The Partition of Africa

Section 16.81

Introduction• The Dark Continent• Europeans knew little of sub Saharan

and called it Dark Continent• So huge that part of Sahara is almost

as large as the who N. America• Centuries Euros on knew the coast

(Gold, Ivory, Slave), Nile, Niger, Congo Rivers

• People black but very diverse physically, culturally (over thousand languages)

• Craftsmanship in arts, bronze sculpture, gold, weaving

In the North was Islam; other areas were traditional religionsPeople lived mainly in villages, agricultural or cattle raisingTimbuktu was one great cityAncient kingdoms were weakened by intertribal wars, slave tradeLike Ottomans, Africa came under European assault when it was in a weakened stateBefore 1750 there were no white settlements in sub Saharan Africa; later, there were as many as seven million people of European descent

Opening of Africa• Livingstone and Stanley• First opened up to

missionaries, explorers and adventurers

• 1841 Scottish David Livingstone as a medical missionary doing humanitarian and religious work

• Occasionally traded and explored (but had no economic, political aims)

Explored the Zambezi River and was 1st white to look at Victoria FallsWas content to remain there but New York Herald (Yellow Journalism) sent journalist H.M. Stanley to find him and he did (Mr. Livingstone I presume)

Opening of Africa• Stanley saw vast economic

possibilities in Africa and got the King of Belgium (king Leopold II) to back him

• They founded at Brussels International Congo Association in 1878 (a private enterprise

• Inland was considered terra nullius, without gov and claimed by no one (last one there is a rotten egg!)

Stanley concluded treaties with 500 chiefs for trinkets, yards of clothOther Europeans started to become interested (felt that they may miss out)German Karl Peters concluded treaties in East AfricaFrench Brazza claimed the Congo RiverPortuguese hoped to join Angola and Mozambique

Berlin Conference of 1885• Bismarck thought African

colonies a waste of time but saw potential for conflict

• Called for a conference

• To set up territories of the Congo Association as an international state

• Draft a code of governing the way European power could acquire territory

Congo Free State (1885) replaced ICA and was 1st of International Mandates (trusteeships for backwards peoples)Said that Congo should not be a colony but gave administration to LeoCongo River was internationalized, no tariff on imports, slave trade eliminatedBrussels Conference of 1889 (a continuation of Berlin Conference)Took further steps to eliminate slavery (Muslims still doing)

Belgian Congo• This effort of internationalism

failed b/c there was no way to enforce it

• Slavery was eliminated but Leo’s desire to make Congo profitable let to horrible abuses

• Europe and America demanded rubber & Congo was few places that could supply

• Congolese were forced to meet quotas of sap from rubber trees or face possible death

• Rubber trees were destroyed with no provision to replace them

Leo amassed a personal fortune but need $ and borrowed from his own govt. in 1889 and 95 and gave govt. right to annex the Congo in 1901 (which it declined)Press revealed Draconian methods and Belgian gov took over in 1908 (year Leo died)Congo Free State became colony (Belgian Congo)1908Worst atrocities were eliminatedBerlin Conference had said that in order to claim land “real occupation” in the form of troops, administrators, not just paperWithin 15 years there was a Scramble to occupy land and entire continent (except Liberia, Ethiopia) were parceled out

Indirect Rule• Whites appeared with treaties

and signed with a chief whom they gave power that he traditionally did not possess (to sell land, grant mining concessions)

• They would build up the position of the chief whom they would tell what to do (indirect rule)

• Chief would get them security, workmen, porter services

Labor Problem• Africans did not react like the

free wage earner of Europe• Had little expectation of

individual gain and seemed to work only sporadically (by European standards) and disdained tedious labor Euros wanted them to do

• Euros resorted to forced labor• Used systems like corvee to

get roads built

Levied hut tax of poll tax payable in money only (which required a job)Euros would acquire so much land that whole tribe could no longer subsist on land (must become a wage earner)Uprooted men and had them live in barracksGradually this mistreatment endedNigerians, Ugandans soon began to attend Oxford or University of Paris20th Century saw nationalism grow vocal

Friction and Rivalry between the Powers• Colonial Race in Africa• 1885-1900 war almost broke

out over Africa• Portuguese annexed huge part

in Angola and Mozambique, Italians took Somaliland and Eritrea but were unable to take Ethiopia

• Bismarck reluctantly established colonies in East Africa and Cameroon and Togo along with German Southwest Africa

French dreamed of a solid belt across Africa from Dakar to Gulf of AdenBritish Cecil Rhodes dreamed of a connection (RR) “from the Cape to Cairo”He established Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)

The Fashoda Crisis• Brits supported Egyptian claims

to the upper Nile• General Kitchener with Winston

Churchill under his command started southward up the Nile and defeated local Muslims in 1898 at Omdurman

• kept going south until he reached Fashoda

• Fashoda Crisis= showdown between Britain and France

• French finally backed down (nervous about Germany) and recalled General Marchand

• British hated in France

Cape to Cairo• 1890 Cecil Rhodes, prime

minister of Cape Colony, was principal sponsor of the Cape to Cairo dream but ran into independent Transvaal and Orange Free State

• Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch of 1600s had made a “great trek” to escape British rule (started 1815)

• Boers (Dutch for farmer), as English called them, were simple, obstinate, old fashioned

The South African War• Diamonds were then

discovered in Transvaal• Transvaal refused to pass

legislation needed for mining• 1895 Rhodes sent armed

irregulars to start a revolution but were stopped

• William II, German emperor, congratulated president Paul Kruger of Transvaal, for defeating the bully British

1899 British went to warS. African (Boer) War lasted until 1902300 thousand Brits found elusive enemyThey resorted to ravaging the country, concentrations camps where 20 thousand diedOnce fighting stopped British, 2 states were united as Union of S. Africa and given semi independent statusWar left British very unpopular in Europe

Embittered International Relations• Squabbling over Africa left bad feeling b/t

powers and paved way for WWI