IMPERIALISM 1871-1914
• Africa and Asia = valuable minerals and raw materials
• Chinese empire = trade links with Far East
The scramble for Africa
• 1871 = 10% of Africa controlled by Europeans
• by 1900 = 90% controlled by E.
Causes
• Strategic factors
--> trade routs with India -- Cape colony = long route
=>> 1869 Suez canal open, instability of Egyptian gov => Britain taking control of their
administration gov.
== establishment of British power in Egypt
• Medical advancement and exploration
• ---> diseases - malaria = white man's grave, ==> 1817 treatment for malaria = reduced fears of
dying
• --> expeditions began to remove myths
• --> explorers financed by businessmen = new resources and trading opportunities
• Henry Morton Stanley - king Leopold II. Congo
• mystery surrounding Africa, dangerous and inhospitable
• Weaponry
• --> heavy artillery, fast firing rifles and machine guns development
• Poorly equipped Africans
• = land could be taken easily
• Political factors
• 1871= settled map of Europe - borders
• No nation wanted war to gain more territory in Europe
• No expansion within Europe possible
• Wealth, power, prestige, influence in gaining more territory overseas
The abolition of the slave trade
• 16th cent. slave trade => USA
• by 1871 slavery abolished in most countries
• Lost profits! = businessmen seeking new form of trade with Africa
The industrial revolution
• increase in the production of manufactured goods
• = need for more raw materials, new markets, greater investment opportunities
• Africa = market for E. goods
• Development in railways + steamship = quicker and safer traveling
• Steam driven ships = able to navigate rivers such as Congo, the Zambezi and the Niger = easy
access to African interior
,A sense of duty
• racial superiority = political and ideological factors
• Duty to bring order, stability and christianity
• David Livingstone - 'three Cs': commerce, Christianity, civilisation
• Lord Curzon - justifying the British expansion
• justification that E. nations were colonising Africa in order to improve lives of the native people - in
reality ==> self interest and exploitation
• Lord Lugard - "The rise of our eastern African empire' 1893 book
• recognised that Africans may have benefited from the British presence in Africa However, he
openly accepts that British main motive was to serve their own interest + he sees nothing wrong
with it = Britain's right = The rights of Europeans outweighed the rights of Africans = Eu. Racial
superiority
The rush for African territory
• Each eu nation = own motives for involvement in Africa
Britain
• protection of trade links with India (Egypt, South Africa)
• raw materials and minerals = gold, diamonds in Transvaal = economic rewards of acquiring more
land in Africa
• Determination not to let the land to fall in hands of France or Germany
• Cecil Rhodes - imperialist adventurer = ambition to build railway and telegraph line from Cairo to
the Cape = reinforcing Britain's commercial gain
• East Africa under British rule - Egypt, Sudan, British East Africa, British Somaliland, Southern and
Northern Rhodesia, Botswana, Orange Free state, Transvaal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, British
Gold Coast, Nyasaland = 30% of Africa's population
France
• West and North west Africa
• Slave trade = Senegal and Algeria established in 16. Cent.
