The Partition of Africa By: Mackenzie Buck

On the Eve of Scramble Westerners knew little about Africa, except for the trade routes on the coast. They called it the “dark continent” or “unknown land” A Diverse Land: North Africa has ties with the Muslim world. It includes the fertile land along the Mediterranean and the Sahara. In West Africa an Islamic movement was taking place. East Africa shipped slaves to the Middle East. South Africa was in turmoil, mass migrations and wars were taking place due to the Zulu nation uniting.

European Contacts Increase Europeans have been taking slaves to work on plantations and farms for centuries. But European nations were slowly outlawing slavery. Abolitionists in the U.S. and Britain were promoting the idea of returning freed slaves back to Africa. Sierra Leone was established as a colony in West Africa where freed slaves would live. Some free blacks were also settling neat Liberia, which became an independent republic in 1847. Slaves were still traded between Central and East Africa to work as slaves in the Middle East and Asia. Also missionaries would travel with explorers to Africa. The missionaries wanted to convert Africans to Christianity. They built schools and medical clinics alongside churches. Missionaries were urging Africans to take on the culture of the Western Civilization.

The Great Scramble Begins King Leopold II hired someone to explore the Congo River Basin and make treaties with African leaders. This action by Leopold set off a scramble. Britain, France, and Germany were making claims to the region. Berlin Conference: An international conference was held in 1884. It took place in Berlin, Germany and no Africans were invited. European powers respected Leopold's claim to the Congo, but wanted free trade between the Congo and Niger rivers. They all agreed that no European power could claim any part of Africa unless they set up a government office. In the next 20 years the European powers spit apart the almost the whole continent. Ethiopia and Liberia were the only independent regions.

Carving Up a Continent The Boer War: Britain had taken the Cape Colony from the Dutch in 1806. Dutch Farmers (Boers) did not like British rule and migrated north and founded their own republics. The discovery of diamonds in the Boer republics set off the Boer Wars. The war lasted from 1899 to 1902. It was at great cost that the British won. The Cape Colony and the former Boer republics were united to make South Africa. The new constitution set up a government run by whites. This started racial segregation that would remain intact until 1993.

Africans Fight Back In Ethiopia Africans were adopting the ways of the Westerners. Some rejected their own culture, but others rejected Western culture which taught liberty and equality for whites. African Leaders were forming nationalist movements to pursue independence.