1. European
Colonialism in
Africa

2. Background: 1500s-1800s

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

4. Africa in the
1880s:
“As late as 1880, Europeans controlled only 10% of the continent’s land, mainly on the coast.”
(Beck et al., 685)

5. “Whatever happens, we have got the maxim gun (1883) and they have not”
What helped Europe colonize Africa ( & India & much of Asia) in the 19th century?
One important reason:
“Whatever happens, we have got the maxim gun (1883) and they have not”

6. Berlin Conference of

7. Africa in
1914

8. DIRECT CONTROL INDIRECT CONTROL TYPES OF COLONIAL MGMT
Characteristics? Examples?
DIRECT - No self-rule; goal—assimilation; gov’t 100% European
E.g. - France in Somaliland & Vietnam; Germany in Tanganyika
INDIRECTUsed local gov’t officials, limited self-rule, goal—develop future leaders, Euro styles but may have local rules
E.G. British in Nigeria, India, Burma; US in Pacific islands

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

10. The “White Man’s Burden”
Rudyard Kipling

11. The “White Man’s Burden”?

12. The Belgian Congo:
"King Leopold's
Ghost"

13. The Congo Free State or The Belgian Congo

14. HOW WAS LEOPOLD’S COLONY DIFFERENT THAN MOST IN AFRICA?
King Leopold II: (r – 1909)
HOW WAS LEOPOLD’S COLONY DIFFERENT THAN MOST IN AFRICA?

15. Anyone know…

16. Harvesting Rubber
LEOPOLD had high debts before having the luck of the worldwide rubber boom of the 1890s.
WHY was there a rubber boom in the 1890s?
TIRES
HOSES
TUBING
INSULATION for TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE CABLES
Etc.

17. Punishing “Lazy” Workers

18. 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

19. Belgium’s Stranglehold on the Congo

20. E.D. Morel – “The Black Man’s Burden”
Human rights leader
Journalist/shipping agent
Noticed:
Millions of $$$ going out of Congo in rubber & ivory
Only rifles & chains entering Congo
He inferred that Congo was a slave state