DEFINITION OF TERMS
•Colonialism – a settlement in a new country…a body of people who settle
in a new locality, forming a community subject to or connected with their
parent state. The community so formed consisting of the original settlers
and their descendants and successors. As long as the connection with the
parent state is kept up. (OED)
•The action or process of settling among and establishing control over the
indigenous people of an area.
•It can also be referred to a set of unfit relationships between a colony and
colonial power
GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICA
• Continent – not a country
• Continent is three times larger than Europe
• Northern Africa – desert
• Mid-to-southern Africa – diverse
climates and topography
FOREIGN HISTORY IN AFRICA
• Greeks controlled Egypt after conquest by Alexander the
Great
– Ptolemaic dynasty
• Romans ruled all areas along the Mediterranean
coastline, including northern Africa
– Mediterranean – “Roman lake”
• West African Trading Kingdoms
• Ghana (300 A.D. to 1100 A.D.)
• 7th century - Arab traders converted many Africans to Islam
• gold and salt trade
• Mali (1300 A.D. – 1400 A.D.)
• expanded trade
• great leaders: Sundiata Kieta and Mansa Musa
• Songhai (1400s – 1500s)
• Timbuktu became a major center of trade
• great leader: Sunni Ali
The “OPENING UP” OF AFRICA
• Source of slaves for the Americas from the 17th
century
• But little foreign interest in the interior of sub-
Saharan Africa
• Mid-1800s: Missionaries & explorers sparked
foreign interest in Africa
European Imperialism in Africa
•This is a map that
shows the colonial
division of Africa
as of 1913. Note
where the
concentration of
possessions for
each country are.
Definitions
• A. Colonialism – the policy of taking a weaker nation’s land for self
gain.
• B. Imperialism – the domination of one nation over the political,
economic, or social affairs of another nation
• Reasons for the colonization of Africa- refueling ports, slave trade,
mineral and agricultural resources, strategic location
Early Contact - A Slow Start
• Europeans had a slow start in colonizing Africa due to natural barriers and lack of
interest… until the slave trade and search for raw materials drew them to the
continent
• 1. (Glory) Explorers - The early explorers at first had little impact on Africans as
they used Africa ports largely for refueling for voyages to India and Asia.
Eventually they began expanding inland and IMPOSED many of their customs and
beliefs. Some European communities got along well with Africans and some
clashed. As they began to expand inland and claim more territory clashes became
more frequent. Some Africans liked the modern technology brought by the
Europeans and some thought that it was evil.
• 2. (God) Missionaries – Christian missionaries sought to convert the Africans to
Christianity. Some accepted the new faith, many rejected it and resented the
Europeans for not respecting their gods. Missionaries brought education, modern
agriculture, and health care along with the Bible. Some missionaries were
accepted into African society and some were killed for trying to bring change.
Early Contact - A Slow Start- CONT'
• 3. (Gold) Slave trade and raw materials - The slave traders
had a terrible impact on African society and culture. By
trapping and buying many Africans south of the Sahara, they
destroyed individuals, families, and tribes, creating hate of
Europeans. The primary slavery areas were; West Africa
(along the coast), Central Africa (Congo River valley), and
southeast Africa (Zimbabwe). Raw materials were needed for
European industries and factories – these resources also
drew imperialists to set up colonies.
The Slave Trade
This is an etching of the slave trade
DAVID LIVINGSTONE (1813-
1873)
• Scottish missionary
• 1841-1873 – lived in central Africa
– Explored Africa
• Named Lake Victoria after the British queen
– Converted many Africans to Christianity
– Wrote books on Africa which piqued foreign interest
• 1871 – reported “lost”
– “Found” by Henry Stanley
– “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
HENRY STANLEY (1841-
1904)
• Welsh-American reporter
• “Found” Dr. Livingstone in Africa
– “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
• Explored Africa
– Congo River
– Lake Tanganyika
– Lake Victoria
• Worked with Belgium’s King Leopold II and his African
colonization company
– International African Society
KARL PETERS (1856-1918)
• German explorer in Africa
• Organized and propagandized for Germany’s colonial expansion
– Founded the Society for German Colonization
• Acquired German East Africa (modern-day Tanzania)
• Convinced Otto von Bismarck to take over German East Africa and
increase Germany’s colonies in Africa
CECIL RHODES (1853-1902)
• British businessman and politician in southern Africa
• Made a fortune from African diamond mines
• Established South African Company
– Land later became Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)
• Prime minister of Cape Colony (1890-1896)
– Wanted British control over South Africa
– Wanted Cape-to-Cairo Railroad
• Architect of British imperialism in southern Africa
– Great Britain became leading colonial power in
southern Africa
KING LEOPOLD II OF BELGIUM (1835-
1909)
• Took over land in central Africa
• Berlin Conference (1885)
– Leopold’s control over Congo Free State recognized by major
powers
• Belgian Congo (1908)
– Leopold criticized for the cruelty of his rule in the Congo
– Leopold forced to sell Congo Free State to Belgian
government
– Renamed Belgian Congo
• Created European race for African colonies – “Scramble for
Africa”
– Diamonds, foodstuffs, gold, ivory, rubber
The Berlin Conference - 1885
• The purpose was to reduce the potential of war between European
countries for rival claims to land in Africa. This race to claim land was
started by King Leopold of Belgium who claimed Zaire.
