
Ruanda-Urundi Germany; Belgium July 1, 1962
Mwambutsa
IV
-
Algeria
Algeria
France
July 3, 1962
Ahmed Ben
Bella
Algerian War
of
Independence
Uganda
British East
Africa
Britain
October 9, 1962 Milton Obote -
Kenya
British East
Africa
Britain
December 12,
1963
Jomo
Kenyatta
Mau Mau
Uprising
Britain
July 6, 1964
Hastings
Kamuzu
Banda
-
Britain
October 24,
1964
Kenneth
Kaunda
-
Britain
February 18,
1965
Dawda
Kairaba
Jawara
-
Seretse
Khama
-
[13]
Burundi
Malawi
Nyasaland
Zambia
Northern
Rhodesia
The Gambia Gambia
Botswana
Bechuanaland
Britain
September 30,
1966
Lesotho
Basutoland
Britain
Leabua
October 4, 1966 Jonathan
-
Britain
March 12, 1968
-
Britain
September 6,
1968
Mauritius
Swaziland
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Swaziland
Sobhuza II
-
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Equatorial
Guinea
Spanish Guinea Spain
October 12,
1968
GuineaBissau
Portuguese
Guinea
September 24,
1973
Mozambique
also known as
Portuguese
Mozambique East Africa
Portugal
Portugal
June 25, 1975
Francisco
Macías
Nguema
-
Luis Cabral
Guinea-Bissau
War of
Independence
Samora
Machel
Mozambican
War of
Independence
Cape Verde
Portugal
July 5, 1975
influenced by
Guinea-Bissau
War of
Independence
Comoros
France
July 6, 1975
-
São Tomé
and Príncipe
Portugal
July 12, 1975
-
November 11,
1975
Agostinho
Neto
Angolan War
of
Independence
June 29, 1976
James
Richard
Marie
Mancham
-
Rhodesian
Bush War
Angola
Angola (also
known as
Portuguese
West Africa)
Seychelles
Portugal
Britain
Djibouti
French
Somaliland
France
June 27, 1977
Hassan
Gouled
Aptidon
Zimbabwe
Southern
Rhodesia
Britain
April 18, 1980
Canaan
Banana
Germany; South
Africa
March 21,
1990[14]
Namibian War
of
Sam Nujoma Independence
Namibia
Eritrea
South West
Africa
Eritrea
Italy; Britain;
Ethiopia
May 24, 1993
Isaias
Afewerki
Eritrean War
of
Independence
1
The Spanish colonial rule de facto terminated over the Western Sahara (then Rio de Oro), when the
territory was passed on[citation needed] to and partitioned between Mauritania and Morocco (which
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annexed the entire territory in 1979), rendering the declared independence of the Saharawi Arab
Democratic Republic ineffective to the present day (it controls only a small portion east of the Moroccan
Wall). Since Spain did not have the right to give away Western Sahara,[citation needed] under international
law de jure the territory is still under Spanish administration.[citation needed] However, the de facto
administrator is Morocco (see United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories).
See also
Colonialism
Decolonization
Scramble for Africa
Wars of national liberation
Year of Africa
Notes
1. ^ Birmingham, David (1995). The Decolonization of Africa. Routledge. ISBN 1857285409.
2. ^ S. Gertrude Millin, Rhodes, London, 1933, p.138
3. ^ Timeline list arranged according to current countries. Explanatory notes are added in cases where
decolonization was achieved jointly or where the current state is formed by merger of previously decolonized
states.
4. ^ Some territories changed hands multiple times, so in the list is mentioned the last colonial power. In
addition to it the mandatory or trustee powers are mentioned for territories that were League of Nations
mandates and UN Trust Territories.
5. ^ Date of decolonization for territories annexed by or integrated into previously decolonized independent
countries are given in separate notes.
6. ^ Cape Juby was ceded by Spain to Morocco on 2 April 1958. Ifni was returned from Spain to Morocco on 4
January 1969.
7. ^ The British Togoland mandate and trust territory was integrated into Gold Coast colony on 13 December
1956.
8. ^ After the French Cameroun mandate and trust territory gained independence it was joined by part of the
British Cameroons mandate and trust territory on October 1, 1961. The other part of British Cameroons
joined Nigeria.
9. ^ British Somaliland shortly after gaining independence merged with Italian Somaliland when it got
independence as Somalia.
10. ^ Independent Benin unilaterally annexed Portuguese São João Batista de Ajuda in 1961.
11. ^ Part of the British Cameroons mandate and trust territory on October 1, 1961 joined Nigeria. The other part
of British Cameroons joined the previously decolonized French Cameroun mandate and territory.
12. ^ South Africa was under apartheid regime until elections resulting from the negotiations to end apartheid in
South Africa on 27 April 1994 when Nelson Mandela became president.
13. ^ After both gained independence Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged on 26 April 1964
14. ^ Sovereignty over Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands was formally transferred to Namibia on 28 February
1994
References
Michael Crowder, The Story of Nigeria, Faber and Faber, London, 1978 (1962)
Understanding Contemporary Africa, April A. Gordon and Donald L. Gordon, Lynne Riener,
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London, 1996
Vincent B. Khapoya, The African Experience, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1998 (1994)
Ali A. Mazrui ed. General History of Africa, vol. VIII, UNESCO, 1993
Kevin Shillington, History of Africa, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1995 (1989)
External links
Africa: 50 years of independence (http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20100212-africa-50-yearsindependence) Radio France Internationale in English
"Winds of Change or Hot Air? Decolonization and the Salt Water Test"
(http://www.legalfrontiers.ca/2010/11/winds-of-change-or-hot-air-decolonization-and-thesalt-water-test/) Legal Frontiers International Law Blog
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decolonization_of_Africa"
Categories: Colonialism | History of Africa | History of colonialism | European colonisation in Africa
This page was last modified on 1 May 2011 at 01:54.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms
may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
organization.
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