1. Imperialism
Ask students to describe what they see in this cartoon. What might the “snake” represent? Why would it have a human head? Who is it coiling around? What do you think it means?
In the rubber coils of the Congo `Free' State, a 1906 British cartoon criticizing the abuses of Leopold II's rule of the Congo Free State. By selling off large tracts of the Congo to the highest bidder, Leopold opened the door to the rapacious exploitation of people and resources by short-term business profiteers. Reports of atrocities reaching Europe sparked reactions, as shown here, contributing to the decision by the Belgian government to take over formal administration of the Congo in 1908

3. The “OPENING UP” OF AFRICA
Mid-1800s
Missionaries and explorers sparked foreign interest in Africa

4. Africa (1880)

5. DAVID LIVINGSTONE (1813-1873) Scottish missionary
– lived in central Africa
Explored Africa
Named Lake Victoria after the British queen
Converted many Africans to Christianity
Wrote books on Africa which piqued foreign interest
1871 – reported “lost”
“Found” by Henry Stanley
“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

6. Exploration Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?”
David Livingstone
Doctor/Missionary
Mapping the “Dark Continent”
Open the interior of Africa for commerce & Christianity
British missionary and explorer David Livingstone (1813–1873) was one of the first Europeans to travel across the continent of Africa. His explorations paved the way for Europeans to chart the interior of the “Dark Continent.” By the second half of the 1800s, Europeans had a good idea of the vast natural resources that Africa harbored.
In 1869, Henry Morton Stanley, acting as a journalist, was sent to find David Livingstone, a missionary and explorer who was said to be traveling in Africa but no one knew if he was dead or alive. Stanley met up with Livingstone in November of 1871, greeting him by saying, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
David Livingstone

7. The Scramble for Africa
# 1. Colonization of Africa
by Europeans
#3 Great Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Belgium
King Leopold II of Belgium believed that the acquisition of overseas colonies was essential in his quest to define his country’s future, yet he was never quite able to get the support of his government or his citizens to participate in colony building. Thus, in 1876 he established his own holding company and hired Henry Morton Stanley to establish a colony in the Congo.
King Leopold II of Belgium

8. Imperialism is very similar to colonialism, with one major difference: colonial powers settle the countries of which they gain control, while imperial powers do not. The term “imperialism” does not seem to exist prior to the 1800s. Nineteenth-century imperialism was spurred in large part by the Industrial Revolution. The development of new industrial economies in the 1700s and 1800s necessitated the acquisition of raw materials and the desire to gain control of marketplaces; thus, by the mid-1800s, imperialistic actions of strong nations (most notably European nations) started to become policy.
1 Definition is from America: Pathways to the Present (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005, p. 981).
Imperialism: The policy by a stronger nation to attempt to create an empire by dominating weaker nations economically, politically, culturally, or militarily.

9. How Did Imperialism Begin?
What brought about imperialism during this particular time period?
A coaling station for steamships, Cape Town, South Africa

10. Economic Motives #1 Industrialized nations sought: Raw materials
Natural resources
A cheap labor supply
New marketplaces for manufactured goods
Control means of production
Economic motives provided perhaps the strongest impetus for imperialism. Nations strove to control weaker nations because they hoped to expand their own economies, acquire raw materials, possibly obtain new sources of labor, and/or gain new marketplaces for their products. Africa became one of the main sources of raw materials for industrializing nations.

11. The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain in the mid-18th century
Britain’s advantages
The spread of industrialization
Throughout most of the 19th century, Great Britain experienced unprecedented power resulting from its position as the world’s first industrialized nation. It also soon became the world’s wealthiest nation. Britain earned the nickname “the workshop of the world” due to its ability to manufacture finished products quickly, efficiently, and cheaply.
By the middle of the 19th century, industrialization had spread across Europe and the United States, aided by the development of railroad links that brought resources to new factories and transported their finished goods to world markets.

