Africa Before the Scramble Africa After the Scramble

Africa: After the Slave Trade and Before the Scramble

Political:

-statebuilding (King Menelik in Ethiopia)

-strongly centralized monarchies (Buganda in Central Africa)

-nationalism vs. clan loyalty (Ashante in West Africa)

-religion as a unifier (Sokoto Caliphate in West Africa)

-military and bureaucratic regimes (Zulu in South Africa)Economic:

- substituting free labor for slave labor

-“legitimate trade” replaced the Atlantic slave trade

- new commercial class emerged

Social:

-traditional community life altered by commercial developments

“Change occurred but not quickly enough”

Tippu Tip: Headed Commercial Empire

The Scramble for Africa (1885-1904)

Berlin Conference – 1885 (RGH, p. 235)

“Any power which . . .takes possession of a tract of land on the coasts of the African continent outside of its present possessions. . .shall acquire them, as well as the Power which assumes a Protectorate there. . (notifying) . . .the other Signatory Powers of the present Act, in order to enable them. . .to make good any claims of their own.”

The Dual Mandate (RGH, p. 232)

• “Europe is in Africa for the mutual benefit of her own industrial classes, and of the native races in their progress to a higher plane.”

• “We hold these countries because it is the genius of our race to colonize, to trade, and to govern.”

The “Iron Grid” of Colonialism

The

Germans

In

Africa

Demanding their “place in the sun”

Belgian King Leopold as serpent, crushing the people of the Congo

Sir Cecil Rhodes “astride” Africa

British plans for a Cape to Cairo Railroad

“The sun never set on the British Empire”

Agents of Colonialism: The Nation, The Mission, The Corporation

Catholic Services in Urundi

“Electrifying Africa”

“Potent to destroy, the bearers of the white man’s burden proved helpless to rebuild”

“If an African imperial army had marched into Europe in the Middle Ages and required Germany, France and England to live together by force of arms. . .it would have unleashed untold mayhem. This is precisely what happened when Europe did this to Africa in the span of 30 years by destroying Africa’s existing political structures, some of them powerful and far-ranging kingdoms, and imposing its own borders, religions and administration.”