Colonization of Africa
Overview
The "Scramble" for Africa
The Industrial Revolution resulted in Western Europe’s shift from agrarian societies into urban, industrialized countries. Increasingly, England, France, Germany, and a host of other Western European nations needed natural resources to continue fueling their industrialization. Coal, mineral, and wood resources within their own boundaries were becoming scarcer. Across the Mediterranean Sea, though, rested a continent that had seemingly inexhaustible natural resources: Africa. In the late 1800s, Western European nations launched “civilizing missions” to Africa to explore its resources. Rivalry exploded between European nations, as each hurried to colonize large swaths of Africa. Exploration of the continent soon turned to exploitation and violence. Tragically, these events occurred at the moment when African nations were starting to industrialize. European colonization employed such tremendous violence that African infrastructure was crushed and hopes of modernization dashed.
Learning Objectives
Examine the impact of colonization on Africans.
Analyze European motivations for colonization.
Compare and contrast the different ways in which different European nations carried out colonization.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Belgian Congo: name of the colony after Congo’s administration was taken over by the Belgian parliament
Berlin Conference: 1884 conference between major European powers that divided Africa into colonies
Boer: Farmers with Dutch ancestry who lived in South Africa
Congo Free State: colony created in the late 1800s by King Leopold II of Belgium to harvest rubber and gum trees
First Boer War: conflict between the British and Boers that ended in a Boer victory
Force Publique: a military and police force organized and operated in the Congo, at the behest of King Leopold II, and later the Belgian government
French Algeria: France’s most important African colony
German Southwest Africa: the German colony where the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples occurred
Gold Coast: British colony in present-day Ghana
Herero and Nama: two indigenous groups in German Southwest Africa who were nearly exterminated by German polices in the early 1900s
Kaiser Wilhelm II: Emperor of Germany who wanted to expand Germany’s influence on the global stage
King Leopold II: Belgian king known for his atrocious exploitation of the Congolese people under the Congo Free State
Mahgreb: northwest Africa
Maxim-gun: first reliable machine gun
Nigeria: the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a West African country that was once a British colony famous for its palm oil production; independence from Britain was declared in 1960
Palm oil: an essential commodity in Europe to produce soaps and machinery lubricants
Scramble for Africa: European countries rush to colonize Africa in the late 1800s
Second Boer War: conflict between the British and Boers that end in a British victory
Social Darwinism: the pseudo-science theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals, which equates to “only the strong survive”
Sphere of influence: an area in which one country has power to affect the development of other areas
Suez Canal: waterway in Egypt that connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas
Transvaal: province of South Africa inhabited by the Boers between 1910 – 1994
Weltpolitik: policy developed by Kaiser Wilhelm II that argued Germany should be involved in world politics
Africa on the Eve of Modernization: 1860s – 1870s
One of the greatest tragedies of the “Scramble for Africa” that occurred in the 1880s to early 1900s, is that just prior to the European mad-grab, African nations across the continent were on the eve of modernization. Large-scale wars had mostly ceased. The Atlantic Slave Trade had ended, and by extension, slavery itself was virtually extinguished. Life expectancy was extended, a result of improved diet and reduction in disease. Simultaneously, many countries experienced significant population growth. In the 1860s and 1870s, many African nations seemed to be on the verge of transforming their societies into industrialized, developed countries.
Economically, Africa nations prospered from the development of strong trade routes across the continent. With relative peace at hand, traders from Angola, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique began exploring and trading across East Africa. Still, other voyagers braved traveling and trading across the Saharan Trade Route. And many African traders made extensive use of one of the continents greatest resources: its rivers. The Nile, White Nile, and Congo Rivers all became superhighways for trade and exploration.
Relatively friendly relations between most African nations emerged from the advancements in trade and exploration. Goods such as ivory, grains, wines, and precious stones were exchanged. And from this exchange arose new social structures—ones that included an African middle class comprising of traders and merchants. Like all exchanges, the development of trade and exchange across Africa also helped the dissemination of languages, cultural customs, and beliefs.
