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Mr. Snell World CulturesMr. Snell World Cultures
European Explorers in Africa
19c Europeans Map the Interior of Africa
African Trade [15c-17c]
Pre-19c European Trade with Africa
European Explorations in mid-19c:
“The Scramble for Africa”
2. What is the Source of the Nile?
John Speke Sir Richard Burton
“A more powerful country dominates the political, economic and cultural life of a weaker country or region. The more powerful country then sets up control over the weaker nation’s people who are defined as “distinct” and/or “inferior.”
“A more powerful country dominates the political, economic and cultural life of a weaker country or region. The more powerful country then sets up control over the weaker nation’s people who are defined as “distinct” and/or “inferior.”
ColonialismColonialism
IndustrialRevolutionIndustrialRevolution
Source forRaw
Materials
Source forRaw
Materials
Markets forFinishedGoods
Markets forFinishedGoods
EuropeanNationalismEuropean
Nationalism
MissionaryActivity
MissionaryActivity
Military& NavalBases
Military& NavalBases
EuropeanMotives
For Colonization
EuropeanMotives
For Colonization
Places toDump
Unwanted/Excess Popul.
Places toDump
Unwanted/Excess Popul.
Soc. & Eco.Opportunities
Soc. & Eco.Opportunities
HumanitarianReasons
HumanitarianReasons
EuropeanRacism
EuropeanRacism
“WhiteMan’s
Burden”
“WhiteMan’s
Burden”
SocialDarwinism
SocialDarwinism
Economic Powers
• Expectations---Make $
• What would you be looking for to make $?– Minerals– Lands
• Cash Crops
• Introduces $ economy
• NATIONALISM
• Colonies were an essential attribute of any great nation.
• Europeans needed to satisfy the material necessities of Europe brought on by the Industrial Revolution; therefore, the dream of an African empire developed as a way to invest surplus capital ($), and as a boost to national prestige /honor/pride.
• SOCIAL DARWINISM
• Takes Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection (survival of the fittest) can be used to understand why some individuals OR nations or countries are wealthy, powerful and successful and others are not.
Social Darwinism
The “White Man’s Burden”
Rudyard Kipling
The “White Man’s Burden”?
• White European (and American) people have an obligation to rule over, and encourage the cultural development of people from other ethnic and cultural backgrounds until those people can take their place in the world by fully adopting Western ways.
• The rich and powerful have a moral duty and obligation to help "the poor" "better" themselves whether the poor want the help or not.
Is "the white man's burden" racist?
Is it just a condescending view
of non-Western culture?
Is it a white European belief in
their way of life-"cultural
imperialism?”
Is "the white man's burden" racist?
Is it just a condescending view
of non-Western culture?
Is it a white European belief in
their way of life-"cultural
imperialism?”
• SOCIO - CULTRAL IMPACT• Urbanization: Not only did pre-existing towns
expand, but completely new urban centers emerged following the establishment of the colonial system e.g.
• All these new urban centers were created either as ports or harbors, mining centers, administration center etc. The population of Accra jumped from 17,892 in 1901 to 135,926 in 1948. There is no doubt the quality of life for West Africa's population was improved through the provision of piped water, hospitality, better housing and sanitary facilities, BUT social bonds were destroyed when young people left their families and tribes to move to the city.
Christian and Islam and expansion of western education during the colonial period. Christianity gained far more converts and penetrated further. Islam also gained a lot of ground . The spread of western education was mainly due to the action of the Christian missionaries. By 1930s there were very few areas in West Africa where elementary education wasn't common. By 1940 universities also became common in almost all the colonies except in the Portuguese and Belgium colonies.
• Almost all the colonies adopted the colonial language for communication which broke the ethnic language barrier between tribes.
• Colonialism have, in many respects, distorted and abrogated the essence of West African cultural norms and institutions. The systematic approach that the European invaders utilized to usurp land in Africa has contributed greatly to the disunity and dysfunction of indigenous West Africans; coups take place in Africa not because Africans cannot govern themselves, but because West African leaders have inherited a colonial legacy that tends to pit African against African, or brother against brother. This schism can be traced directly to the different types of colonial masters that held sway on the continent. Each colonial power pursued a cultural policy that it believed would give it efficacious results, and a policy that was in tune with his philosophy of colonial administration.
• West Africa's poor states gained little or nothing from colonialism. But its elites bloomed as a result of it. They were given a ladder to climb the global pyramid. West African wealthy states e.g. Nigeria who today lives on the upper layers of the pyramid, certainly owe their fortune to colonialism. Without opportunities created by the linking of Africa to the western world, it is unlikely that indigenous ruling classes would have catapulted themselves from pre-capitalist levels of wealth to modern bourgeoisie affluence. So the answer to the often posed question, 'did Africans benefit from colonialism' is, the elites definitely gained while the poor majority did not.
