Africa and the Colonial Experience (1880s – 1960s)

These flashcards cover vocabulary, key figures, and concepts related to the colonization of Africa, European administrative policies, and significant African resistance movements as described in the lecture notes.

Illegitimate Trade

A term used to refer to the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade because its commodities were humans or slaves rather than other goods.

Legitimate Trade

A new trade introduced by Europeans in West Africa after the abolition of the slave trade, where the principal commodities were items like gum, groundnuts, and palm oil.

New Imperialism

A period of increased expansion of capitalism starting in the second half of the $19^{\text{th}}$ century until the outbreak of the First World War in $1914$, characterized by European powers seeking to control African colonies.

Berlin Conference of 1884/85

A meeting involving representatives of $13$ European countries, initiated by Bismarck, to divide Africa among European powers and set rules for physical occupation.

Article 36 (General Act of Berlin)

A rule stating that colonial powers must notify each other when claiming African territory and that subsequent effective occupation was necessary for the claim to be valid.

Samori Toure

A Muslim religious figure and military leader ($c\,1828$ - June $2$, $1900$) who founded the Wassoulou Empire and resisted French colonial rule in West Africa.

Wassoulou Empire

The Islamic Empire founded by Samori Toure, located in present-day north and south eastern Guinea, and parts of Sierra Leone, Cot d' Ivoire, and Burkina Faso.

Osei Tutu

The Asantehene (paramount chief) of Ashanti from $1701$ to $1717$ who unified independent chiefdoms into a powerful political and military state.

Golden Stool

A symbol created by Osei Tutu which depicted the ancestors of all the Ashanti, used to legitimize his rule and the royal dynasty.

Urabi Pasha

An officer in the Egyptian army who led the Urabi revolt in $1879$ against the administration of Khedive Tewfik and foreign influence.

Mahadist Movement

A Sudanese religious revivalist and anti-colonial movement led by Muhammad Ahmad, who declared himself the expected Mahdi in $1881$.

Battle of Omdurman

A conflict in $1898$ where the Anglo-Egyptian army gave a final defeat to the Mahadist forces, leading to the occupation of Sudan.

Maji-Maji Rebellion

A spontaneous revolt ($1905$-$1907$) in Southern Tanzania against German rule, named after the magic water rebels believed would turn bullets into water.

Indirect Rule

A British colonial administration policy formulated by Frederick Luggard which used traditional pre-colonial chiefdoms to govern with minimal European personnel.

The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa

A book published in $1922$ by Frederick Luggard describing the system of indirect rule for colonial administration.

Direct Rule

A French colonial policy foundationally laid by Albert Sarraut, characterized by maintaining a united administration between France and its colonies without developing traditional African lines.

Assimilation Policy

A French theory intended to turn colonial subjects into French citizens by teaching them the French language, law, and granting civil and political rights.

Scorched-earth policy

A practice used by German forces in Tanganyika to reclaim control by destroying villages and laying waste to vast stretches of land.

Union Muniere Company

A company that obtained exclusive control of copper-mining in the central African region of Katanga (Shaba) during the colonial period.

Witwatersrand

The dominant industrial mining center of southern Africa during the colonial era.