During this period, African kingdoms started to dissolve, too. In their place emerged nations that were increasingly centralized. Among these were Ethiopia, Egypt, and Madagascar. In these new, centralized states, there was also a dramatic increase in the emphasis on democratic ideas, as well as the push for improved and equal education. Ghana, Nigeria, and Liberia all enacted legislature that called for the election of government officials. In Ghana, a constitution was written that included the right of education for all children, as well as the development of resources to promote unity among its people. Increasingly, schools were built so that even poorer children could receive some education. In much of the rest of Africa, an intellectual revolution occurred. It introduced the “educated African elite.”
Tragically, what most Africans lacked was the benefit of an industrial revolution. Technologically, Africa lagged far behind their European counterparts, which means that commercially they did not have the machines that could produce in a competitive manner. Largely, they remained unaware of the actual scope of technological development in Europe, including advancements in weaponry and medicines that could fight diseases. When the Europeans set their minds to colonization, in most cases the Africans could not long resist them because of this lag in technology, industrialization, and medicine.
Involvement in Africa before 1884
Early European expeditions concentrated on colonizing previously uninhabited islands—such as the Cape Verde Islands and São Tomé Island—or establishing coastal forts. These forts often developed areas of influence along coastal strips. But they did not venture into the mainland and the vast interior of Africa was little-known to Europeans until the late 19th century.
Technological advancements—such as railways, telegraphs, and steam navigation—facilitated European expansion overseas. Medical advances also were important, especially medicines for tropical diseases. The development of quinine, an effective treatment for malaria, enabled vast expanses of the tropics to be accessed by Europeans, because they no longer faced certain severe illness or death from insect-inflicted illnesses.
African Colonization in the 19th Century
By the mid-19th century, Europeans considered Africa to be a disputed territory ripe for colonization. On a practical level, Europeans needed to colonize Africa for its wealth of natural resources—essential in keeping industries thriving. Psychologically, middle-class Western Europeans also believed in Social Darwinism—the belief that Darwin’s theory of natural selection could be applied to people, which equated to an acceptance that “only the strong survive.” It was a trendy, horribly inaccurate and unscientific way of explaining why some humans prospered and others did not (that some fallaciously adhere to even today). Western Europeans increasingly used this theory, started by Herbert Spencer, to argue that they were wealthier than people in Africa and Asia because they were inherently smarter and more industrious, as well as because they were white. By the end of the 1800s, this pseudo-social science, despite its inherent racism, increased in popularity among European heads of state, and they used it as justification for their imperialist practices.
In 1876, King Leopold II of Belgium invited British-American explorer, Henry Morton Stanley to join him in researching and “civilizing” Africa. At the time of the invitation, Stanley was already internationally renowned for his explorations in Zanzibar, and for his “discovery” of the English explorer, David Livingstone, who had searched for the source of the Nile River, then allegedly vanished. In 1871, Stanley encountered the “missing” explorer near Lake Tanganyika. Famously, he greeted Livingstone by asking, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Overnight, Stanley’s fame exploded internationally, and he became an international hero.
In 1876, Stanley accepted King Leopold’s invitation. Two years later, he embarked on an extended voyage to the Congo (1878-1885). In 1885, Stanley returned to the Congo, not as a reporter but as an envoy from Leopold with the secret mission to create what would become known as the Congo Free State. French intelligence discovered Leopold’s plans, and France quickly engaged in its own colonial exploration. Portugal also claimed the area. Italy, Britain, Spain, and Germany all soon became involved in the carving up of Africa.
