1. Notes on Colonialism

3. European Expansion
Made possible by developments in shipping, navigation
Motivated by:
Need to settle excess population
Evangelical zeal
Search for wealth

4. Disease and the Americas
Native Americans did not have immunity to diseases common in Europe, Africa & Asia
Up to 95% died after contact
Human epidemic diseases originated with herd animals; need both herds and dense population
In Americas, there were dense populations but no herds

5. In the Americas… Europeans… …seized territory …formed settlements
…exploited labor
…stole wealth

6. Americas
Europeans began with native and European laborers, then turned to Africa.
Africans were:
resistant to European diseases
resistant to tropical diseases

7. Slave Trade
Trade between Europe and Africa soon became focused on slave trade.
Africans wanted European goods and all the Europeans wanted were slaves.
Most slaves were captured in raids or were prisoners of war. Some were criminals or debtors.

8. Slave Trade (cont.)
Slaves were captured by Africans and sold by African middlemen to Europeans.
During the slave trade, Europeans did not control African territories.

10. Scramble for Africa Slave trade ended 1805, replaced by other trade
Late 1880s, European countries suddenly wanted colonies in Africa:
To build national prestige
To gain raw materials for factories

11. Scramble for Africa (cont.)
To gain markets for manufactured goods
To gain mineral wealth and prevent other European countries from acquiring it
Europeans cooperated among themselves and divided Africa up
Able to colonize late 19th century because:
Better medicines
Better guns

13. Ideology of African Colonialism
Ideology—a set of ideas representing one’s worldview, which affects one’s thoughts and actions.
Bringing civilization and salvation to “savages”
Benefiting natives
Taught superiority of European way of life, backwardness of African life.
Rudyard Kipling—White Man’s Burden—natives not capable of governing themselves and need our intervention to prosper.

14. Colonialism and Identity
Colonies expected to be profitable to the colonizers
Forced Africans to pay taxes (hut tax, head tax)
Pressured to grow cash crops
Took land for settlement
Ruled: created chiefs, new ethnic groups/tribes

15. Colonialism and Identity (cont.)
Whole countries, along with social groups and divisions within them, were colonial inventions
Many modern political boundaries in West Africa based on linguistic, political, and economic contrasts that are the result of European colonial policies

16. Essential Questions Consider…
How did the consequences of colonialism affect the relationship between the colonizing European cultures and the indigenous African cultures?
How is this relationship reflected in the literature of colonial countries?