43 - New Imperialism in Africa (abridged)

scramble for Africa

late 19th century wave of conquest in Africa by European powers; Britain took most of eastern and southern Africa; France took northwestern Africa; Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, and Spain held scattered smaller possessions

Berlin West Africa Conference

1884-1885 international meeting to discuss plans for dividing Africa peacefully between European powers with little regard for African independence and no native African presence

David Livingstone

Scottish missionary and explorer of the central African interior in 1840s-1870s; published accounts of his explorations made him a popular British hero who inspired later explorers and missionaries and Islamic slave trade abolitionists

Henry Morton Stanley

British-American journalist adventurer who tracked the missing David Livingstone for a New York paper, sought the source of the Nile, and established Congo Free State for Leopold II of Belgium

Richard Burton

British explorer of Arabia and African Great Lakes region; travelled to Mecca in disguise at a time when Europeans were forbidden to enter on pain of death, translated 1001 Arabian Nights, and sought the source of the Nile

Suez Canal

artificial waterway through Egypt connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea opened in 1869; designed by French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps with British financial investment; led to British conquest of Egypt in 1882

King Leopold II of Belgium

founder and sole owner of Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908; used mutilation and murder to extract ivory, rubber, and minerals; around 10 million natives killed, or about 50% of population

Congo Free State

Central African state under the personal rule of Leopold II of Belgium from 1885 to 1908; he convinced other Europeans he was involved in humanitarian and philanthropic work, but in fact perpetrated brutal atrocities against natives to extract ivory, rubber and minerals

Boers

white population of southern Africa descended from early Dutch settlers; also known as Afrikaners

Zulu kingdom

militaristic Bantu state in southern African from 1816-1897; founded by Shaka

Cecil Rhodes

British diamond mine owner and politician in southern Africa; racist and expansionist supporter of imperialism who sought to establish a line of British colonial control from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt

Anglo-Zulu War

1879 conflict in southern Africa; although the British were defeated at the battle of Isandhlwana, they won the war and conquered the Zulu kingdom

South African Boer War

1899-1902 conflict between Great Britain and southern Africans of Dutch descent for control of rich mining country; Britain used scorched earth tactics and civilian concentration camps to deprive the resistance of sanctuary and resources

Union of South Africa

self-governing British dominion formed in the 1910 unification of British Cape Colony and defeated Boer republics

Mahdist Revolt

1881-99 failed resistance led by Islamic messianic leader Muhammad Ahmad against British and Egyptian forces in Sudan

siege of Khartoum

1884-1885 attack on the administrative center of Anglo-Egyptian authority in Sudan by Mahdist forces; Anglo-Egyptian forces were completely destroyed after a year-long siege

Charles Gordon

popular British general killed in 1885 during the fall of Khartoum after a year-long siege by Mahdist forces in Sudan; British press portrayed him as a saintly Christian martyr who died nobly resisting an Islamic slaughter

battle of Omdurman

1898 victory of British troops armed with modern rifles, machine guns, gunboats, and artillery forces over Mahdist forces in Sudan; 12,000 Muslim warriors were killed while the British lost only 47 men

Fashoda incident

1898 war scare between Britain and France over control of Sudan; final crisis between Britain and France involving a threat of war

First Italo-Ethiopian War

1895-1896 successful defense of Ethiopia, a Christian nation supported by Russia and France, against a failed Italian conquest

Menelik II

Ethiopian emperor (r. 1889-1913) who played the Italians, British, and French against each other while buying weapons from France and Russia; defeated Italy at battle of Adwa and kept Ethiopia independent

Herero and Nama Genocide

1904-1908 attempt to exterminate natives of the German Southwest Africa colony (modern Namibia); first genocide of the 20th century

Maji Maji rebellion

1905-1907 resistance against German colonial rule in German East Africa (modern Tanzania); natives believed magic would turn German bullets into water; 250,000-300,000 natives killed