Berlin Conference
This rapid increase in the exploration and colonization of Africa eventually led to the 1884 Berlin Conference. Established empires—notably Britain, Portugal, and France—had already claimed vast areas of Africa and Asia, and emerging imperial powers like Italy and Germany had done likewise on a smaller scale. With the dismissal of the aging Chancellor Bismarck by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the relatively orderly colonization became a frantic scramble, known as the Scramble for Africa. The Berlin Conference, initiated to establish international guidelines for the acquisition of African territory, formalized this “New Imperialism.”
The Berlin Conference sought to end competition and conflict between European powers during the “Scramble for Africa” by establishing international protocols for colonization. Tragically, the Africans had no voice in the proceedings. Europeans neither sought their opinions nor invited them to the Conference.
The conference was convened on Saturday, November 15, 1884. The main dominating powers of the conference were France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal. They remapped Africa without considering the cultural and linguistic borders that were already established. At the end of the conference, Africa was divided into 50 colonies. And the attendants established who was in control of each of these new divisions. Between the Franco-Prussian War (1871) and the World War I (1914), Western Europe added almost 9 million square miles—one-fifth of the land area of the globe—to its overseas colonial possessions by claiming land in Africa.
Consequences of the Conference
The Scramble for Africa sped up after the Conference since even within areas designated as their spheres of influence, the European powers had to take possession. In central Africa in particular, expeditions were dispatched to coerce traditional rulers into signing treaties, using force if necessary. Bedouin- and Berber-ruled states in the Sahara and Sub-Sahara were overrun by the French in several wars by the beginning of World War I. The British conquered territories from Egypt to South Africa. After defeating the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa in 1879, they moved on to subdue and dismantle the independent Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State. By 1902, 90% of all African land was under European control. The large part of the Sahara was French, while Sudan remained firmly under joint British-Egyptian rulership. Egypt, itself, was under British occupation before becoming a British protectorate in 1914.
Heart of Darkness: The Congo Free State
King Leopold II’s reign in the Congo became an international scandal due to large-scale mistreatment of the indigenous peoples, including frequent mutilation and murder of men, women, and children to enforce rubber production quotas.
Colonization of the Congo
Belgian exploration and administration took place from the 1870s until the 1920s. It was first led by Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who explored under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium. As Europe industrialized, its need for rubber dramatically increased. A seemingly endless grove of rubber trees existed throughout Congo, and Leopold wanted it. Leopold saw the Congo as a source of unlimited wealth, particularly in the form of rubber. He procured the region by convincing the European community that he was involved in humanitarian and philanthropic work. Leopold formally acquired rights to the Congo territory at the Conference of Berlin in 1885 and made the land his private property. On May 29, 1885, the king named his new colony the Congo Free State; it could not have been more of a misnomer for the Congolese. Under Leopold, they would be anything but free. Leopold extracted ivory, rubber, and minerals in the upper Congo basin for sale on the world market, without much actual concern for the human inhabitants of the land, even though his alleged purpose in the region was to uplift the local people and develop the area.
Administration of the Congo Free State
Beginning in the mid-1880s, Leopold first decreed that the state asserted rights of proprietorship over all vacant lands throughout the Congo territory. Leopold used the title “Sovereign King” as ruler of the Congo Free State. He appointed the heads of the three departments of state: interior, foreign affairs, and finances. These positions were, naturally, filled by Belgians who understood little about the Congolese people. As the self-installed ruler, Leopold pledged to suppress the east African slave trade; promote humanitarian policies; guarantee free trade within the colony; impose no import duties for twenty years; and encourage philanthropic and scientific enterprises. In three successive decrees, Leopold promised the rights of the Congolese in their land to native villages and farms, essentially making nearly all the Congo Free State state-owned land. And, the colonial administration initially liberated thousands of slaves.
Shortly after the anti-slavery conference he held in Brussels in 1889, Leopold issued a new decree which said that Africans could only sell their harvested products (mostly ivory and rubber) to the government parts of the Free State. Suddenly, the only market Congolese people had for their products was in Belgium, which could set purchase prices and, therefore, control the amount of income the Congolese could receive for their work.
