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African Colonialism &
Nationalism
Patterns of European Expansionism
3 Gs (15th-18thC)
3 Cs (19th-20thC)
• Glory
• Commerce
• Gold
• Christianity
• God
• Civilization
Of these three reasons for colonizing Africa in the
15th Century, which do you think was the most
Important?
Of these three reasons for colonizing Africa in the 15th
Century, which do you think was the most Important?
• The conquest of Africa began as a battle for power
among European nations (glory) - During this era,
European nations dominated world politics.
• Once the colonies were established, however, other
factors such as economics and religion became
increasingly important in the conquest of Africa.
Colonial Advertisements
Definitions
•
Imperialism: A policy of conquering and
then ruling other lands as colonies.
•
Colonialism: The process of acquiring
and maintaining colonies.
•
Legitimate Trade: The period of change
from an economy based on the slave
trade to one based on natural products
Imperialism
• Imperialism occurred in Africa during the late 19th century.
• Earlier, European greed had ruined Africa by a filthy
exploitation of Africa people as a cheap means of slave labor
• During the Scramble for Africa, European imperialistic power
carved up Africa and its resources into political partitions
• 1905, African soil was completely controlled by European
might, mainly Britain, France, Portugal, Germany, and Italy
• Resource rich, empty continent up for grabs… European
powers become involved in the “Scramble for Africa”
“The Magnificent African Cake”:
Partition in Africa
The partition of Africa among the various European powers
is also known as what? Why?
- Scramble for Africa
- Because of the speed with which the partition was carried
out.
‘Legitimate’ Trade
• Prior to 19th Century (1800s), Africa’s largest export
was enslaved Africans
• Slavery began to fall out of favour during the 1830s,
and it was formally abolished in the United States in
1865.
Continued…
• After abolition, Europeans in Africa
found new items for trade, including
gold, ivory, cloves, peanuts, cotton,
rubber, and palm oil
• This shift from slave-based trade to that
of natural products marked the era of
‘legitimate’ trade
Why Africa?
• Wealth: Production and export of palm
oil to Western countries. Palm oil was
used to lubricate machinery and Europe
was experiencing an Industrial Revolution.
King Leopold II
• King Leopold II was the
First European to seize
territory in Africa
• Hired Henry M. Stanley to
investigate the Congo
River
• Stanley claimed territory
80 times larger than
Belgium in Leopold’s
name
•
Henry M. Stanley: European
explorer who visited the
Congo River and claimed
much African land for
Belgium. He misunderstood
MoJimba’s welcome for an
act of war.
•
Chief MoJimba: African
leader whose efforts to make
the explorer Stanley welcome
were misunderstood and
thought to be an act of war.
Cecil John Rhodes
Cecil John Rhodes
• Cecil Rhodes joined his
brother in south Africa on his
cotton farm in 1870
• They failed to keep up with the
competition of cotton, so
Rhodes turned to diamond
mining in Kimberley (south
Africa.)
• He was very successful in
mining and became a very
wealthy man, he was a
millionaire before the age of
25.
Cecil John Rhodes
• Rhodes went back to England to study
business at oxford in 1873.
• He didn’t graduate until 1881, due to his
frequent visits to Kimberly to see how his
company was doing
• By the time he graduated he owned 90%
of Africa’s diamond mines.
• Shortly after he graduated he became a
politician
• Rhodes always had a dream of having a
strip of British control down Africa
Cecil John Rhodes
• Rhodes was a politician, he
started to serve in the
parliament of the Cape Colony
• He became a member of the
Cape House of Assembly.
• In 1889, Rhodes became the
head administrator of the
British South Africa Company
• During this time he came back
to his dream of a strip of British
control down Africa.
Cecil John Rhodes
• He joined Britain and Bechuanaland (now
Botswana), in South Africa to stop the Boer
Transvaal Republic from going northwards.
• One of Rhodes many dreams was to make a
railroad from cape to Cairo, to aid in the British
control.
• He met up with the leader of the Limpopo River,
and took a translator, who intentionally incorrectly
explained the details of Rhodes agreement.
Because the leader did not understand what
Rhodes was telling him he unknowingly agreed to
let him explore and exploit territories to the north of
Limpopo.
• These territories were later known as Southern
and Northern Rhodesia, which was named after
Rhodes.
Cecil John Rhodes
•
In 1890 he became
Prime Minster of the
Cape region.
• His misfortunes soon
started after he became
Prime Minister
• His dreams of the railroad
were destroyed because
Germany received a strip
of land cutting off the
British from the north.
Cecil John Rhodes
• Cecil Rhodes fought for
Kimberly in the Boer war 1899
– 1902, but his poor heath
caught up with him and finally
ended his life.
• He left much of his fortunes to
create the Rhodes
Scholarships, which have
aided hundreds of students of
Oxford University.
Otto von Bismarck
• Motivated by politics
• Germany entered the
“Scramble for Africa”
in the hopes that
Britain would follow,
thereby creating
competition between
the British and the
French
Rules of Partition
• Countries were ‘scrambling’ to occupy and control
territories in Africa and the need for rules to partition, the
‘chopping up’ of the continent, arose
• Otto von Bismarck called for a conference in Berlin in
1884-85
• All the major European countries took part in the Berlin
Conference
The Berlin
Conference
Countries Involved
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain,
Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain,
Sweden, United States of America, Ottoman Empire.