• Moved inland in search of raw materials- palm oil, timber
• New markets
• Overseas empire = prestige, power, wealth
Belgium
• Leopold II. - Congo
• Used his own money
• Tyranny
Portugal
• Mozambique, Angola
Germany
• Did not enter until 1881 - late to the party = most profitable areas taken by others
• = German colonies = unprofitable, cost more than they were worth
• Previous policy of opposition to the imperialism (Bismarck)
• Wilhelm II. Interested in having an empire and colonies
• Businessmen and industrialists = pressure on the government
• Kamerun, German East Africa, German South West Africa, Togoland
,The treaty of Berlin 1885
• Logical strategic and commercial reasons were outweighed by mad rush for overseas possessions
• E. Nations determined to seize as much land possible, no matter the potential value = in order to
prevent other nation from taking it
• National pride = Risk of direct conflict
• 13 e. states met
• The Treaty of Berlin designed to regulate European colonisation and trade in Africa
• -> inform other governments of claiming new territory immediately + effective occupation
• -> free passage on the Niger and Congo
• -> abolished slavery (suitable justification to take land in Africa)
Outcome: further race for new land (France vs Britain)-
• Sudan 1898 Major Marchand vs Lord Kitchener
• Both claimed Sudan, open conflict possible ==> in the end no one wanted to go to war over Africa
---=> Fashoda incident
Compromise = France's recognition of Sudan and Egypt
=>> British recognition of French Morocco
• Fashoda incident = evidence that the scramble for Africa was safe = no country wanted to go to
war against each other over the African territory
The Boer Wars
• Maintaining control of Cape Colony involved constant border wars with native tribes
• => Anglo-Zulu war 1879 (GB vs Zulu kingdom)
• British rule resented by the Boers (settlers of Transvaal and Orange Free State)
• 1877: Britain claims the Transvaal (gold, diamond rich area)
• The Transvaal Boers rebelled and claimed independence
• The First Boer War 1880-81 - defeat of the British
• => Pretoria convention 1881 -> the Transvaal and the Orange Free State = self governing status
under British oversight
• Further discoveries of gold in the Transvaal => new settlers (British) --> denied political and
economic rights by the Transvaal president Paul Kruger
• PM of the Cape Colony - Cecil Rhodes -> supported the expansion
• Jameson raid 1895 - failed
• = the uk gov hoped that the new settlers would rebel against the Transvaal gov => the British
forces would have to intervene - pretext for invasion
• Forces led by Leander Start Jameson
• The rebellion failed => forces led to the Transvaal by Jameson anyway
• Quickly driven back by the Boers
• Wilhelm II. Telegram to Kruger - congratulating him on the British defeat => anglo-german
relations worsened
• 1899: Kruger demands full withdrawal of British troops and full independence for the Transvaal
• Britain refuses, Kruger declares war, Second Boer war, small victories for the Boers, Britain
increased the number of troops
• June 1900 British captured Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal
• the Boers: guerrilla tactics, after 2 years => surrender
• British victory in the Second Boer war, Treaty of Vereeniging 1902 => placing the Transvaal and
Orange Free state under the British rule
• Cost of the victory: £200 mil, 22,000 soldiers
, • Britain condemned for its scorched earth policy (burning crops and property to deny food and
shelter) and for the establishment of the concentration camps, bad conditions for wives and children
of the Boers - 30,000 deaths of civilians
• division in Britain whether they should continue its imperialist policy
• Wilhelm's II. telegram = sign that Germany would support the Boers in future conflict
• Britain = isolated and vulnerable => ally with Japan
The effects of the Scramble for Africa
• benefits to the Native:
• States with administration and government
• Education
• Transport and communication (roads, railways, telegraph)
• Sanitation system, water engineering, medical care, hospitals
• Efficient methods of farming, new crops (cotton, maize, pear, plantain..)
• Disadvantage to the Native:
• Random division of the land according to the needs of the colonisers
• => no account of existing boundaries
• No understanding of local geography, tribal or ethnic groupings of the local people
• Refusal to take into account the opinions of local chieftains
• =Borders drawn arbitrarily -> Maasai people division, Anyi people, Chewa people
• Direct x Indirect rule, administrative hierarchy
• Africans = inferior to the Europeans
• Undermining of the African culture = western style education, clothes, buildings and religion
• Introduction of money => change of African economy
• Africans = cheap labour to build roads, railways
• Exploitation of African resources => raw materials were mined to support European industrial
expansion
• => this prevented Africa to build its own industries
• Eu businessmen = wealthier than before => investing to copper, gold, diamonds, ivory, cotton and
coffee
• Leopold II. - rubber plantations Congo => forced labour (form of slavery) killing of people who were
unable to meet the quota
• John Harris = missionary in Congo - letter to Leopold II.
• African resistance to Eu rule => punishment (killing of chieftains, exile)
• Chief Mkwawa of the Hehe people beheaded for opposing the German rule in Tanganyinka
• 1904-07 the Herero and Nama peoples rebelled against German rule in German south west Africa
• => Kalahari desert => died of hunger or thirst, poisoning of desert wells => genocide
The effects of the scramble on international relations
• Treaty of Berlin = insurance that the land in Africa did not lead to war between the eu nations
• But still remained rivals
• Fashoda incident = outrage in FR and GB (unjustified aggression - both began to mobilise their
fleets - war preparations)
• Increased tension = Germany entered the race => GB saw DE as a threat to its own strategic and
commercial interests
• The late 19th century = intense nationalism
