empire building in africa

• pre-1880, europeans directly controlled very little of the continent directly (preferred to let leaders/merchants represent their interests instead)
• west africa natural resources: peanuts, timber, hides, palm oil
• 1874- britain annexed the west coastal states to make the first colony of the gold coast. also established protectorate in nigeria.
• by 1900 france took over a huge area of west africa
• germany had togo, cameroon, german southwest africa, and german east africa
• egypt   * had been part of ottoman empire, but in 1805 an ottoman officer named muhammad ali seized power and made it an independent state   * modernized the army, set up public schools, created more industries   * canal was built in 1869, which made england interested in the country   * became british protectorate in 1914
• britain seized sudan in 1898
• france had algeria, tunisia, and most of morocco
• italy tried to take over ethiopia in 1896, failed, and ended up taking over libya in 1911 instead
• lots of explorers in central africa
• belgium took over most of central africa
• by 1885 britain and germany were the chief competitors for east africa (but also portugal and belgium)
• 1884 and 1885- berlin conference   * gave mozambique to portugal   * split the rest between germany and britain   * no african delegates were present at the conference
• british took south africa over from boers (descendants of dutch colonizers from the 1700s), and boers formed two independent republics   * orange free state and transvaal (later called the south african republic)   * believed that white supremacy was ordained by god and put indigenous people in reservations (wow parallels)
• 1899-1902- boer war (gb vs transvaal)   * british won (because of course they did)   * created the union of south africa in 1910 which combined the cape colony and the boer republics. self-governing within the british empire, only white people could vote
• by 1914 only liberia (which was created as a haven for former slaves from the us) and ethiopia were free states in africa
• british used indirect rule   * very cheap   * furthered class divides between africans   * didn’t disrupt local customs/institutions
• most other empires used direct rule   * french tried to assimilate africans into french customs   * africans could hold positions of power in france and in their countries
• rise of african nationalism   * western-educated africans noticed disparities in how europeans preached freedom and democracy but failed to use it in africa   * racism abounds- lots and lots of segregation

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