O Level Revision : History - The Scramble and Partition of Southern Africa
The Scramble for Africa was when European powers took over most of Africa in the late 1800s. By 1914 all of Africa was under white rule except for Ethiopia and Liberia. White rule in most places lasted till the 1960s. The European powers that took part: Britain; France; Portugal; Germany; Belgium; Italy; Spain; Holland
Why the scramble for Africa?
- The industrial revolution contributed immensely to the colonisation of Africa:
- Due to increased productivity there was need for new markets.
- Need for new sources of raw materials for the expanding industries.
- Need for new areas to invest surplus capital.
- Improvements in transport opened up Africa.
- Improved medication through the discovery of new medicine, such as quinine to cure malaria, enabled Europeans to venture into the African interior.
- Increased population due to improved standards of living led to the need for more space to settle excess population.
- Need for land to settle the unemployed who had been displaced by industrialisation.
- Availability of funds to invest overseas.
- To regain lost prestiges e.g. France had lost the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany.
- To strengthen control over sea routes to the Far East, e.g. Britain wanted the Suez Canal and the Cape.
- Public opinion favoured colonies.
- The desire to spread Christianity in Africa.
Missionaries influenced their governments as political control would make it easy to preach Christianity.
- To spread European civilisation to Africans.
- To enforce the abolition of slave trade and slavery.
- The existence of ambitious people like Cecil John Rhodes.
- Influence of explorers who wrote about the riches in Africa.
- Influence of traders who wanted protection from their governments against rival traders.
- Weak African rulers who could not resist colonisation.
- Disunity among Africans.
The Berlin-West Africa Colonial Conference of 1884-1885
- The conference was held in Berlin, Germany.
- The conference laid down the rules for the colonisation of Africa to avoid conflict over territories.
- It concentrated on the two main areas of conflict – the Niger and Congo rivers.
- It laid down the following principles for the colonisation of Africa:
- Freedom of navigation on the major rivers.
- Signing of protectorate and friendship treaties to be entered voluntarily with African chiefs.
- Making the treaty public through international media.
- The establishment of a colony would be internationally accepted if the following were done:
(i) Effective occupation was established (Putting in place an administration system, hoisting the nation’s flag and developing the land.).
(ii) All other signatories to the conference were informed.
- The result was a rush by European powers to sign treaties with African chiefs and to send in agents to
‘win’ over African chiefs and establish colonies.
Impact of colonialism
Positive Impact of colonialism
- New, better and warm clothes and blankets were introduced.
- Durable shelter/houses were constructed.
- New furniture was introduced.
- The colonialists brought new foods – sugar, bread, potatoes.
- They brought books.
- Brought formal education.
- Improved health.
- Better means of transport.
- Improved communication systems.
- Better farming methods such as ploughs.
- Slavery and slave trade were abolished.
- Bad traditional practices such as the killing of twins were abolished.
Negative Impact of colonialism
- Africans were forced off their land, their means of production.
- They were resettled in drier, hotter and poorer lands.
- Africans were forced to be desperate job seekers.
- The Africans were poorly paid.
- They worked for long hours under harsh conditions.
- They were sjamboked on the mines and farms.
- Forced to pay taxes.
- Groups of European hunters shot elephants for ivory; leopards, cheeters, giraffes and zebras for their skins and meat.
- Large forests were cleared to make plantations.
- Trees were cut down for timber, railway sleepers and to create farms.
- Trees were cut to provide energy in Europeans’ homes.
- Large quantities of gold, diamonds, coal, iron and copper were exploited.
- African culture was disrupted, e.g. African traditions and religions were overwhelmed by Christianity syndrome.
- Africans were taken as subhuman beings.
(a) List any six European countries that colonised Southern Africa. [6]
(b) Describe how the Berlin Colonial Conference accelerated the partition of Africa. [11]
(c) Is it true that colonialism brought more good than harm to the Africans? Explain your answer? [8]