Modern History Notes
Chap 17: End of Slavery
Various groups in Europe & North America began to call for an end to the slave trade.
America → Abolitionists (Quakers)
Britain → Abolished slavery in 1836
Despite the abolition of slavery, Europe continued to engage in commerce with Africa.
The Industrial Revolution caused Europe to revisit Africa for natural resources.
Palm oil needed by Europeans and was only in Africa
Chap 19: The East African Slave Trade
Slave trade in East Africa was small but persistent, mostly to Arabia and Persian Gulf
It was during the ancient times
By the 1750s, expansion of trade to French Indian Ocean colonies (Mauritius and Seychelles) and captives from southern coastline (Zambezi valley, Quelimane, Mozambique Island)
Early 19th century: decline of west African trades; Brazilians entered Indian Ocean for slaves
Mid 19th century: Arabs dominates coastal slave trade
Sutlan of Oman moved capital to Zanzibar because of clove plantations (1840)
Largest slave market in East Coast
1860s: 70,000 slaves exports a year
British Anti-Slavary Squadron active in Indian Ocean
1873: British pressured Zanzibar to close slave trade
1870s: huge British demands for ivory for new idnustrial middle class (piano keys, billiard balls)
Few captives exported; used for transportation of ivory from coast
Trade In Ivory & Slaves in Central Africa
1860’s-80’s: violance of slave & ivory trade pushed into central Africa
Chikunda (African) armies were very active in trades
Huge supraprazos—African rulers & kings who were against the Portuguese conquest in the 1880s and 90s
Msiri and the Yeke
1850s: Msiri traders set up trading/raiding states
Captured local people known as ba-Yeke
Exported ivory & copper; imported weapons (used for civil wars in Africa)
Copper attracted British/Belgian traders
Tippu Tip & Eastern Congo Basin
Tippu Tip: Ruler of Eastern Congo Basin
Raided and weakened old Luba empire
Captured women for concubines and forced cultivation; men for porters to Zanxibar
Chap 20: Preindustral Southern Africa in 19th Century
The British at the Cape
During European Napoleonic Wars, British seized Cape in 1795
1652: Dutch traders landed at South African Cape
Handed it back to Dutch in 1803
Took it back permanently in 1806
Used for British naval base and refreshment station
Introduced changes to make colony secure and profitable
Economic Expansion
British Market: provided local food in Cape
Had wine farmers, sheep wool, and ivory hunting
Labor
British abolited slave trade (1807)
Hottentot Code: legalized enslavement
Written labor contracts: allowed laborers to access court
Circuit courts enforced labor laws opposed by frontier Boars
British were all about contracts and laws; Boars hated it
British missonaries restricted the Hottentot Code
Slaves would get paid to work
After slavery was abolished, wealthy slave owners complained about poor compensation
Boars considered moving northward
Conflict with the Xhosa
Colonists of eastern Cape felt strengthened against the independent Xhosa
British introduced the concept of “total warfare"—destroy everything
1834-5: British annexed Xhosa territory
Since it was too expensive to maintain, they gave it back to the Xhosa
The Boer Trek
Boer Trek: northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers.
Called themselves “Afrikaans”.
Late 1830's: thousands of Boer families left from eastern Cape to Orange River
Left in small units over time
Afrikaner historians glorify this as “The Great Trek”
British vigorous collection of rent
Boers “loan-farm” system replaced by private property
Locally elected Boers were replaced by British magistrates
Used English in courts & education
British did not provide ‘vacant land’ to the Boers after their victory over Xhosa
The Boer Trek & African Resistance
Were met with resistance from other african kingdoms
Were helped by the Rolong against Ndebele kingdom
1837: Boers joined the Griqua and Rolong
Boers claimed North of Vaal, settling at Potchefstroom & Soutpansberg
Taxed and enslaved the local Batswana people
Boers tried to settle south of Zulu and faced more resistance
Zulu wiped out initial party but were defeated after by Boer force (Battle of Ncome River, 1838)
Boers found Republic of Natalia
British annexed Natal (1843) and agreed to recognise independence of Boer Republic of north of Orange & Vaal river
1850’s & 60’s: Basotho fought series of wars against Boers
British offered protection to the Basotho in 1868
Most productive parts of the kingdom was already taken by the Boers
Southern Africa in 1870
1840’s-50s: British Cape Colony extended through Xhosa territory to Kei River
System of 'reserves' - British unable to expel all Xhosa from their land
'Reserves' inadequate for full subsistence, need for wage labor
Best land sold to whites for Menino sheep
Natal: African/white ratio: 15/1. Africans “reserved” 15%.