• No Africans were invited
• Results:
• 1. Belgium’s right to the Congo Free State were recognized.
• 2. Free trade on the Congo and Niger rivers
• 3. No European country could claim any part of Africa without first
setting up a government office there.
• 4. Europeans began to divide up Africa
• The entire continent was partitioned or divided up over the next 20
years with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia. Europeans began to
exploit (take advantage of) Africa.
BRITISH IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
• 1815 – British took Cape Colony from the Dutch
– Boers moved north
• Transvaal
– 1886 – gold discovered and British moved in
– 1881 and 1895 – British attempted to take Transvaal
from the Boers
• Orange Free State
• Boer War (1899-1892)
– Dutch led by President Paul Kruger
– British won
BRITISH COLONIES IN SOUTHERN
AFRICA
• Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
– Named for Cecil Rhodes
– North of Union of South Africa
• Bechuanaland (now Botswana)
– 1885 – became a British protectorate
• Kenya
– 1888 – became a British protectorate
BRITISH IN NORTH AFRICA
EUROPEANS IN EGYPT
• 1870s – with the Egyptian government bankrupt, the British
and French took over financial control of the country
– Egyptian monarchs (technically Ottoman viceroys) ruled
as puppet leaders
• 1882 – Egyptian nationalist rebellion
– France withdrew its troops
– Great Britain left in control of Egypt
• Lord Cromer introduced reforms
– De facto British protectorate
• Made official in 1914
• Independence came in 1922
BRITISH IN NORTHERN AFRICA
• Sudan
– Area south of Egypt
– Under Anglo-Egyptian control
– Cotton needed for British textile mills
– Entente Cordiale (1904)
• Great Britain controlled Sudan
• France controlled Morocco
• Cape-to-Cairo Railroad
– Idea of Cecil Rhodes
– Would secure Great Britain’s dominance in Africa
– Never completed – sections missing through modern
Sudan and Uganda
FRENCH IN AFRICA
• Algeria
–1830 – invasion
–1831 – annexation
• Tunis
–1881 – controlled by France
• Led Italy to join the Triple Alliance with Austria-
Hungary and Germany during World War One
• Morocco
–1881 – large part under French control
–1905 and 1911 – nearly sparked a European war between
France and Germany
FRENCH IN AFRICA
• Madagascar
–1896 – controlled by France
• Somaliland
–1880s – partly under French control
• West Africa
–Late 1800s – largely under French control
• Sudan
–1898 – met Britain’s area of control and nearly went to
war
–Entente Cordiale settled British-French disputes in Africa
FRENCH IN AFRICA
• By World War I – 1914
– France controlled 3,250,000 square miles in Africa
• 14 times the area of France
– France ruled 30,000,000 Africans
• 75% of the population of France
GERMANS IN AFRICA
•Togoland (now Togo and Ghana)
•Cameroons (now Cameroon and Nigeria)
•Southwest Africa (now Namibia)
•East Africa (now Burundi, Rwanda, and
Tanzania)
ITALIANS IN AFRICA
• 1882-1896
• Eritrea (along the Red Sea)
• Somaliland (along the Indian Ocean, part of today’s
Somalia)
• 1896
• Defeated in attempt to conquer Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
• 1912
• Won Tripoli from Ottoman Turks
BELGIANS IN AFRICA
• 1908
–Belgium gained control of Congo (Congo Free State) from
King Leopold II
–Leopold was infamous for the cruelty of his rule in the
Congo
• Congo Free State (today’s Democratic Republic of Congo)
–80 times the size of Belgium
–Source of uranium
PORTUGUESE IN AFRICA
• Under “old imperialism” Portugal gained African
territory and led the early trans-Atlantic African slave
trade
• Angola
• Mozambique
SPANISH IN AFRICA
• Spain had very few
possessions in Africa
• Tip of Morocco
• Rio de Oro
• Rio Muni
AFRICANS IN AFRICA
• By the time of the First World War (1914)
–Only 2 independent African countries
• Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
– Ruled by dynasty stretching back to at least the 13th century
– Last emperor was Haile Selassie, deposed in 1974
– Home to Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church (strongly tied to
Egyptian Coptic Church)
• Liberia
– Formed by freed slaves under auspices (support) of the United
States government
Famous Leaders of the Independence
Movement
• B. Kwame Nkrumah – gained independence for Ghana on
the west coast of Africa from England. Pushed Pan-
Africanism (all Africans working together)
•
• C. Jomo Kenyatta – led the independence movement in
Kenya from England. His name means “burning spear”
• D. Julius Nyerre – led the independence movement from
Germany for his country of Tanzania on the southeast
African coast.