12. Technological Advances
The steam engine
Better transportation
Increased exploration
Improvements in communication
Developments in technology influenced colonial expansion and exploration as well. The steam engine revolutionized transportation, powering both seagoing vessels and land vehicles, such as trains. Advances in transportation and communication allowed for increased exploration of more remote regions of the world. Other innovations, such as the telegraph, provided vast improvements in long-distance communication.
The steamboat Herald (with mounted machine guns) on the Zambezi river in Africa
One of the first steam engines

13. Cecil Rhodes #9
British imperialist who made huge profits from Africa’s natural resources
Founder of the state of Rhodesia in Africa
Rhodes was the Prime Minister of the British Cape Colony in South Africa. While in South Africa, he formed his own mining company, De Beers Consolidated Mines. Today, De Beers is perhaps best known for its diamonds.

14. “The Rhodes Colossus”
This cartoon depicts British imperial ambitions to control the entire African continent.
The cartoon in this slide, titled “The Rhodes Colossus: striding from Cape Town to Cairo,” appeared in Punch magazine in December of Rhodes intended to build a railway from Cairo to Cape Town.

15. Religious: to spread the benefits of Christianity and Western Culture
Motives #1
Religious: to spread the benefits of Christianity and Western Culture
Political: competition fuel by Nationalism, Empire Building

16. Justification for Imperialism
A desire to “civilize” non-Europeans also spurred the development of imperialism
Social Darwinism
All European nations who participated in imperialistic activities during this time period supported missionary activity in one way or another. In addition, a belief in the superiority of the white race produced the idea that whites had a responsibility to civilize non-whites. Although the term “survival of the fittest” was first used by Herbert Spencer in 1851, it gained greater fame when Charles Darwin used it in his discussion of natural selection in The Origin of Species. The late 19th century saw the rise of a philosophy known as “Social Darwinism,” which (among other things) used the principle of natural selection to explain the need for stronger countries to dominate weaker ones. Ideological motives both rationalized and provided a measure of justification for European imperialism.
Darwin’s handwritten cover page for The Origin of Species
Herbert Spencer

17. Describe 3 examples of European ethnocentrism in the political cartoon.

18. Imperialism Quote
“If you woke up one morning and found that somebody had come to your house, and had declared that the house belonged to him, you would naturally be surprised, and you would like to know by what arrangement.”
Jomo Kenyatta – 1st President of Kenya
How does this quote show an African reaction to European Imperialism in Africa? Use 3 examples

19. Imperialism Quote
Desmond Tutu … “when the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘let us close our eyes and pray’. When we opened them, we had the Bible, and they had the land”.
How does this quote show an African reaction to European Imperialism in Africa? Use 3 examples

20. The Berlin Conference 1884 #4
Rules to divide Africa among European powers to avoid conflict among European powers= Artificial Borders
In 1884, German Prime Minister Otto Von Bismarck opened a conference in Berlin dedicated to “the Africa problem.” At the conference, European powers agreed on a set of rules governing imperial ambitions in Africa:
The area along the Congo River was to remain under the control of Leopold II.
No nation could stake a claim on the continent without notifying other nations.
Territory could not be claimed unless it was occupied.

21. European Control of Africa
By 1914, only two African nations remained independent
Liberia and Ethiopia #2
By 1914, the British had control of close to 30% of the population of the continent of Africa, the French had 15%, Germany and Belgium each had just under 10%, and Italy had 1%.

22. The Maxim Gun #5 British troops fighting forces in Benin in 1897
Changes in weaponry gave European countries an advantage over native populations. In 1885, the Maxim gun was invented; it could fire 500 rounds per minute. The British army began using the guns in 1889.
British troops fighting forces in Benin in 1897

23. Methods of Management
Indirect Control: This form relied on using the existing African political rulers.
Britain sometimes asked local chiefs to accept British rule and legislative councils were formed and included colonial (European) officials and merchants.
The idea was that these councils would train the Africans, and at some point in time, these territories would be able to rule themselves, much like Australia and Canada.

24. Methods of Management
Direct Control: The French and most other European countries preferred stronger control because they felt that Africans were not civilized enough to rule themselves.
They adopted a policy of paternalism, in which the Europeans acted like the Africans’ parents in providing for their survival, but denying them rights.
They avoided training locals, and instead, brought along Europeans to rule the Africans.
The French also supported a policy of assimilation, in which the native population would take on French customs and culture and be like them.
African customs and culture were looked at as inferior, or not as good as French culture.

