Case Study: Imperialism in Africa


Beginnings of the Slave Trade


Map showing African colonies in 1913. Africa was colonized by Britain (orange), France (blue), Germany (light green), Portugal (purple), Italy (greenish yellow), Belgium (yellow), and Spain (pink). Only two countries, Ethiopia and Liberia, were independent.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Africa was regarded as a backward, primitive place by European colonialists. Consequently, for a very long time, Africa was ignored and used only as a supply point for ships sailing to India or China. Little was known of the varied cultures which inhabited the continent.

Soon, forts and trading posts were established along the coast of West Africa. The chief commodity of trade was slaves: European merchants bought them from African slave traders and exported them to colonies in the Caribbean and the United States. These slave traders were armed, which gave them additional power and increased the hostilities among the various tribes.

As slavery diminished, European nations began what is known as the "scramble for Africa", an attempt by Europe to colonize the entire continent.


Cecil Rhodes, who helped impose British imperialism in South Africa and later created the colony of Rhodesia (now modern Zimbabwe), is depicted in the cartoon dividing Africa up with the German Kaiser Wilhelm II

Egypt

In North Africa, Egypt was perhaps the most modernized African nation. It was heavily in debt to European nations. In the mid-1800s, the French decided to build the Suez Canal to connect the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and cut in half the travel time from Europe to Asia. The British bought shares in this project and then sent the military to protect their investment. They made Egypt a protectorate. The French allowed this to happen in exchange for maintaining their sphere of influence in nearby Morocco. Under British control, Egypt paid its debts and built the Aswan dam to improve agricultural production. Britain then tried to extend its power into Sudan to control the headwaters of the Nile River, while the French were moving to the same destination from West Africa. They met at Fashoda in East Africa, and once again, Britain and France were nearly on the brink of war over someone else's territory. The Fashoda Incident, as it is called, is an example of imperialism that almost resulted in war.


South Africa and Apartheid

South Africa was one of the first parts of Africa to be colonized. Traders going around the Cape of Good Hope established trading posts here. The first settlers were the Dutch, called Boers or farmers. After the Napoleonic Wars, Britain began to extend their power, which resulted in what became known as the "The Great Trek", when roughly ten thousand Dutch farmers moved inland to establish a new colony. However, gold and diamonds were discovered, and as a result of the maneuvering of entrepreneurs like Cecil Rhodes, the British and Dutch fought the Boer War for control of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

The British eventually won the struggle. The government of South Africa, made up primarily of Dutch who had stayed in the British South African state during the Boer War, created segregationist policies.

Courtesy Canadian War Museum

Whites had more rights than black or coloured (mixed race) people. After World War II, this grew into official government policy called apartheid. Under this system, only the white minority could vote. Society was segregated by race with many privileges for the whites. Black and white people could not use the same restrooms or water fountains. They could not attend the same schools or universities. Missionaries could not establish schools. Marriage to a different race was illegal. Black people could not live in the cities, but they traveled there daily to do housework and other chores that white workers would not do. Apartheid was not abolished until many South Africans and the world community objected to the injustice.

Finally in 1994, after years of resistance and international pressure, a new constitution was adopted, and apartheid was made illegal.


The Congo and King Leopold of Belgium


King Leopold II of Belgium





The centre of Africa took longer to explore because it was more difficult to access. Henry Stanley was a famous American journalist who reached the Congo and spent several years trying to convince Europeans to "pour the civilization of Europe into the barbarism of Africa". He wrote, "There are 40 000 000 naked people on the other side of the rapids and the cotton-spinners of Manchester are waiting to clothe them. ...Birmingham's factories are glowing with the red metal that shall presently be made into ironwork in every fashion and shape for them... and the ministers of Christ are zealous to bring them, the poor benighted heathen, into the Christian fold".
It took some time before Stanley's ideas were accepted, and not England, but Belgium, took over the Congo. King Leopold hired Stanley, first to establish a wagon trail and a series of forts, then to build a railroad, and then to carve out an entire nation for his personal gain. Leopold was a brutal and ruthless man associated with many stories of enslavement and mutilations on his rubber plantations. Mass killings under his rule are estimated at between five and fifteen million, one of the worst cases of genocide in history. The Belgian government forced Leopold to give up the Congo. It remains a very troubled nation to this day.


West Africa was known to Europeans primarily for its slaves. Slavery had been used in this part of Africa since ancient times. In West Africa, some slaves were bought and sold for a profit by slave traders, while others sold themselves into slavery for food and shelter in times of famine. Sometimes slaves were taken by various tribes to increase their populations. These slaves were absorbed into society.



Editorial Cartoon; Henry Stanley

Watch this video