Human Rights Abuses
The Force Publique, Leopold’s private army, was used to enforce the rubber quotas. The Force Publique’s officer corps included only white Europeans. On arriving in the Congo, the officers recruited soldiers from Zanzibar and west Africa, and eventually from the Congo itself. Many of the black soldiers were from far-off peoples of the Upper Congo, while others had been kidnapped in raids on villages in their childhood and brought to Roman Catholic missions, where they received a military training in conditions close to slavery. Armed with modern weapons and the chicotte—a whip made of hippopotamus hide—the Force Publique routinely took and tortured hostages, slaughtered families of rebels, and flogged and raped Congolese people. They also burned non-submissive villages, and above all, cut off the hands of Congolese natives, including children.
In addition, Leopold encouraged the slave trade among Arabs in the Upper Congo in return for slaves to fill the ranks of the Force Publique. During the 1890s, the agency’s primary role was to exploit the natives as laborers to promote the rubber trade, essentially continuing the practice of slavery.
Failure to meet the rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. Meanwhile, the Force Publique was required to provide the hands of their victims as proof that they had used their bullets, which were imported from Europe at considerable cost. Sometimes the hands were collected by the soldiers, and sometimes by the villagers themselves.
One junior European officer described a raid to punish a village that had protested. The European officer in command “ordered us to cut off the heads of the men and hang them on the village palisades… and to hang the women and the children on the palisade in the form of a cross.” After seeing a Congolese person killed for the first time, a Danish missionary wrote, “The soldier said ‘Don’t take this to heart so much. They kill us if we don’t bring the rubber. The Commissioner has promised us if we have plenty of hands he will shorten our service.’”
Leopold’s reign in the Congo became infamous because of the severe persecution and abuse of the Congolese. From 1885 – 1908, millions of Congolese died because of exploitation and disease. In some areas, the population declined dramatically due to diseases such as sleeping sickness and smallpox. A government commission later concluded that the population of the Congo was “reduced by half” during this period, but no accurate records exist.
When news of Leopold’s policies and practices in the Congo Free State reached news outlets, the world stood outraged. Calls were issued to have Leopold stripped of his colonial possession. Instead, Belgium’s parliament annexed the Congo Free State and took over its administration on November 15, 1908. It became the Belgian Congo.
Enter the French: Colonial Overlords of North and West Africa
The French began their colonization efforts before the Scramble for Africa. During the mid-1800s, they launched exploration through Africa and Asia. With increasing rivalry with their Western European nations (particularly England and later, Germany) France began colonizing territory in earnest during the late 1800s. As a result, vast regions in both Asia and Africa came under French control.
French West Africa
As the French pursued their part in the Scramble for Africa in the 1880s and 1890s, they conquered large territory in the north and west of Africa. These conquered areas were usually governed by French Army officers and dubbed “Military Territories.” In 1895, the French created the colony of French West Africa. The colony consisted of Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guinea (now Guinea), Côte d’Ivoire, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Dahomey (now Benin), and Niger.
The Maghreb
The French also focused their attention on colonizing much of Northern Africa, known as the Mahgreb. The region (present-day Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia) bordered the Sahara Desert, but also the Mediterranean Sea. As such, the region seemed defendable and gave the French access to the most important sea trade route in Europe—the Mediterranean. Ideally, this meant that the French could exploit resources from their African colonies, as well as quickly and efficiently transport the goods by water to Europe.
French Algeria
Of all the French colonies in Africa, Algeria proved the most significant. France and Algeria had a long history of trade, and the capital city, Algiers, was a wealthy city situated conveniently on the Mediterranean Sea. It had been governed by a ruler appointed from the Turkish army for centuries, but the indigenous Berber people had remained independent. Since the late 1700s, olive oil, grain, and other foods had poured into France from Algiers. Moreover, the city prospered from extensive trade of beautiful carpets, among other luxury goods, throughout the Mediterranean. From the French perspective, the city was the ultimate prize.
