Create a New Flashcard Set

Eurocentrism

Definition/What: A viewpoint that treats European history, culture, and values as the standard for judging the rest of the world. Who: European imperial officials, writers, educators, and others who promoted European superiority. When: Especially influential during nineteenth- and early twentieth-century imperialism. Why it matters: Encouraged Europeans to dismiss African achievements and portray European control as necessary for African "progress."

Missionaries

Definition/What: People sent to spread their religion; Christian missionaries established churches, schools, and hospitals in Africa. Who: Catholic and Protestant religious workers and the African communities they sought to convert. When: Especially active during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Why it matters: They spread Christianity and European cultural practices, often supporting the imperial idea of a "civilizing mission."

Colonialism

Definition/What: A system in which a foreign power takes control of a territory and governs its population, often exploiting its land, labor, and resources. Who: European states and settlers ruling African peoples. When: European footholds existed earlier, but colonial rule expanded dramatically during the late 1800s. Why it matters: It replaced or restricted African sovereignty. Colonialism is one form of imperialism.

Imperialism

Definition/What: The extension of a country's power over other territories or peoples through political, military, or economic control. Who: European powers such as Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and Portugal. When: Particularly associated with European expansion in Africa during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Why it matters: It includes both formal colonial rule and domination without outright colonization, such as economic control.

Concessionary Companies / Company Rule

Definition/What: Private businesses granted rights to exploit territory or resources. Under company rule, companies also exercise governmental powers. Who: European governments and businesses, such as Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company. When: Especially the late 1800s and early 1900s; the British South Africa Company received its charter in 1889. Why it matters: Connected imperial expansion to private profits and allowed European states to extend control through businesses.

Direct Control / Rule

Definition/What: A colonial system in which European officials directly manage administration, laws, and major decisions rather than governing mainly through autonomous local rulers. Who: European governors and administrators; commonly associated with French colonial government. When: Nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Why it matters: Concentrated authority in the colonial administration and reduced African political independence. Actual colonial systems often mixed direct and indirect methods.

Indirect Control / Rule

Definition/What: A colonial system that governs through African rulers or chiefs, who remain subordinate to European officials. Who: Especially British administrators and existing—or newly appointed—African authorities. When: Late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Why it matters: Helped administer large territories with fewer European officials. Chiefs could collect taxes and enforce colonial policies, but European authorities retained final control.

Colony vs. Protectorate vs. Sphere of Influence vs. Economic Imperialism

Definition/What: Colony: Territory formally governed under a foreign power's authority. Protectorate: Territory with a local ruler or government, but a foreign power controls foreign relations and often intervenes internally. Sphere of influence: An area where an outside power claims special political or economic influence without necessarily annexing it. Economic imperialism: Domination through trade, investment, businesses, or debt rather than formal colonial government. Who: European governments, banks, and companies dealing with African rulers and populations. When: Particularly the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Why it matters: These were different ways to limit African independence; imperial control did not always require formal annexation.

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Definition/What: The forced transportation and sale of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, mainly to provide labor in the Americas. Who: European and American merchants and plantation owners, some participating African rulers and traders, and millions of enslaved Africans. When: Approximately the 1500s-1800s, before the main Scramble for Africa. Why it matters: Connected European overseas expansion to African exploitation, generated wealth, disrupted African societies, and strengthened racial justifications for domination.

Divide and Rule

Definition/What: A strategy of exploiting or encouraging divisions among groups to prevent them from uniting against a ruler. Who: European colonial authorities and different African political, ethnic, or regional communities. When: Common during nineteenth- and twentieth-century colonial rule. Why it matters: Favoring certain leaders or groups could weaken united resistance and make colonial administration easier; these policies could also intensify existing tensions.

Liberia

Definition/What: A West African republic established by settlers from the United States, including free and formerly enslaved Black Americans, on land already inhabited by African communities. Who: The American Colonization Society, Black American settlers, and indigenous Liberians. When: Settlement began in the 1820s; independence was declared in 1847. Why it matters: Avoided European colonization during the Scramble, although settler elites dominated indigenous populations politically.

Ethiopia

Definition/What: An African empire that maintained its independence during the Scramble for Africa by defeating an Italian invasion. Who: Ethiopian forces under Emperor Menelik II and invading Italian forces. When: Ethiopian victory at Adwa in 1896; Italy later occupied Ethiopia in 1936-1941. Why it matters: Demonstrated successful African resistance to European conquest. It remained independent during the Scramble, but saying it was "never occupied" is incorrect.

Menelik II

Definition/What: Ethiopian emperor who strengthened his state and led resistance to Italian attempts to impose colonial control. Who: Emperor of Ethiopia and leader of the Ethiopian coalition that fought Italy. When: Emperor 1889-1913; victory at Adwa on March 1, 1896. Why it matters: Used diplomacy, modern weapons, and a large army to defeat Italy and preserve Ethiopian independence.

Scientific Racism

Definition/What: Discredited claims that supposedly scientific evidence proves the biological superiority or inferiority of racial groups. Who: Writers and researchers who classified people into racial hierarchies, alongside those who used their claims politically. When: Especially influential in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Why it matters: Gave racial prejudice a false appearance of scientific authority and helped justify European domination and unequal treatment of Africans.