Absentee landlords, Africans allowed to remain as rentiers or share-croppers
In Boer republics: Africans forced to provide unpaid labor services
Across most of southern Africa, black and white people lived from a mix of herding. small-scale cultivation and hunting
Besides wool, main profitable export was hunting produce
Africans importing guns and holding their against further land encroachment
1870’s: discovered Diamond and Gold
British and Boers fought for minerals
South African War (1899–1902)
Chap 21: North & East Africa in 19th Century
The French in north Africa and Algerian resistance
• White settlers (colons) from France, Spain and Mediterranean islands
• Arab-Berber farmers cleared from land: settlers took over olive plantations, vineyards, and wheat farms
• Aller military band outs of free land; white settlers bought land cheap from impoverished Algerian peasants
• By 1871, colons were 130,000; by 1900 → 1 million (13% of population)
• By 1900, most of cultivable land was in hands of colons, most absentees, in towns
• Land worked by dispossessed peasantry, poorly paid and over-taxed
• Strict controls over Muslim movement
• Islamic law overridden by French law
• French colonial government "arrogant" and "alien”
The reunification of Ethiopia
• Since 18th century, emperor (al Gondar) "king of kings': ruling over federation of provincial rulers, effectively independent, “era of princes.”
The reign of Tewodros II
• 1850s, Lij Kassa (governor of Qwara), military experience clashing with Egyptians
• Turned feudal levies into regular army with guns and artillery
• 1855, Kassa invaded central provinces and declared himself emperor: Tewodros II
• Revived effective central government:
• Salaried royal appointees to district governorships and judges
• Regular military force into national army, salaried and trained with modern weapons
• 1855-61: numerous rebellions by nobility: loss of independent local power
• Reform of Church, abolishing privileges and confiscating buge estates
• Loss of Church support lost him imperial legitimacy: Church influence turned people against Tewodros
• 1868; diplomatic conflict with British: Tewodros felt slighted by British Government; held British diplomats; the British sent anmy (30,000) to rescue "hostages."
• Battle of Magdala (13 April 1869): Tewodros abandoned by most of the army; only able to muster around 4000 troops. Lost battle and committed suicide.
• Legacy of Tewodros II: Refonas provoked bostility of Church and nobility, which lost him support in confrontation with British, BUT centralising reforms laid foundations for long-term unity that his successors built on to save Ethiopian independence at end of century
The reunification and expansion of Ethiopia to 1896
• Dej Kassa of Tigray had assisted British
• Declared himself emperor: Johannes IV: crowned in Axum with elaborate religious ritual
• Regained support of princes by returning power to regional nobility
• Summoned large army to repel Egyptians
• Italians: took ports of Assab (1882) and Massawa (1885)
• Johannes defeated Italians at Dongali (1887)
• Opposition from Menelik (souther ‘kingdom' of Shoa)
• With modern weapons from French and Italians, Menelik expanded in south while Johannes fought Italy
• 1859: death of Johannes, Menelik became emperor, capital at Addis Ababa in Shoan heartland
• Non-Christian southerners (Oromo, Sidama, Somali) absorbed into expanding empire
• 1857-90: Italians took control of coastal colony of 'Eritrea.’
• Battle of Adwa: 1-2 March 1896; Menelik defeated Italian invasion of Ethiopian heartland
• The only African country to defeat an attempted European colonial conquest during “Scramble for Africa.”
Chap 22: Colonial Conquest and African Resistance
Scramble For Africa
Early 1870s: North Africa under French and Ottoman Empire
South Africa: party under British and Boer republics
Rest of Africa: Europeans confined to small enclaves along coast
1880-1900: most of Africa within European colonial empires
European Background
Britian (1860): world-leading industrial nation and naval power
Dominate Africa’s external trade; promote “free trade.”
Late 1860s: France, Germany, and US became industrial rivals
Search for new markets and raw materials, e.g., West African palm oil.
Conquest & Resistance
French
direct rule/assimilation
Senegal: flagship colony
Built a disciplined army of Africans, modern weapons, using French or Afro-French officers
Primary Opponents:
Tukolor: fought until 1893
Samori: commanded 30,000 men and imported weapons from British Sierra Leone
Samori put up fierce resistance, finally defeated and exiled in 1898
Full French invasion in 1891
Dahomey: conquered in 1892-94
Cote D’Ivoire: conquered in 1893
British
Gold Coast: flagship colony
1873-74: claimed the Fanti States as a result of the Anglo-Assante war
1900: Assante resistance was defeated
Gold Coast became British Colony in 1901
Similar fate with Nigeria
Belguim
Congo Basin
Henry Stanley opened it up for King Leopold II to claim
Kings Congo Free State (CFS): a group of businesses in the name of the King.
Exploited the resources of the Congo Basin
Germany
Claimed Tanganyika, East Africa, in 1885
Engaged in oppressive taxation
Resistance from Masai, Maji-Maji
Germans committed 1st genocide in Africa against the Herrero people.