In 1830, France launched a campaign to claim Algiers. However, they severely underestimated the resistance they would encounter in Algeria. Arab and Berber clans united against the French invasion. Rallying under a popular commander, the Berber and Arab troops fought fiercely, with thousands of casualties on both sides. But by the 1870s, the French had conquered Algeria. Settlers poured into the colony, and seized Algerian vineyards, farms, and crops. Initially, France prospered from possessing Algeria. However, underground resistance remained strong throughout the French rule. Violence exploded between the French colonizers and the Berbers and Arabs. Within a century, French Algeria would collapse, and a fiercely independent Algeria would rise out of the Sahara.
French Colonial Practices
Assimilation was one of the ideological hallmarks of French colonial policy in the 19th and 20th centuries. In contrast with British imperial policy, it maintained that natives of French colonies were considered French citizens with full citizenship rights, as long as they adopted French culture and customs.
Colonial Assimilation
A hallmark of the French colonial project in the late 19th century and early 20th century was the civilizing mission, the principle that it was Europe’s duty to bring civilization to “backward” people. Rather than merely govern colonial populations, the Europeans would attempt to Westernize them in accordance with a colonial ideology known as “assimilation,” which was meant to make the colonized act and think like the colonizers. France pursued a policy of assimilation throughout much of its colonial empire. In contrast with British imperial policy, the French taught their subjects that by adopting French language and culture, they could eventually become French. Natives of these colonies were considered French citizens as long as French culture and customs were adopted. And adoption of French customs was supposed to ensure the rights and duties of French citizens.
French conservatives denounced the assimilationist policies as products of a dangerous liberal fantasy. Unlike in Algeria, Tunisia, and French West Africa, in the Protectorate of Morocco the French administration attempted to use segregationist urban planning and colonial education to prevent cultural mixing and uphold the traditional society upon which the French depended for collaboration, with mixed results. After World War II, the segregationist approach modeled in Morocco had been discredited and assimilationism enjoyed a brief revival.
A Young Country's Quick Colonial Rise: The German Colonies
German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck strongly opposed the notion of overseas colonies. He predicted rivalry, unnecessary violence, and competition. However, following his retirement from office, German politics assumed a different course. A “keep up or be left behind mentality” consumed the German public. Pressure to establish colonies for international prestige exploded. By the late 1800s, Germany had joined the Scramble for Africa, citing the need for resources to fuel its factories that emerged during the Second Industrial Revolution.
Background: Kaiser Wilhelm II and Weltpolitik
In 1891, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany made a decisive break with former Realpolitik of Bismarck and established Weltpolitik. The aim of Weltpolitik was to transform Germany into a global power through aggressive diplomacy, the acquisition of overseas colonies, and the development of a large navy. The origins of the policy can be traced to a Reichstag debate in December 1897 during which German Foreign Secretary Bernhard von Bülow stated, “in one word: We wish to throw no one into the shade, but we demand our own place in the sun.”
Acquisition of Colonies
The rise of German imperialism and colonialism coincided with the latter stages of the Scramble for Africa. Initially, German individuals, rather than government entities, competed with other already established colonies and colonialist entrepreneurs. With the Germans joining the race for the last uncharted territories in Africa and in the Pacific, competition for colonies involved major European nations and several lesser powers.
The German effort included the first commercial enterprises in the 1850s and 1860s in West Africa, East Africa, the Samoan Islands, and the unexplored north-east quarter of New Guinea with adjacent islands. German traders and merchants began to establish themselves in the African Cameroon delta and the mainland coast across from Zanzibar. Large African inland acquisitions followed, mostly to the detriment of native inhabitants. All in all, German colonies comprised territory that makes up 22 countries today, mostly in Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda. However, their most significant African colony in the early twentieth century was Tanzania, in east Africa.