Social Darwinism

Definition/What: The misleading application of biological competition and "survival of the fittest" to human societies and racial groups. Who: Imperialists and writers who portrayed powerful European societies as naturally superior. When: Especially the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Why it matters: Presented conquest and inequality as natural or deserved. It was an ideological justification for imperialism, not scientific proof of European superiority.

Popular Racism

Definition/What: Racial stereotypes and ideas of superiority spread through everyday culture, entertainment, advertising, and public exhibitions. Who: European audiences, media producers, and colonial exhibition organizers. When: Especially visible during late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century imperialism. Why it matters: Helped normalize colonial domination. Exhibitions displaying Africans as supposedly "primitive" promoted support for empire.

Pseudoscience

Definition/What: Claims presented as scientific even though they lack reliable scientific methods or adequate supporting evidence. Who: Promoters of unsupported theories, including advocates of racial hierarchy. When: In this unit, especially racial theories of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Why it matters: Scientific racism used pseudoscientific arguments to make discrimination and imperial domination appear objective and justified.

Race as a Social Construct

Definition/What: The understanding that racial categories are created and changed by societies rather than representing fixed, clearly separated biological divisions of humanity. Who: Societies and governments create racial classifications; scientists study human biological variation. When: Racial classifications became central to slavery and imperialism; their biological assumptions were increasingly challenged in the twentieth century. Why it matters: European racial hierarchies were not natural facts, although their political and social consequences were very real.

Scramble for Africa

Definition/What: The rapid competition among European powers to claim, conquer, and colonize African territory. Who: Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, and Spain, alongside African states and peoples resisting or negotiating with them. When: Approximately the 1870s-1914. Why it matters: Driven by economic interests, strategic rivalry, and imperial ideologies, it brought most of Africa under European rule. Ethiopia and Liberia remained outside formal European colonization during this period.

Berlin Conference

Definition/What: An international meeting that established rules for recognizing European colonial claims and regulating trade and navigation in parts of Africa. Who: Representatives of fourteen states, hosted by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck; no African representatives participated. When: 1884-1885. Why it matters: Helped regulate European competition and encouraged expansion through "effective occupation." It did not divide the whole continent in one meeting.

Maxim Gun

Definition/What: An early fully automatic machine gun capable of sustained, rapid fire. Who: Invented by Hiram Maxim and used by European imperial armies. When: Invented in 1884; used in African colonial warfare from the late nineteenth century. Why it matters: Gave imperial armies a major firepower advantage and illustrates how industrial technology helped European conquest.

Congo

Definition/What: In this unit, the territory of today's Democratic Republic of the Congo, controlled first by Leopold II and then by Belgium. Who: Congolese peoples, Leopold II, Belgian officials, and concessionary companies. When: Congo Free State, 1885-1908; Belgian Congo, 1908-1960; independence, June 30, 1960. Why it matters: Its rubber and ivory economy became associated with forced labor and widespread colonial violence.

Ghana / Gold Coast Colony

Definition/What: The Gold Coast was a British colonial territory in West Africa that became the core of independent Ghana. Who: British colonial authorities, African communities and nationalist organizers, including Kwame Nkrumah. When: The coastal Crown Colony was established in 1874; Ghana became independent on March 6, 1957. Why it matters: Gold and cocoa made it economically important, while its independence movement helped advance African decolonization.

Algeria

Definition/What: A North African territory conquered by France and developed into a major European settler colony. Who: French authorities and settlers, indigenous Algerians, and later the FLN independence movement. When: French conquest began in 1830; the independence war lasted 1954-1962. Why it matters: Settler landholding and unequal political rights generated opposition to French rule. Algeria gained independence after a prolonged armed struggle.

Paternalism

Definition/What: The attitude that a ruling power should control another people "for their own good," treating them as children needing guidance. Who: European colonial officials and supporters of empire applying this idea to Africans. When: Common throughout nineteenth- and twentieth-century colonial rule. Why it matters: Justified denying Africans political autonomy while presenting colonial rule as protection, education, or assistance.

Assimilation

Definition/What: A colonial policy encouraging or requiring colonized people to adopt the colonizer's language, culture, education, and legal practices. Who: Especially French colonial officials and Africans in French-controlled territories. When: Particularly the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Why it matters: Claimed that Africans could become culturally French and potentially gain citizenship, but access to equal rights remained highly restricted. Cultural assimilation did not automatically mean equality.

White Man's Burden

Definition/What: A poem presenting imperial rule as a duty of white people to govern and supposedly "civilize" nonwhite peoples. Who: Written by Rudyard Kipling, originally addressing American imperialism in the Philippines. When: 1899. Why it matters: Expressed paternalism and racial hierarchy also used to justify European imperialism in Africa. The poem was not originally written specifically about Africa.

Rudyard Kipling

Definition/What: A British author and poet closely associated with literature about the British Empire. Who: The writer of "The White Man's Burden." When: 1865-1936; published the poem in 1899. Why it matters: His imperial writing provides an example of how literature presented foreign domination as a moral responsibility, reinforcing ideas also used to justify colonialism in Africa.