Berlin Conference Regulations
(outlined in Berlin Act 1885)
1. King Leopold II was to allow
free trade in the Congo to all
European nations.
2. European countries were free
to colonize coastal areas that
they already occupied and to
extend their rule some distance
inland.
3. Each nation was required to
notify all other signing
countries when they occupied a
new territory
Berlin Conference Regulations
(outlined in Berlin Act 1885)
4.
Treaties with African kings
were accepted as valid titles
to territories.
5. European powers were to state
their intent toward the African
people. This included
promises for the protection
of Africans ‘in their moral and
material being, the
suppression of slavery and
the slave trade [and] the
education of the natives.’
Consequences of the
Conference
• Partition of Africa sped
up.
• Wars and Rebellions
• 1902- 90% of Africa
was under European
Control.
• 1914- All of Africa
except Liberia and
Ethiopia was under
European control.
3 Major Stages of Partition
• Treaty-making between European nations and African
rulers
• Treaty-making between European nations
• Official occupation of the African countries: Pacification
Stage
Definitions
• Assimilation = a policy under which the colonized people
were expected to assimilate to the culture of the colonial
ruler.
• Direct Rule = Colonial System in which the colony was
ruled by the government of the occupying country.
(France is an example)
• Indirect Rule = Colonial system in which natives of the
colony were permitted to form local governments, but
these were in turn overseen by members of the
occupying country. (Britain is an example)
Cash Crops
• The controlling countries only
encouraged the production of cash
crops for exporting for money.
• The long-term effect was that
domestic crops were not grown to
feed to the people of Africa
• Since many African economies
were based on one crop, the entire
economy of a country failed
because of lack of rain or the price
of the crop fell on the world market.
• This caused famines, which Africa
still suffer from.
Ethiopianist Churches
• African Independent Churches
• These churches were a reaction against European
domination and acknowledgement of the value of African
culture and institutions.
Influence on African Resistance
• W.E.B. DuBois = African American professor
and historian of West African medieval
civilizations who advocated black social and
economic independence.
• Marcus Garvey = African American Leader who
advocated Africa for the Africans
• Harlem Renaissance = A movement of Frenchspeaking African American writers and other
artists celebrated their African past and their
roles in modern society.
African Resistance
• Negritude = a movement of
French-speaking Africans to
reject French assimilation in
favour of their own African
heritage.
• Leopold Sedar Senghor =
leader of the Negritude
Movement
African Resistance
PAN-Africanism
• Is various movements in Africa that have as their
common goal the unity of Africans and the elimination of
colonialism and white supremacy from the continent.
• A movement that celebrated the kingship of all people of
African Descent and worked to improve their lives.
• Nationalism = A feeling of loyalty for one’s own land and
people.
African Resistance
• Europeans colonized Africa throughout
the 1800’s.
• European contact with sub-Saharan
Africa began in the mid-15th century
• Colonization degraded Africans 
• Africans came together to protect their
local tribes which were being invaded
by the Europeans.
• The First Pan-African Congress,
convened in London in 1900
• Pan-African movement brought on
combat to fight the European
colonization.
African Resistance
• Samori Touré:
– Mandinka empire in West Africa
– Engaged in war with the French
for 7 years
– Established a military workshop
that employed 300-400 men
where they manufactured gun
powder and repaired rifles
– 1898, forced to surrender
– He saw it as the will of Allah
African Resistance
• Queen Mother Yaa Asatewa:
– British officer offended the
Asante people when he
demanded to sit on a golden
ceremonial stool
– Asatewa and the Asante held
the officer an his wife captive
until they escaped
– The Asante fought the British
for 4 years until they were
overpowered
African Resistance
King Menelik II:
– Ethiopia
– Menelik’s army held off the Italians
that wanted his territory
– Battle of Adowa, Italy suffered
great losses to their surprise and
the surprise of other European
nations
– Ethiopia managed to maintain their
independence (as did Liberia)
Decolonization
The action of changing from colonial to
independent status
The breaking of ties with the mother
country
Independence
• Atlantic Charter = Document signed
by countries that fought the Axis
Powers in WWII. It contained
language that suggested African
countries should be allowed to
govern themselves.
• Fifth Pan-African Congress = Meeting
of African countries in 1945 in which
delegates, recalling the Atlantic
Charter, vowed to work for freedom
Independence in Africa
• Intellectual appeal, political campaign, bloody uprisings
and desire for change, for national awakening, for
throwing off the colonial rule were enable to push for
independence
• 1957, Ghana became the first African nation to become
independent
• By the end of the 1970s, almost no African soil remained
constricted by colonial rule. Some gained independence
peacefully and others in battle.
Independence in Africa
• Kwame Nkrumah = African political leader who
worked to obtain the independence of Ghana and
later all of Africa. He led campaigns and boycotts. It
was passive resistance.
• Sekou Toure = Nationalist leader in French Guinea
who led the French colonies in standing up to
Charles de Gaulle (French President)
• Land and Freedom Party = Kenyan nationalist party
that waged bloody warfare against British colonial
power
• Front for National Liberation = Algerian liberation
group that defeated the French colonial power.
• Jomo Kenyatta = Led the resistance in Kenya
The End