The Colonization Of Africa and Origins of Development Project
Examining European colonization and its impact on the Continent of Africa and its people
Pre-Colonial Africa Map
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Web address:
Pre-Colonial African Societies
- In fact, Africa was inhabited by people of various ethnic groups with their own distinct societies and social hierarchies: Some examples:
- Ashanti Kingdom:
Founded in the 17th Century…Osei Tutu I
The symbol of power, the Golden Stool, is said to be the home of the soul of the Ashantis.
The imperial center was Kumasi, and to this day Odwira is the festival day in which Asante kings gather in Kumasi to renew their loyalty to their gods.
They were defeated by the British in the early 20th Century, and their kings were exiled to the Seychelles Islands. They were allowed to return in the late 1920’s
Africa Before European Domination
- Divided amongst ethnic and linguistic groups
- Europeans had little contact with interior Africans due to disease, travel of the rivers and African military.
- Missionaries, explores and humanitarians were the only humans to explore the interior of Africa
Colonial Europe’s Misconceptions of the African Continent and Society
- Africa was one country, not a collection of independent states
- African society was not organized nor advanced socially or technologically
- Africans were little more than uncivilized barbarians
- Africans were non-religious heathens
- There was no social structure to pre-colonial African society
- Colonization was for the good of the Africans and the continent as a whole
- Africa on the whole was an uninhabited, inhospitable place (The “Virgin Myth”).
- The “taking” of Africa was going to be an easy process with few consequences for Europeans
Dr. Livingstone, I presume?
The great
- Dr. Livingstone sparks the imperialistic race in the Congo.
Went on a mission trip for years. People thought he was dead.
Henry Stanley, a U.S. reporter was hired to go find him. He did.
Stanley continued to explore Africa himself. He was contacted by King Leopold III to negotiate for land.
This sparks the French, GB, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain to start claiming parts of Africa.
Welcome: The Scramble for and Partition of Africa
In 1884, to avoid conflict amongst themselves, European leaders met at the Berlin Conference to set up rules for colonizing Africa. No Africans were invited.
Berlin Conference
Berlin Conference
The European powers agreed that before they could claim territory they would have to set up an outpost. Whoever was the first to build the outpost gained that area of land.
Berlin Conference
Berlin Conference
Five Major Colonial Powers In Africa
- Great Britain
- France
- Portugal
- Belgium
- Germany
- In addition to these, there was Spain, Italy and the Dutch.
Legacy
- In their effort to create an empire the Europeans redrew the map of Europe.
When the “Scramble for Africa” was over, 10,000 identifiable ethnic, religious and cultural groups had been pushed into 40 states or protectorates.
Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, South Africa
- As part of their power struggle, pieces of Africa were traded around by the Europeans
National boundaries were straight lines drawn on a map, disregarding terrain or ethnicity.
Long time enemies are together – Uganda, Chad, Sudan, Nigeria
Groups divided arbitrarily = Congo, Somaliland
Colonialism: Definition and Kinds
- Definition: colonialism –military, economic, cultural oppression & domination of one country over another.
- Kinds:
1. Invasion-colonization;
2. Settlement-colonization;
3. Internal Colonialism;
4. Neo-Colonialism
Basic Reasons for European Colonization of Africa
- Geo-Strategic: Since Africa was being colonized it was important that the European powers all get a piece in order to keep up with their enemies.
- Religious: Colonization was done on religious grounds…bringing Christianity to the “heathen” Africans.
- Mercantilist: Free labor (Africans) was available for the taking, labor that would provide goods and resources for colonial powers that operated on mercantilist policies.
- Economic: harvesting the vast natural resources for European good (linked to mercantilist), would provide a boost to the sagging economies of Europe as well as provide markets for manufactured goods (forced buying of European goods by Africans.
The industrial revolution
Looking for new markets and raw materials
European Superiority
Racism- they are better then everyone
Social Darwinism- survival of the fittest
To civilize and westernize the people
Advances in technology
Machine guns (Maxim), steam engines, a drug created in 1829 to protect them from malaria
Africa had no Unity
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