King Leopold II

Definition/What: The Belgian monarch who personally controlled the Congo Free State and profited from its exploitation. Who: King of Belgium, but initially ruler of the Congo in a personal capacity rather than through the Belgian government. When: Belgian king 1865-1909; controlled the Congo 1885-1908. Why it matters: His rubber and ivory system relied on forced labor and violence. International protests contributed to Belgium taking over the territory in 1908.

Chief Mojimba

Definition/What: An African chief remembered for his account of a violent encounter with Henry Morton Stanley's expedition in the Congo region. Who: Mojimba, his community, and Stanley's expedition; a missionary later recorded his account. When: During Stanley's Congo exploration in the 1870s, recounted afterward. Why it matters: Mojimba described an intended welcome met by gunfire and village destruction. His testimony offers an African perspective that contrasts with Stanley's account of being attacked.

Henry Morton Stanley

Definition/What: A Welsh-born journalist and explorer whose work helped Leopold II establish control over the Congo. Who: An explorer employed by Leopold to develop routes, stations, and agreements with African leaders. When: Major Congo expedition 1874-1877; worked for Leopold in the region 1879-1884. Why it matters: His exploration, infrastructure, and treaty-making helped turn European geographic knowledge and commercial ambitions into colonial claims.

King Machemba

Definition/What: A Yao ruler in what is now Tanzania who rejected German demands that he submit to colonial authority. Who: Machemba and German colonial commander Hermann von Wissmann. When: His well-known response is generally dated to around 1890. Why it matters: He expressed willingness to have friendship, but refused to become a German subject. His response illustrates African assertions of sovereignty and resistance to European rule.

United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC)

Definition/What: An early nationalist organization seeking self-government for the British Gold Coast. The correct name is "Convention," not "Congress." Who: Leaders included J. B. Danquah; Kwame Nkrumah served as general secretary. When: Founded in 1947. Why it matters: Helped organize the independence movement, but disagreements over strategy led Nkrumah to establish the CPP in 1949.

Kwame Nkrumah

Definition/What: Ghanaian nationalist who led the independence movement and promoted Pan-African unity. Who: Founder of the CPP and independent Ghana's first prime minister and first president. When: CPP founded 1949; independence 1957; president 1960-1966. Why it matters: Used mass political organization and protest to challenge British rule and connected Ghana's independence to the wider liberation of Africa.

Convention People's Party (CPP)

Definition/What: Nkrumah's nationalist party, which demanded rapid self-government for the Gold Coast. Who: Kwame Nkrumah and a broad movement of supporters. When: Founded in 1949; won the 1951 election and led the transition to independence in 1957. Why it matters: Used "Positive Action"—including protests and strikes—alongside electoral politics to pressure Britain to transfer power.

Congo River

Definition/What: A major Central African river that served as a route for travel, trade, and colonial expansion. Who: African communities, European explorers such as Stanley, colonial authorities, and commercial companies. When: Became increasingly important to European imperial projects from the 1870s onward. Why it matters: Its navigable stretches helped transport personnel and goods, supporting the extraction of ivory and rubber and the expansion of colonial authority.

Force Publique

Definition/What: The colonial military and police force of the Congo Free State and later the Belgian Congo. Who: Mainly African soldiers commanded by European officers. When: Established in 1885; continued under Belgian rule until independence in 1960. Why it matters: Enforced colonial authority and, particularly under Leopold, rubber collection and forced labor through violence, hostage-taking, and harsh punishment.

Settler Colony / Settler Colonialism

Definition/What: Colonialism involving outsiders establishing permanent communities and claiming land, often displacing or dominating indigenous inhabitants. Who: European settlers and African populations, especially in Algeria and southern Africa. When: Developed at different times; French settlement in Algeria followed the 1830 invasion. Why it matters: Landownership and settlers' political privileges became central sources of conflict, distinguishing these territories from colonies focused mainly on extracting resources.

Subject vs. Citizen

Definition/What: A subject owes obedience to a ruling authority; a citizen holds legally recognized membership and associated rights. In colonial systems, these statuses often carried unequal protections and political participation. Who: Especially relevant to European settlers and colonized Africans in the French Empire. When: Nineteenth and twentieth centuries; arrangements changed over time. Why it matters: Many Africans were governed and punished as colonial subjects without the rights available to citizens, exposing limits to imperial promises of equality.

Front de Libération Nationale (FLN)

Definition/What: The National Liberation Front, an Algerian nationalist organization that fought to end French colonial rule. Who: Algerian independence activists, including Ahmed Ben Bella and other founding leaders. When: Founded in 1954; led the independence struggle of 1954-1962. Why it matters: Combined armed struggle and political organization against French rule and became the dominant governing organization after Algerian independence.

Ahmed Ben Bella

Definition/What: An Algerian independence leader who became independent Algeria's first president. Who: A founding FLN leader and opponent of French colonial rule. When: Imprisoned by France 1956-1962; prime minister 1962-1963; president 1963-1965. Why it matters: Connected the anti-colonial struggle to the creation of Algeria's independent government. He became president in 1963, not 1962; he initially served as prime minister.