10.31.11

European Colonialism and the Scramble for Africa

1. Victorian images of Africa

• Sierra Leone(founded 1787) – slavery;

• African Association(travels to Mungo Park)

• “Heart of Darkness” (Kurtz: “Horror! Horror”)

• Social Darwinism (“living ancestors” or “Europeans in embryo”

• The hamitic theory

• The church missionary society

• European explorers(dr. David Livingston, Henry Stanley, and Richard Burton)

• “Washin the Blackamoor white” ???

2. New powers on the scene

• Coastal trade(esp. west Africa)

• Portuguese enclaves(Angola and Mozambique)

• The French in Algeria(1830-1962)

• King Leopold of Belgium

• African international association(1876)

• German annexations: southwest Africa, togoland, Cameroon, and east Africa

• Mohammed ali and modernization of Egypt – Ali was huge fan of modern Egypt; he decided in order to modernize Egypt you would have to open it up to Europe, and he does

• The Suez canal(1869)

• British purchase of canal shares(1879)

• The arabi revolt(1882)

• British occupation of Egypt(1882) – the case of “financial imperialism”

• Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Anglo-Egyptian condominium

11/02/2011 Notes

- The Scramble of Africa

• The Berlin Conference (1884-1885)

1. They decided to get together and associate

2. They had conference over several months with reps from all major nations. They all gathered together and divided up the African Continent NOT based on the geographical or historical lines of different ethnic groups: but based on specific interest by specific European states.

• George Goldie’s Royal Niger Company

1. Conducting commerce along the Niger river.

2. The idea of commerce was montalethic

• Frederick Lugard’s “Dual Mandate”

1. The idea that have come to Africa was exercising the dual purpose

2. The benefit was to benefit the local population NOT the European Nations

3. The second part was to reap economic benefits for your mother country

• The Fachoda incident (1896-1898)

1. Competition for land. There was a mad hunger for the most land.

2. Between two armies (The French) and (The British) who both rushed to the land of Fachoda.

3. The British were the first ones to get to that land.

• Battle of Adwa (1896)

1. The Ethiopians defeat the Italians

2. The result was pretty shocking.