Famous Leaders of the Independence
Movement-(Cont.)
• E. Leopold Sedar Senghor – Senegal's famous poet/politician
who led the Senegalese independence movement and
inspired many African independence movements with his
poems of freedom and African pride. Senegal attained it’s
freedom from France as a result of his work.
• F. Mobutu Sese Sekou – Belgium suddenly gave the Congo it’s
independence in 1963. This resulted in a long tribal Civil War
broken up by U.N. troops. Joseph Mobutu, an army general
took over and restored order and set up the first national
government. (authoritarian and corrupt)
Problems of New African
Nations
• A. Tribalism – continuing loyalty to tribes and prejudice against
other tribes
• B. Poverty – massive unemployment or under employment
• C. Subsistence Agriculture – many tribes, villages, families,
exist on what they produce
• D. Disease – epidemics of malaria, ebola virus, parasites,
nutritional diseases, yellow fever, sleeping sickness, STD, and
HIV/AIDS
• E. Hunger – vast numbers are hungry daily
Problems (cont.)
• F. Sanitary Conditions – lack of knowledge of the link
between cleanliness and disease prevention
• G. Lack of Communication – with over 800 major language
groups, intertribal communication remains a problem
• H. Lack of Educational Opportunities – rural villages and
cities lack the educational resources to properly educate the
young
• I. Desertification – the spread of the deserts
Reflection
•Which of these problems that
Africa is facing do you believe is
the most challenging? Why?
Types of Colonization
• Settler Colonialism. involves large-scale immigration, often
motivated by religious, political, or economic reasons
• Exploitation Colonialism. involves fewer colonists and focuses
on the exploitation of natural resources or population as
labour, typically to the benefit of the metropole.
Types of Colonization- Cont.
• Surrogate colonialism involves a settlement project supported
by a colonial power, in which most of the settlers do not
come from same ethnic group as the ruling power
• Internal colonialism is a notion of uneven structural power
between areas of a state. The source of exploitation comes
from within the state.
Effect of Colonization
• Today, conflicts are found in many areas of the world which
were once colonized by the Soviet powers. The source of
these conflicts lies in the past colonial policies and the
treatment of native populations. The uneven distribution of
land, wealth, infrastructure of the local government
and non-democratic system of the government lead to
these conflict
• The loss of cultures. Africa is one of the biggest areas which
has become a victim of colonization
Advantage of Colonization
•Civilization
Era of Decolonialisation
Independence brought about conflict rather than
immediate freedom for 3 main reasons
1.Colonial borders did not match religious or ethnic
boundaries = conflict
2.Colonies had a government but indigenous people
excluded from running them = lack of experience
3.As colonial powers left, insurgents pushed them
out = violence
Neo-Colonialism
• A form of indirect control over developing
countries, most of them former colonies
Direct political control decreased whilst
economic control increased
- Economic dependence on primary goods
- Economic dominance of multinational
companies
- Impact of foreign aid and foreign debt
How were they being
indirectly controlled?
1) Aid
Often given with ‘strings attached’ forcing the
developing countries to spend it in particular ways
2) Trade
Low raw material export prices contrast with high
prices that developing countries have to pay for
manufactured goods
3) Debt
Many developing countries pay huge sums of money
to developed countries each year in interest
Neo-colonialism?
• Left-wing geographers argue that superpowers use subtle,
indirect ways to maintain power today
• These ways are often termed neo-colonialism
• Aid is often given to allies and ‘friends’ rather than the most
needy countries (see table), and much aid is ‘tied’ in various
ways.
• Debt repayments channel money from the developing to the
developed world
• Even debt relief schemes, such as the HIPC scheme (see map)
have been criticised
• For HIPC countries to qualify for debt relief, they must follow the
economic policies of bankers in the developed world
Ghana @ 60: success or
failure?
•In 1957 gained independence from
British Colonial rule.
•In what ways has Ghana
a)Made progress?
b)Fallen behind?