25. Direct vs. Indirect Rule #6
European nations chose one of two different paths when it came to colonial rule:
Indirect rule: colonies were ruled through existing traditional rulers
Example: Nigeria
Direct rule: the colony was directly administered by the colonizer
Example: Senegal
France tended to use direct rule the most often, while Britain usually relied on indirect rule.
Result: loss of power and influence
By Traditional rulers

26. Cash Crop/Money Economy #7
Africans sold labor to make money to pay taxes
Problems
Created dependence on Colonial rulers

27. #8 Purpose of the Railroads was to extract wealth

28. #9 Aim of Colonial Rulers
To benefit Colonial economies accomplished by cash crop system and forced labor
King Leopold II of Belgium
Cecil Rhodes

29. 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

30. African Resistance Africans Confront Imperialism
Broad resistance, but Europeans have superior weapons
Unsuccessful Movements
Algeria fights the French for 50 years
German East Africa resistance results in 75,000 deaths
Successful Movements
Ethiopia under Emperor Menelik II
Plays Europeans against each other
Stockpiles modern weapons
Defeats Italy and remains independent #10

31. African Resistance
Unsuccessful Attempts: Africans resisted Europeans in both military conflict, and through religious resistance.
Algeria was able to resist French rule for 50 years.
French West Africa held out for 16 years because it had a strong king named Samori Toure that had modernized his military.
In the end, only famine could beat Toure.

32. Maji-Maji prisoners captured by Germans.
African Resistance
German East Africa: Natives in this region used religious faith as defense.
German colonizers had forced them to grow cash crops, such as cotton, instead of food.
Natives came to believe that if magic water called maji-maji were sprinkled on their bodies, they would be bullet-proof
Furthermore, they believed that God had approved of their struggle, and that their dead ancestors would rise from the grave and help them against the Germans.
As many as 75,000 were mowed down by German Maxim machine guns, and 150,000 more starved to death later.
Maji-Maji prisoners captured by Germans.

33. African Resistance
Ethiopia: A Successful Resistance: Ethiopia was the only country that successfully resisted Europeans.
Its king, Menelik II, played all of the European countries off of each other (tricked them) as they tried to convince him to be under their sphere of influence,
While he tricked them, he bought modern weapons from the French and Russians.

34. African Resistance
In signing a treaty with Italy, Menelik II realized that he had been tricked by differences in translation between languages, and that he had given up control of his country.
Menelik declared war on Italy, and was able to beat Italy at the Battle of Adowa. 1896
Menelik II continued to stockpile weapons to resist any other attempts to take over his country.

35. African Resistance The Zulu Ethiopia
Africans did not passively accept European claims to rule over them. As European troops advanced on African territory, they met stiff resistance.
Zulu people resisted colonialization more than 50 years
Zulu leader Shaka built strong kingdom by subduing several neighboring peoples
1879, British invaded Zulu territory, annexed kingdom as colony
The Zulu
Only nation to retain independence by matching European firepower
1889, emperor Menelik II modernized nation, army
1895, Italian forces invaded over treaty dispute
Menelik’s forces defeated Italians
Ethiopia
Even without modern weapons, other Africans still fiercely resisted European powers.

36. French and Germans French West Africa German East Africa
West Africa, leader of Malinke peoples, Samory Touré, formed army to fight against French rule; fought for 15 years; proclaimed self king of Guinea
1898, French defeated Touré, ended resistance to French rule in West Africa
German East Africa
Africans called on gods, ancestors for spiritual guidance in resistance
1905, several African peoples united to rebel against Germans’ order to grow cotton for export to Germany
Rebellion Put Down
To combat Germans, spiritual leader encouraged followers to sprinkle magic water over bodies to protect selves from German bullets; did not work
Rebellion quickly put down; Germans killed tens of thousands of Africans

