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“When European traders arrived in India and China they found huge countries governed
by powerful empires. Africa was quite different. Africa was an entire continent, second
only to Asia in size, with many states and with even more areas under the control of local
families, clans, and ethnicities. Each area had its own history, and the experience of each
different European group varied in each different region. In sub-Saharan Africa, for the
most part the early European experience was limited to the shoreline of the west coast. The
Europeans came in search of a shipping route to Asia, and this required only coastal
contact in Africa. They found that they could buy the slaves they wanted in port towns
that they established also along the coast. Africans would capture, collect, and bring the
slaves to them for sale. The Europeans for the most part accepted this commercial
arrangement as economically efficient. It saved them from conflict with local African
rulers. It also did not endanger their health with diseases against which the Europeans had
no immunity. Even from their coastal enclaves the Europeans were able to make a
considerable mark on Africa, purchasing and transporting more than 10 million slaves to
the New World over a period of four centuries.
As the years passed, to extend their commercial ventures, their political power, and their
missionary activities, Europeans wanted more knowledge of Africa. Exploration of the
interior attracted many adventurers: In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
West Africa and the Niger River were the main attractions for many European explorers.
By the middle of the nineteenth century the mystery and potential of central and East
Africa attracted some of the most daring explorers. David Livingstone, a Scottish
missionary and able scientist, began his career in Africa intent upon establishing a
missionary station and providing medical assistance.
As European powers explored and colonized central Africa, they came into direct
competition with each other. Fearing the consequences of this competition, Germany’s
Otto von Bismarck employed diplomacy to defuse European conflict. He convened a
conference in Berlin in 1884-5 to determine the allocation of Congo lands and to establish
ground rules for fixing borders among European colonies in Africa. The Berlin
Conference assigned the administration of the Congo, an area one-third the size of the
continental United States, to Leopold II personally as a kind of company government. The
Congo became, in effect, his private estate, eighty times larger than Belgium itself. Its
economic purpose was, first, the harvesting of natural rubber from vines in the jungle, and,
later, the exploitation of the area’s rich mineral reserves, especially copper. Workers could
be killed or have their hands cut off for failing to make quotas. The Berlin Conference also
divided up the lands of Africa on paper, generally apportioning inland areas to the
European nations already settled on the adjacent coast. These nations were then charged
with establishing actual inland settlements in those regions, and they quickly did so,
dispatching settlers in a ‘scramble for Africa.’” ~ The World’s History
1- Describe Europe’s early interactions with sub-Saharan Africa (1500s – 1800s).
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2- How did the Berlin Conference and the Scramble for Africa change Africa?
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I. The New Imperialism
A. In 1815 nations of western Europe controlled 35 percent of the world’s habitable
territory but they controlled 85 percent by 1914
B. Imperial activity of mid-1800s through early 1900s is called the “new” imperialism
C. Industrialization gave West greater ability to conquer and more reasons
D. Western economies were hungry for raw materials
E. Conversely, Western nations needed markets for the goods
F. And ideas such as Social Darwinism fueled rationale for conquests
1. A misguided application of Darwin’s theories of natural selection
2. The idea that it was natural for stronger groups to dominate weaker groups
G. Conviction that it was duty of white Westerners to teach and modernize darkerskinned, supposedly “primitive” peoples of Africa and Asia
H. Rudyard Kipling expressed this sentiment in the “White Man’s Burden”
I. The French spoke of their civilizing mission (la mission civilisatrice)
J. This attitude was well meaning and heartfelt, but also condescending
II. Increasingly Aggressive Imperialism
A. Almost entire non-Western world was either colonized during nineteenth century or
fell under influence of Western nations
B. By far largest and most widespread set of colonial possessions was Britain’s
C. After 1870, new countries such as Germany and Italy also began to build overseas
empires, in an attempt to catch up with older imperial powers
III. Different Approaches to Imperialism
A. British were prone to same sense of racial superiority as other Westerners but
interfered as little as possible with local customs
B. But British also introduced positive social reforms and useful scientific ideas
C. French subscribed to la mission civilisatrice, but were less consistent about it
D. Portuguese and the Belgians were known to be especially harsh, even cruel
E. Germany and Italy were also brutal
IV. The United States
A. “Manifest Destiny” – belief that U.S. was entitled to entire center of continent
B. Spanish lost empire in North America in 1810s and 1820s
C. Russians gave up Alaska to the U.S. in 1867
V. Other Regions
A. Heart of the British Empire was India
B. At Battle of Plassey, in 1757, British won a major victory over Mughals
C. Victory led to a rapid decline of French influence in subcontinent
D. Until the late 1850s, India was not administered directly by British government, but
by semiprivate British East India Company
E. In 1857, the Indian Mutiny (also known as the Sepoy Rebellion) – failed
F. Convinced government to assume full control over the colony
G. Spark that started rebellion was cartridges coated with animal grease
H. Offended both Hindus and Muslims
I. Scramble for Africa, from 1884 – 1910, European race to take over Africa
J. Berlin Conference, 1884 to 1885, presided over by Otto von Bismarck, laid down
guidelines for African expansion
K. By 1914, only two nations in Africa remained free: Liberia and Abyssinia
1- What had happened in world history by 1914?
