Scramble for Africa

• What’s imperialism again?

• What’s an empire?

Old Imperialism• When did European imperialism

begin?

• Old Imperialism-European colonization from 15th to early 19th Cs.

New Imperialism• Colonization by the Euros, Americans,

and Japanese in the 19th an early 20th Cs.

• Driven by changes in technology and desire for resources

• By 1880, Europe controlled only about 10% of Africa, mostly along coast

• Why do you think this is?

1) Geography

• Rivers and land difficult to navigate

2) Disease

3) African societies• Strong African armies• Trade networks brought goods to port

colonies

FYI: This is Shaka Zulu, who built a huge kingdom in what is today South Africa that later battled Europeans

But then…changes in Europe! (Causes)

TechnologySteam ShipsMaxim gunsRRsTelegraphQuinine (treated malaria)-Actually

super important!

Effects• Europeans could more easily

penetrate Africa and subdue people

Other things spurring African colonization:1) Interest-Explorers brought tales

Dr. Livingstone, I presume?

• Belief in European superiority

• What’s the word for this again?

• Nationalistic desire to increase your nation’s status

• What’s nationalism again?• How would it lead to a desire to “out

do” other nation?

• Racism and Social Darwinism

• How did colonization lead to the development of race as an idea again?• What’s Darwinism? How could it be

applied to society?

• African disunity

• Where else did disunity amongst native peoples make colonization easy for Euros?

First step/Cause:

• 1879-82: King Leopold (Belgium) establishes a personal kingdom (i.e. he personally owned it) in the Congo based on rubber

FYI, no need to write down: Congolese people, and sometimes their family members, had hands chopped off if they failed to meet rubber collection quotas

Effect• Other European nations began

claiming territories in Africa• Germany, recently united, doesn’t

want to be left out, calls for

Berlin Conference, 1884-5

Do Berlin simulation

Results of real Conference• Major rule-Principle of Effective

Occupation: You had to actually control an area through direct rule or treaty, to claim it

Africa divided up!

Before

Post-Conference

• Within 30 years, all of Africa, except Ethiopia and Liberia, colonized• Colonial

boundaries had no consideration of ethnic groups

• What problems could this cause?

• What might this have to do with nationalism?

• How were the Europeans’ actions ethnocentric?

• Poorly drawn borders (and Europeans’ different treatment of different ethnic groups) helped create conflicts that often led to civil war after independence (we’ll learn about these later)• Many countries ended up with

lots of official languages (South Africa has 11)

Colonial success?• Africa used for natural resources

(minerals, plantation crops), but few industrial goods produced there• Low-wage plantation and mine work

meant few Africans could afford to buy European made goods, so Euros couldn’t sell much there• Poverty, inequality, and racism

persisted

Exit Slips1. How was the Scramble for Africa an example

of New Imperialism?2. What were some causes of the Scramble?3. What were some effects? (both from the

contents of this lesson and your own critical thinking)

4. How did the Scramble advance globalization?

5. How does your new knowledge of the scramble change the way you understand yourself and your relationships to people around the globe?