37. #10 African Resistance and failure
Many Africans resisted European rule
Millions of Africans died
Europeans = superior military technology
North Africa: Algerians fought French
West Africa: Ibo and Fulani fought British
Congo Free State: 20 years of fighting
Ethiopia exception: European training preserved independence

38. The Legacy of Imperialism
Caricature of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin
Although many colonies benefited from the improvements imperialism brought in infrastructure, schooling, and health care, political instability and economies lacking in diversity continue to plague many former colonies. Many nations in Africa have experienced (and continue to experience) civil war resulting in large part from the artificial boundaries that remained after they had won their independence from former European powers. Most colonies had little experience with self-rule; when independence came, political instability often followed. When stability was achieved, many times it came because a dictator had seized control of the country.
Imperialism more or less created the “Third World,” and many of the problems that these countries experience today stem from the legacy of imperialism.
Question to students: What obligations, if any, does the industrialized world owe to the nations which it dominated and exploited for so long?
Mozambican war refugees, 1978

39. How do the pictures show how life changed for Africans after the arrival of Europeans? 3 examples

40. A Closer Look at Imperialism in Africa
European quest to control natural resources
Doing so led to drastic changes in the infrastructure of the continent
Europeans sought colonies in large part to gain control of natural resources such as copper, rubber, and tin. This led to drastic changes in the infrastructure of the continent. Traditionally, African peoples had been subsistence farmers. The arrival of the Europeans marked a significant shift in this traditional way of life. Farmers were now forced to grow cash crops such as peanuts.
The port of Zanzibar around 1900

41. Transportation, Communication, Education, Medical Care
Europeans constructed roads and bridges and laid thousands of miles of railroad track in order to facilitate the movement of goods and people across the continent; they also built telegraph lines. These improvements in infrastructure not only helped Europeans better exploit Africa’s natural resources, but also allowed for greater political control over African peoples and countries.

42. Effects New political systems
New Economic pattern: money economy, cash crops, taxes, dependence, lack of diversity
Transportation
Communication,
Education,
Medical Care
migrant workers, chibaro = breakdown of Family
New attitude towards land
Racism
Christianity
Artificial boundaries
Educated African elite
Nationalism
westernization
Generalization: change and breakdown of traditional values and organizations

43. Economic Consequences
Cash Crops
depleted the soil and made it difficult to grow subsistence crops.
undermine local industries because they sucked up most of the labor force.
once colonies gained their independence, years of dependence on a single cash crop made it difficult to modernize and diversify their economies
Long-term dependence on cash crops had a negative impact on the economies of imperial possessions. Most of these crops depleted the soil and made it difficult to grow subsistence crops. Cash crops also tended to undermine local industries because they sucked up most of the labor force. In addition, once colonies gained their independence, years of dependence on a single cash crop made it difficult to modernize and diversify their economies.
Result: Slowed development and modernization

44. Effects of European Imperialism on Africa
Directions: Using your answers from question #11 from Scramble for Africa sheet and pages from the text, categorize the effects of European Imperialism on Africa as positive or negative to the development of Africa.
Positive
Negative
Was European Imperialism in Africa more disruptive or beneficial to the African culture and its people?
Support your answer with evidence.

45. Positive Material Improvements Educated African elite Nationalism
Transportation and communication
RR and Telegraphs
Hospitals
Sanitation and water systems
Formal education system (western)
Educated African elite
Nationalism

46. Negative Disruption of Traditional African Life New political systems
New Economic pattern: money economy, cash crops, taxes, economic dependence, lack of diversity
migrant workers, chibaro = breakdown of Family
New attitude towards land
Racism
Christianity
Artificial boundaries
westernization
Generalization: change and breakdown of traditional values and organizations

47. Material improvements: Transportation and communication
Positive
Negative
Material improvements:
Transportation and communication
RR and Telegraphs
Hospitals
Sanitation and water systems
Formal education system (western)
Nationalism
westernization
Disruption of Traditional African Life
New political systems
New Economic pattern: money economy, cash crops, taxes, dependence, lack of diversity
migrant workers, chibaro = breakdown of Family
New attitude towards land
Racism
Christianity
Artificial boundaries
Educated African elite
Generalization: change and breakdown of traditional values and organizations