CLOSED AFRICA Imperialism

African Trade [15c-17c]

Pre-19c European Trade with Africa

Closed Africa  Escarpments  Escarpments – steep cliffs prevented entry into central Africa  Cataracts  Cataracts – Large waterfalls on many African rivers; Ex. Nile, Congo, Zambezi  Boats cannot sail up many rivers  Early Europeans did not explore the land

Disease  Tropical Climate: Breeding Ground for Disease:  Malaria  Malaria (mosquitoes)  Sleeping Sickness  Sleeping Sickness – Tsetse Fly  River blindness  River blindness – Flies  Bilharzia  Bilharzia – snails/parasite worms – bladder infections  Guinea Worm  Blinding Trachoma  Ebola

Imperialism  Imperialism – a policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries politically, economically, or socially.

Industrial Revolution Source for Raw Materials Markets for Finished Goods European Nationalism Missionary Activity Military & Naval Bases European Motives For Colonization Places to Dump Unwanted/ Excess Popul. Soc. & Eco. Opportunities Humanitarian Reasons European Racism “White Man’s Burden” Social Darwinism

Motives: Economic Economic – industrial competition, raw materials. Political Political – rivalries grew in Europe. Increase in nationalism in European countries. Religious Religious – spread Christianity.

Industrial Revolution  European countries needed to search for new markets and raw materials. Led to competition for colonies (Africa).

Social Darwinism Charles Darwin’s Charles Darwin’s ideas about evolution “survival of the fittest” Justification for imperialist expansion. Racism Racism – the belief that one race is superior to others. White Man’s Burden White Man’s Burden

Social Darwinism

The “White Man’s Burden” A poem by Rudyard Kipling The supposed or presumed responsibility of white people to govern and impart their culture to non-white people, often advanced as a justification for European colonialism.

Missionaries Major push by European missionaries to convert people in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific Islands to Christianity.

What Open’s the Heart of Africa?  Reasons  Wars! Technologically superior Maxim machine gun. Invented (1884) 1 st automatic gun  Europeans  Europeans had built steamboats, railroads, and cables in order to gain control of Africa.  Europeans drugs  Europeans developed drugs (like quinine) to prevent malaria (1829). Europeansmanipulated  Europeans manipulated rival African groups to fight one another.

European Explorers in Africa 19c  Europeans Map the Interior of Africa

Where Is Dr. Livingstone? Doctor Livingstone, I Presume? Sir Henry Morton Stanley Dr. David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa.

European Explorations in mid-19c: “The Scramble for Africa”

Scramble for Africa King Leopold of Belgium claimed central Africa claiming he was doing it to protect the natives from Arab slavers and to open the heart of African to Christian missionaries and western capitalists The area he controlled, the Congo River Basin, is now modern-day Democratic Republic of Congo

King Leopold II: (r – 1909)

Belgium’s Stranglehold on the Congo The king unleashed new horrors on the African continent. He turned his “Congo Free state” into a massive labor camp made a fortune for himself from the harvest o rubber. He contributed in a large way to death of perhaps 10 million innocent people in the process. Congo’s soldiers have never moved away from the role allocated to them by Leopold which was to force, coerce, torment, and rape an unarmed civilian population.

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

Berlin Conference MMMMM…Give Me Some of the Cake

Berlin Conference  ( ).  14 nations met in Germany (no African nations invited to conference).  The Europeans carved Africa into colonies.  Set future rules on acquiring territories.

Berlin Conference of Another point of view? 

Berlin Conference of

European Colonization/Decolonization Patterns

Africa 1890

Africa in 1914

Invitees  The 14 attending conference: 1. Austria-Hungary.8. Netherlands. 2. Belgium.9. Portugal. 3. Denmark.10. Russia. 4. France.11. Spain. 5. Germany.12. Sweden-Norway 6. Great Britain.13. Turkey. 7. Italy.14. United States.  RED / BOLD FACE ARE THE MAJOR COUNTRIES INVOLVED AT THE TIME