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