• As there is no basis to assume that Africans would have independently developed electricity, the motor engine and other products of advanced technologies, it is fair to suppose that if Africa had not been colonized it would today still have to grapple with problems of economic development. Africa would have needed to import western technology and therefore would have had to export something to pay for it. Like other pre-industrial societies, African nations would invariably have had to trade minerals and agricultural commodities for western manufactures. So Africa's position in the international economy, particularly as a producer of primary products for industrialized countries, should not be blamed solely on colonialism. It is largely a function of unequal development.
• However, had Africa not been colonized, the likelihood is that its elites would still have wanted to consume the products and services of western industrial nations. It is unlikely that African chiefs and traders would have been content with the simplicity of communal life to shut off their communities from Western advances. If during the slave trade, rulers and traders happily waged wars and sold fellow humans to buy beads, guns and second-hand hats, one can only imagine what they would have done if faced with offers of cars, televisions, MacDonald's etc. Undoubtedly, without colonization African societies would still have sought industrialization and western type modernization, as have peoples in virtually every other region in the world.
Berlin Conference Review
• What was it?• How did it change Africa?• Fourteen western nations attended the three-
month session to determine the “rules” for dividing up Africa among themselves.
• The Berlin Conference was very important in African history because of the way it sought to minimize competition among the European colonial powers
Berlin Conference of 1884-1885
Another point of view?
Africa
1890
Africa
in
1914
The Africa of a century ago consisted of a large number of independent states. Some of these states were large and powerful; others were smaller and weaker. The Berlin Conference essentially condensed Africa into about 50 pieces of territory all of which came under European colonial rule.
The Africa of a century ago consisted of a large number of independent states. Some of these states were large and powerful; others were smaller and weaker. The Berlin Conference essentially condensed Africa into about 50 pieces of territory all of which came under European colonial rule.
Two Methods of Rule
• Direct Rule– Controls every level of
government– Appoints positions – Ex- France and Germany
• Indirect Rule– Euro. is in control– Leaves original
leaders in power– Ex. Great Britain
• Made decisions-local officers enforced them
Results-THE SAME These differences existed only in name and implementation. The purpose was the same – the exploitation of African resources both human and natural. Forced labor, brutal land excision, torture and taxation were the universal features of colonialism. It was through this brutality that African lives were lost in colonial mines, roads, railways and plantations.
Effects of European Rule
How did new political and economic systems impact Africa?
• Before European influence, national borders were not much of a concern, with Africans generally following the practice of other areas of the world, such as the Arabian Peninsula, where a group's territory was congruent with its military or trade influence. The European insistence of drawing borders around territories to isolate them from those of other colonial powers often had the effect of separating friendly groups or tribes, or forcing traditional enemies to live side by side with no buffer between them.
• The systematic, indiscriminate divisions were drawn without any concern for ethnic, cultural, geographical or ecological realities of Africa. This brought different ethnic groups (tribes) with different historical traditions, cultures and speaking different languages under a single or more colonial power. This situation disrupted the political development of these social groups.
• Some tribes were divided between multiple colonial powers because these lines of partition also ran-across pre- existing nations, ethnicities, states, kingdoms and empires.
• For example, although the Congo River appears to be a natural geographic boundary, there were groups that otherwise shared a language, culture or other similarity who resided on both sides. The division of the land between Belgium and France along the river isolated these groups from each other. Those who lived in Saharan or Sub-Saharan Africa and traded across the continent for centuries often found themselves crossing borders that existed only on European maps.
• The Ewes for instance are divided by the boundary between Ghana and Togo while Akan are found in the Ivory Coast and in Ghana. The Senufo now live in Mali, the Ivory Coast and in Burkina Faso. This explains the border disputes between Burkina Faso and Mali etc.
• These lines also brought about the uneven sizes and unequal distribution of natural resources and economic potentialities of these states. Some of the states emerged from the partition as giants e.g. Nigeria with an approximated area of 357,000 square miles, whiles others came out as midgets e.g. Gambia with an approximated area of 4000 square miles. Some states have few borders e.g. Gambia with one border, while others had many boarders e.g. Mali with seven borders. This makes it difficult to check the problems of security and smuggling.
• Colonialism bred political crisis. • In disrupting pre-colonial political systems that worked for
Africans and imposing alien models, colonialism laid the seeds of political crisis.
• By redrawing of the map of Africa, throwing diverse people together without consideration for established borders, ethnic conflicts were created that are destabilizing the continent.
• The new nation-states were artificial and many were too small to be viable. Less than a third of the countries in Africa have populations of more than 10 million. Nigeria, the major exception to this, was given with ingredients for its self-destruction by combining so many tribes and religious groups into 1 nation.
• . Western multi-party democracy imposed by colonial powers without having them participate in this democracy before independence, Africans did not know how to compromise- an important part of democracy.
• Because of the divisions among the peoples in a nation there was little consensus among the people and this has led to violations of minorities rights or, more often, chaos. When the nations have become chaotic there have been civil wars and then, inevitably a military leader comes to power to “restore order” and the democracy is destroyed.
• Economic impact• No industries were built, but the natural resources of the
African nations were taken out of Africa and used by the Europeans for their own benefit.