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2- How did the “new” imperialism differ from the “old” imperialism?
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3- How did industrialization in Europe fuel imperialism?
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4- How did the ideas of Social Darwinists influence imperialists?
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5- How did The White Man’s Burden differ from Social Darwinism?
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6- Why was The White Man’s Burden condescending?
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7- What European nation controlled the largest empire in the “new” imperialism?
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8- Why were Germany and Italy late to the “new” imperialism?
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9- How did British imperialism differ from Belgian imperialism?
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10- What was “Manifest Destiny”?
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11- How did the United States gain control Russia?
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12- What happened at the Battle of Plassey?
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13- How was India administered during the Age of Imperialism?
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14- What happened in India in 1857?
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15- What caused the Sepoy Mutiny?
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16- What was the outcome of Sepoy Mutiny?
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17- What was the Berlin Conference?
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18- Why was the Berlin Conference significant?
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19- What were the only two African nations that remained independent by 1914?
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“Throughout Africa, Europeans confronted the problem of finding labor for their new
farms and enterprises. By confiscating African land and redistributing it among
themselves, Europeans took farms away from Africans and produced a new wage-labor
force. The 1913 Natives Land Act of South Africa closed 87 percent of South African
land to African ownership; the remaining 13 percent was the most marginal land.”
~ The World’s History
20- How did the 1913 Natives Land Act affect Black South Africans?
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1. War with which Western power reduced
Mexico's territory by about half?
(A) The United States
(B) France
(C) Spain
(D) Portugal
(E) Germany
2. What were native troops who served
under the British authorities in India
called?
(A) Brahmins
(B) sepoys
(C) thugs
(D) coolies
(E) gurkhas
3. Which of the following legacies of British
colonial rule proved most disruptive in the
immediate aftermath of Indian
independence?
(A) Education of diverse Indian elites in a
common English language
(B) Hindu-Muslim rivalry fostered by
colonial divide and rule practices
(C) Establishment of parliamentary
democratic norms in government
(D) Military training provided to Indian
sepoys
(E) Toleration of caste distinctions
4. The principal architect of the “Congress
System” that prevailed in Europe during the
first half of the 1800s was
(A) Metternich
(B) Cavour
(C) Bismarck
(D) Gladstone
(E) Castlereagh
5. Which of the following nations is
considered to have treated its colonies most
poorly?
(A) Belgium
(B) Great Britain
(C) France
(D) the Netherlands
(E) Austria
6. The English East India Company and the
VOC were privately owned companies that
enjoyed all of the following advantages
except
A) Funds to outfit ships and hire crews.
B) Commodities and money for trade.
C) Direct government supervision.
D) The potential for tremendous profits.
E) Heavily armed ships to back up their
demands.
Thesis Practice: Change over Time
Analyze continuities and changes in economic, cultural, and political structures in subSaharan Africa from 1100 – 1914 C.E.
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