1. The Scramble for Africa 1880-1914

2. Causes of Late 19th Century European Imperialism
Economic
Industrialization
Raw materials needed for European industries
Oil in the Middle East
Rubber in Africa
Textiles in India
European Capitalism
Higher returns for investments
Less developed areas gave higher dividends
To gain access to markets

3. Causes of Late 19th Century European Imperialism
Political
Maintain the balance of power
To control strategic areas like sea lanes, access to markets
Status symbols
Germany takes colonies to be like other European powers
Cultural and Religious
Belief in cultural or racial “superiority”
Desire to spread Christianity to “heathens”
To spread “civilization”

4. Britain Largest colonial empire “Sun never sets on the British Empire”
Colonies established to protect trading interests in Africa and Asia
Two kinds of colonies
“White” Colonies (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) given self-rule
“Non-white” Colonies (India, Africa) under direct rule

5. France Acquired Algeria in 1830
Took over Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) by the 1880s
Expanded into Western Africa in the 1880s
Took colonies to make up for loss of Alsace-Lorraine in 1870

6. Germany Bismarck originally opposed colonial expansion
Unnecessary for Germany
Did not want to threaten France or Britain
Germany took colonies in 1880s for status symbols
In Africa and Asia

7. United States Did not get involved in European affairs
Became colonial power after 1898
Spanish-American War
U.S. gains control of Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines
Monroe Doctrine allows US to extend influence into Latin America

8. Scramble for Africa Europe had been interested in Africa for centuries
Through the slave trade
Much of Africa still unexplored until 1880s
European influence restricted to coastline
Technology allows Europeans to explore African interior
Steamboats, Suez Canal, advances in medicine

9. Scramble for Africa By 1914, 90% of Africa under European control
France in Northern (Algeria) and Western Africa
Britain from Egypt to South Africa
Belgium in the Congo
Italy in Libya and Eastern Africa
Portugal in southern Africa
Germany in scattered areas
Berlin Conference in 1885 sets ground rules for European colonization of Africa

10. Scramble for Africa Consequences Traditional way of life disrupted
Economic exploitation of Africans
European racism imported into Africa
Spread of European culture
Spread of Western technology

11. Belgian Congo or Congo Free State
The Belgian Congo Congo Free State
The Congo Free State was held as the personal property of King Leopold II of Belgium from 1876 to 1908.
1876: Leopold organizes a meeting in Brussels to discuss a plan “to open to civilization the only part of our globe where Christianity has not yet penetrated and to pierce the darkness which envelops the whole population.”

12. King Leopold II and the Congo Free State “I do not want to miss a good chance of getting a slice of this magnificent African cake.” --Leopold II (after Brussels conference) “

13. Congo Free State
1884: Bismarck calls European powers to Berlin for a conference that leads to the Scramble for Africa.
BC established the rules for conquest of Africa.
Leopold is given complete control over the Congo Free State; in return he guarantees free trade rights: no monopolies; no taxes and tariffs, no restriction on trade.
1908: Leopold bequeathed the CFS to Belgium for 150m francs.

14. Berlin Conference
“Here is Russia and here is France, with Germany in the middle. That is my map of Africa.” --Bismarck

15. Rubber tree

16. Belgian Congo
Leopold’s rule resulted in the torture and murder of an estimated six to ten million Congolese between 1888 and 1908.
The population of the Congo was reduced by half.
Ivory became a Belgian monopoly. Rubber from rubber trees for tires very lucrative.

17. Belgian Congo
The rubber harvest was entirely worked through slave labor. Reports of amputation and torture.
Congo Reform Association established in 1903 by Roger Casement (friend of Joseph Conrad’s).
Casement got Conrad to write a letter about conditions in the Congo: “It is an extraordinary thing that the conscience of Europe which seventy years ago …put down the slave trade on humanitarian grounds tolerates the Congo state today.”

19. Causes and Justifications for Partition
Imperialism--Capitalism and Industrial Revolution
Social Darwinism
Morality and the Civilizing Mission
European Balance of Power
African Resistance to Merchants spurs military conquest
Greed