• The prime legacy of colonialism was the integration of Africa into the international capitalist economy. It enables African elites to consume products of western civilization without having to go through the difficult and long-term process of building the productive base of their societies. It is far easier to shop in the global market than try to build industries yourself.
• Development of Africa's economy happened during the colonial period. It was during this period that the mineral potential of many African states were discovered and modern scientific mining introduced. It was during this period that the productions of such cash crops like cotton, peanuts, palm, cocoa etc... Became the main feature of the political economy of many African states.
• The transportation and communication infrastructure that was provided was only inadequate but was also very unevenly distributed in nearly all the colonies. The roads and railways were built in areas with the potential for cash crops and with mineral deposits. They were actually meant to help exploit African resources but not to promote the accessibility and the development of all the regions in the economy.
• Colonialism saddled the most colonies with mono-crop economies. During the colonial period, each colony was made to produce a single cash crop or two and no attempts were made to diversify the agricultural economy. The habit of producing these single cash crops appears to have become so ingrained that it has not been changed since independence. Africans were encouraged to produce what they don't consume and to consume what they don't produce. To this day African nations have to rely on the importation of oil, rice, maize and other food stuff to survive.
Money Economy
• Pay taxes in cash instead of goods
• Africans took new jobs in mines, farms, factories
• Some people made a lot of $$$$$$$$$$$– While some made very little
• Change – Before- believed land was the communities– After- land ownership
Improvements
• What are improvements do you think European nations brought?
• Transportation– Roads and Railroads
• Communication– Telegraphs
• Built– Schools and hospitals
• Apologists for colonialism point to the roads, railways and bridges built by the colonial powers as proof of their contribution to African development. The colonial powers to this day claim that the colonies received very good value in the services of the British administrators whose salaries they paid. There is also the claim that colonialism brought Africa into the money economy
Pluses and Negatives of Euro. Rule
Plus
• Transportation• Communication• Medical care
Negative
• Africans forced to build these projects
• Transportation extended the government control
• Only a few benefited from the med. care
The Congo Free State or
The Belgian Congo
King Leopold II:(r. 1865 – 1909)
Harvesting Rubber
Punishing “Lazy” Workers
5-8 Million Victims! (50% of Popul.)
It is blood-curdling to see them (the soldiers) returning with the hands of the slain, and to find the hands of young children amongst the bigger ones evidencing their bravery...The rubber from this district has cost hundreds of lives, and the scenes I have witnessed, while unable to help the oppressed, have been almost enough to make me wish I were dead... This rubber traffic is steeped in blood, and if the natives were to rise and sweep every white person on the Upper Congo into eternity, there would still be left a fearful balance to their credit. -- Belgian Official
Belgium’s Stranglehold on the Congo
Leopold’s Conscience??
Leopold Defends Himself in Paris, 1903
King Leopold (to Loubert of England) : How about that! The English claim that Itortured, robbed andmurdered more than they did. . .
Loubert replies : No, your Majesty, that's impossible .
• The term Hutu originally referred to the agricultural-based Bantu-speaking peoples that moved into present day Rwandan and Burundi from the West, and the term Tutsi referred to Northeastern cattle-based peoples that migrated into the region later.
• The terms to the indigenous peoples living there eventually came to describe a person's economic class NOT tribe. Individuals who owned roughly 10 or more cattle were considered Tutsi, and those with fewer were considered Hutu, regardless of ancestral history. This was not a strict line but a general rule of thumb, and one could move from Hutu to Tutsi and vice versa.
• Europeans often changed the balance of power, created ethnic divides where they did not previously exist, and introduced cultural change in the areas they controlled.
• For example, in what are now Rwanda and Burundi, two ethnic groups Hutus and Tutsis had merged into one culture by the time German colonists had taken control of the region in the nineteenth century. No longer divided by ethnicity as intermingling, intermarriage, and merging of cultural practices over the centuries had long since erased visible signs of a culture divide, the Belgians (the territories were mandated to them following the First World War) instituted a policy of racial categorization, when they took control of the region
• The Belgians introduced a racialized system. Individuals who had characteristics the Europeans admired — fairer skin, ample height, narrow noses, etc. — were given power amongst the colonized peoples. The Belgians determined these features were more ideally European and belonged to those people closest to Tutsi in ancestry. They instituted a policy of issuing identity cards based on this philosophy. Those closest to this ideal were proclaimed Tutsi and those not were proclaimed Hutu.
Dutch Landing in 1652
Shaka Zulu (1785 – 1828)
Boers Clash With the Xhosa Tribes
Boer Farmer
The Great Trek, 1836-38
Afrikaners
Diamond Mines
Raw Diamonds
The Struggle for South Africa
Paul Kruger (1825-1904)
Boer-British Tensions Increase
v 1877 – Britain annexed the Transvaal.v 1883 – Boers fought British in the Transvaal and regained its independence. - Paul Kruger becomes President.v 1880s – Gold discovered in the Transvaal
The Boer War: 1899 - 1900
The BoersThe British
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