Chapter 23: Scramble For South & Central Africa
The annexation of Bechuanaland
1884, German annexation of South West Africa,
might cut off British from access to central Africa –
1885 British annexed Bechuanaland (modern
Botswana) –
for years Batswana kings had asked for protection from Transvaal Boer encroachment:
Britain only responded after possible German-Transvaal link across ‘road to north’
The Colonization of Zimbabwe
Lobengula tricked into signing document –
fraudulent concession giving Rhodes’s men
freedom to do what they liked in eastern (Shona)
part of country
1890: British South Africa Company (British
Government approved) occupy eastern Zimbabwe
White settlers seize land and search for gold,
destroying archaeological evidence
1893, BSA Company attacked Ndebele, destroying
Bulawayo: Lobengula escaped, but died
Company confiscated Ndebele cattle and seized
land
Provoked rebellion – Shona and Ndebele – 1896-7
Central African Protectorate and North Eastern Rhodesia
British proclaimed “Protectorate” over Nyasaland (Malawi)
Harry Johnston: Admin → engaged in wars of conquest 1890s in name of suppression of slave trade
Reality: submit, be taxed or fight: ‘Treaty or
compulsion: your money or your life’
Use of Maxim machine-gun, artillery, professional
force of 300 Sikhs from India
Subsidised by Rhodes, Johnston and other Rhodes’
agents fought and ‘treatied’ their way through
‘North-Eastern Rhodesia’ (central and eastern
modern Zambia)
Final Ngoni resistance in east defeated by
machine-gun in 1898.
Conquest & Resistance in Mozambique
Portuguese ‘rule’ consisted mostly of demands for taxation
Main opponents of this: Gaza empire in south; Barwe kingdom by Zambezi escarpment (central); prazos and their allies in Zambezi valley
Prazos in particular well-armed with artillery: long history of defying Portuguese
Gaza empire already weakened by loss of men to labour migration to Kimberley, Johannesburg, Natal – wages earned gave them financial independence from elders (and state)
1894, Shangane (Gaza) attacked Portuguese, but defeated (by Maxim gun)
Elsewhere, Portuguese dependent on local African armies – more like a series of inter-state or civil wars –
In the past Portuguese often used as useful ally in local conflicts – no reason to suppose things would be any different this time
Used prazo against prazo – most defeated by 1901
Yao in north not overcome until 1912
Conquest & Resistance in Namibia
Central plateau (between Namib and Kalahari deserts) – viable pastoral land
Long Nama/Herero competition for land and hunting trade
German ‘Protectorate’ – to ‘safeguard German missionaries and traders’
1890 moved onto plateau – exploited Nama/Herero rivalry –
Herero failed to help Nama when Germans attacked Witbooi
Witbooi Nama militarily defeated, 1894, after arrival German reinforcements, but allowed to keep weapons
Germans intervened in Herero succession dispute and took control of Herero territory and crushed rebellion in east
By 1900 German control of most of country, except Ovamboland in north
Rinderpest pandemic 1896-7 crippled Nama and Herero pastoral economies
White settlement increased
Chapter 24: Consolidation of empire
Raw materials and markets
Theory: African cash earned from selling raw materials would be spent on buying European manufactured goods
Practice: violent seizure of raw materials left little if any cash for buying European exports
Concessionary companies
Private concessionary companies widely used in early years by British, French, German and Portuguese
Little long-term investment (admin., roads, railways)
African resistance bankrupted many companies
Most companies gave way to imperial government control by 1920s
Worst company abuses: Congo Free State and French Equatorial Africa
The Congo Free State
Leopold declared all uncultivated land to be ‘vacant land’, i.e. most of Congo Basin
Huge concessions to private companies
1890s-early1900s: extraction of wild rubber (pneumatic tyre: bicycles 1888 [J. B. Dunlop] and motor vehicles 1895 [A. & E. Michelin])
Private armies forced local rubber collection, with mutilation for failure to reach quotas demanded
Early 1900s: growing Africa resistance + widespread international condemnation
1908 Leopold obliged to hand over Congo to Belgian Government
Private companies continued to operate: Belgian Union Munière (Katangan copper); British Lever
Brothers [later Unilever] vast palm oil purchasing monopoly
French Equatorial Africa
70% FEA [Gabon, Moyen Congo, Ubangui-Chari (Central African Republic)] allocated to 41 concessionary companies
Forced quotas of ivory and rubber
Forced labour on rail construction to Brazzaville on shores of Malebo Pool (16,000 died)
Significant drop in population up to 1920s
Four methods used by Europeans to “extract wealth”:
Seizure of land
Growing cash crops
Forced labor
Brutal treatment
British Colonial Policy - Dual Mandate
Belgium - Paternalism
Portugal - Economic Exploitation
Did this because they were the poorest country
French - Direct Rule/Assimilation
Corvee labor system - two weeks of free labor