From European Colonialism to Independence and Beyond

Africa, 1835

Reasons for European Conquest of Africa

• Technological improvements in military equipment and medicine in the 1880s

• Who would be a great power? Rivalries between England and France after Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871

• Political instabilities in the secondary empires• Discovery of gold on the Witswatersrand in

South Africa in1884

Berlin Conference, 1884-1885

Export CropsCotton

Coffee

Cocoa

Rubber

Tea

Oil palm

Building of railway in the French Soudan

Railroads in Africa

Copperbelt, Zambia

South African mines

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

• Producer of one commodity for export• Poor infrastructure except around export economy• Labor migration for colonial enterprises• Increased power for senior men (but loss of

legitimacy)• Weakened power for women• Limited social services for Africans (schools,

health)• Industrialization thwarted • No agricultural revolution

Senegalese soldiers behind the Somme, Winter 1916-1917

Independent Africa

Frelimo poster