The Herero and Nama Genocide
The Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of racial extermination that the German Empire undertook in their colony of German South-West Africa (modern-day Namibia) against the Herero and Nama peoples. It is considered one of the first genocides of the 20th century.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Herero migrated to what is today Namibia established themselves as herdsmen. In the beginning of the 19th century, the Nama from South Africa, who already possessed some firearms, entered the land and were followed by white merchants and German missionaries.
During the late 19th century, the first Europeans arrived to permanently settle the land. Primarily in Damaraland, German settlers acquired land from the Herero to establish farms. In 1883, merchant Franz Adolf Eduard Lüderitz entered into a contract with the native elders. The exchange later became the basis of German colonial rule. The territory became a German colony under the name of German Southwest Africa. Soon after, conflicts between the German colonists and the Herero herdsmen began; these were frequently disputes about access to land and water but were also fueled by the legal discrimination that white immigrants inflicted on the native population. Additionally, the numerous mixed offspring—children of partial German heritage—upset the German colonial administration, which was concerned with maintaining “racial purity.”
Between 1893 and 1903, the Herero and Nama people’s land and cattle were progressively making their way into the hands of the German colonists. In 1903, the Herero people learned that they were to be placed in reservations, leaving more room for colonists to own land and prosper. In 1904, the Herero and Nama began a large rebellion that lasted until 1907, ending with the near destruction of the Herero people.
What followed in 1907 is argued by some historians as the first genocide of the 20th century. The Germans sought to eliminate the Herero and Nama people by driving them to the Namib desert at the point of a rifle or maxim gun. Once defeated, thousands of Herero and Nama were imprisoned in concentration camps, where the majority died of disease, abuse, and exhaustion.
During the “war” against the Herero and Nama peoples, Eugen Fischer, a German scientist, came to the concentration camps to conduct medical experiments on race, using children of Herero people and mulatto children of Herero women and German men as test subjects. Together with Theodor Mollison he also experimented upon Herero prisoners. Those experiments included sterilization and injection of smallpox, typhus, and tuberculosis.
Roughly 80,000 Herero lived in German Southwest Africa at the beginning of Germany’s colonial rule over the area, while after their revolt was defeated, they numbered approximately 15,000. In a period of four years, 1904 – 1907, approximately 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama people perished.
England's Grasp on Africa
England, just like other Western European nations, jumped feet first into the Scramble for Africa. Like its counterparts, the tiny island nation was eager to assert its dominance on the world stage. Tragically for the African people, particularly in South Africa, the British engaged in colonization exactly as described by the poet Hilaire Belloc:
“Whatever happens we have got,
the maxim-gun, and they have not.”
Drastically superior military technology, such as the maxim-gun and the breech-loading rifle, would determine who reigned victorious in the conquest of Africa.
The British did not establish as large of colonies in Africa as the French. They did, however, procure extremely prosperous colonies in West Africa. Notably, the British colonized Nigeria, and the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana). Both colonies were wealthy in resources coveted by the British.
Nigeria was a sprawling, subtropical country rich in plant diversity. Notably, it was home to extensive groves of palm trees. Under British rule, the palm oil industry increased a thousand-fold. Palm oil was transformed into a commodity in European life because of its uses in soaps, and as a lubricant for heavy machinery. The Royal Niger Company was established and owned by the British, giving them a virtual monopoly on palm oil. Moreover, the Nigerian coast opened to the Atlantic Ocean, giving the British easy access in global trade and shipping.
Although the British officially colonized the capital city of Nigeria—Lagos —in the 1880s, it was not until the late 1890s and early 1900s that they were able to secure the rest of present-day Nigeria. Like the French and Germans, the British relied on force to subdue the Nigerian populations who resisted them. Fierce fighting erupted between the Nigerian resistance and the British, who also used Nigerian soldiers in their ranks. To overcome the Nigerian forces, the British used heavy artillery and columns of machine-gunners. One by own, towns throughout Nigeria fell to the British because of heavy bombardment.
While the British hammered and suppressed the population in Nigeria, they also had to contend with resistance in their other wealthy, West African colony: the Gold Coast. Located in present-day Ghana, it was, perhaps, the most aptly named of all colonies. Significant gold deposits could be found throughout the colony. In the 1870s, Dutch and Danish companies had sold out to the British, allowing Britain to declare the Gold Coast a colony. Like Nigeria, its coast opened to the Atlantic giving the British a significant advantage in the trading and shipping of gold. Similarly, the British also faced threats of Ghanian resistance. They countered those threats with the use of excessive force, including artillery and machine guns.
British Rule in Egypt
Throughout the 19th century, the ruling dynasty of Egypt spent exorbitant amounts of money on infrastructural development. Consequently, despite vast sums of European and other foreign capital, actual economic production and revenue were insufficient to repay the loans. Egypt was bankrupt. As a result, European and foreign financial agencies were able to take control of the treasury of Egypt; they forgave debt in return for taking control of the Suez Canal, as well as reoriented economic development.
By 1882, Islamic and Arabic Nationalist opposition to the colonizers began growing in Egypt, which was the most powerful, populous, and influential of Arab countries. A large military demonstration in September 1881 forced the resignation of the Egyptian Prime Minister. Many of the Europeans retreated to specially designed quarters suited for defense or heavily European settled cities, such as Alexandria.
By June 1882 a fight for control of Egypt erupted between the Europeans and the Arab Nationalists. Anti-European violence broke out in Alexandria, prompting a British naval bombardment of the city. Later, a coalition force of British, French, and Indian troops easily defeated the nationalist Egyptian Army in September and took control of the country. With European aid, the Egyptian royal family remained in control of the country. But the control was reliant on the military and political aid of Western Europe, especially Britain.
It is unlikely that the British expected a long-term occupation from the outset; however, Lord Cromer, Britain’s Chief Representative in Egypt at the time, viewed Egypt’s financial reforms as part of a long-term objective. Cromer took the view that political stability needed financial stability, and he embarked on a program of long-term investment in Egypt’s agricultural revenue sources, the largest of which was cotton. To accomplish this, Cromer worked to improve the Nile’s irrigation system through multiple large projects: the construction of the Aswan Dam, the creation of the Nile Barrage, and an increase of canals available to agricultural-focused lands.
During British occupation and control, Egypt developed into a regional commercial and trading destination. Immigrants from less-stable parts of the region—including Greeks, Jews and Armenians—began to flow into Egypt. The number of foreigners in the country rose from 10,000 in the 1840s to around 90,000 in the 1880s and more than 1.5 million by the 1930s.
South Africa and the Boer Wars
Large-scale war was perhaps, inevitable, in South Africa, following the discovery of both gold and diamonds in the region, given the mindset of Europeans. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ethnic, political, and social tensions among European colonial powers and indigenous Africans, as well as English and Dutch settlers, led to open conflict in a series of wars and revolts between 1879 and 1915, most notably the First and Second Boer Wars.
First Boer War
The First Boer War was fought from December 1880 until March 1881 and was the first clash between the British and the South African Republic Boers—the Dutch and Huguenot peoples who had settled southern Africa in the late 17th century. The British, having won a war against the Zulus, attempted to impose an unpopular system of confederation in South Africa. This resulted in outrage and strong protests from Boers.
In December 1880, 5,000 Boers assembled at a farm to discuss a course of action. Tired of the British treating them as second-class citizens, as well as their demands on Boer agricultural production and taxation, the Boers decided to create an independent republic within South Africa. On December 13 they proclaimed their independence and intent to establish a republican government. This resulted in war erupting between the two sides.
Surprisingly, the British suffered several significant, military defeats during the First Boer War. As a result, the British government signed a truce on March 6. And in the final peace treaty on March 23, 1881 Britain gave the Boers self-government in a small part of South Africa known as the South African Republic (Transvaal), under a theoretical British oversight.
Second Boer War
The exact causes of the Second Boer War in 1899 have been disputed ever since the events took place. The Boers felt that the British intention was to again annex the Transvaal. Some feel that the British were coerced into war by the wealthy owners of the mining industries; others that the British government underhandedly created conditions that allowed the war to ignite. The British worried about popular support for the war and wanted to push the Boers to make the first move toward actual hostilities; this occurred when the Transvaal issued an ultimatum on October 9 for the British to withdraw all troops from their borders, or they would “regard the action as a formal declaration of war.”
The Second Boer War took place from October 11, 1899 until May 31, 1902. The war was fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (referred to as the Transvaal by the British). After a protracted, hard-fought war, the two independent republics lost and were absorbed into the British Empire.
The Boers fought bitterly against the British, refusing to surrender for years despite defeat. They reverted to guerrilla warfare. As guerrillas without uniforms, the Boer fighters easily blended into the farmlands, which provided hiding places, supplies, and horses. The British solution was to set up complex nets of block houses, strong points, and barbed wire fences, partitioning off the entire conquered territory. The civilian farmers were relocated into concentration camps, where very large proportions died of disease, especially the children, mostly due to weak immunities.
In all, the war cost around 75,000 lives: 22,000 British soldiers (7,792 battle casualties, the rest through disease); 6,000 – 7,000 Boer Commandos; 20,000 – 28,000 Boer civilians (mostly women and children due to disease in concentration camps); and an estimated 20,000 black Africans, both Boer and British allies alike. The last of the Boers surrendered in May 1902. The war resulted in the creation of the Transvaal Colony, which in 1910 was incorporated into the Union of South Africa. And the treaty ended the existence of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State as Boer republics, placing them within the British Empire.
Significance
The Scramble for Africa was, indeed, a scramble. A mad-house, free-for-all in which European countries hurried to colonize territory in Africa for two purposes: natural resources and human labor. Additionally, this event may have occured as a show of strength amidst increasingly rivalrous, nationalist European nations. Indeed, this mad period of colonization would emerge as one of the underlying causes of World War I. Britain, France, and Germany (all major combatant nations in World War I) proved the most successful in colonizing Africa. However, Italy, Spain, and Portugal also colonized, or attempted to colonize, parts of Africa. By 1914 when World War I began, only two independent countries remained in all of Africa: Ethiopia—which the Italians had tried to colonize, and Liberia—a country established for freed slaves by the United States.
Across Africa, it was the many different African people who lost in the Scramble for Africa. Across the board, Europeans regularly used excessive military force to subdue resistant civilians. African cultures, languages, land, and livelihoods were all suppressed or destroyed during the Scramble for Africa. Moreover, Africans lost their chance to modernize, just as many African nations had begun the process of modernizing politically, economically, and industrially.
In terms of sheer numbers, the colony which endured the worst human rights abuses was the Congo Free State under King Leopold II of Belgium. Treatment of the Congolese people by the Force Publique and other agencies was so brutal and heinous that it sparked uproar from the international community. Estimates suggest that nearly 10 million Congolese died during the period of the Congo Free State. That figure is nearly as high as the total deaths of the Holocaust (estimated 12 million), a fact largely ignored or forgotten by much of the world.
Attributions
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Boundless World History
“The Berlin Conference”
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-berlin-conference/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
“The Belgian Congo”
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-belgian-congo/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
“France in Africa”
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/france-in-africa/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
“German Imperialism”
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/german-imperalism/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
“Africa and the United Kingdom”
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/africa-and-the-united-kingdom/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Boahen, A. Abu. African Perspectives on Colonialism. Johns Hopkins University Press,
1987. 1-26.
Shillington, Kevin. History of Africa. 3rd Ed. Palgrave MacMillan, 2012. 281-282; 287
288; 319-321.