Late Nineteenth-Century Imperialism and

the Scramble for Africa

1880-1914

Africa, 1794

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Causes of “New” Imperialism

1. ECONOMIC motives: profit?

2. PRESTIGE and NATIONALISM

3. DOMESTIC POLITICS: Bismarck

4. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION and its technological advances

5. Ideological reasons:

A. SOCIAL DARWINISM

B. WHITE MAN’S BURDEN

C. MISSIONARY ZEAL

Cecil Rhodes, 1853-1902• Epitomized British

Imperialism• Fifth son of English

Vicar• Went to Natal, studied

at Oxford• 1888 founded DeBeers

Mines• Most enthusiastic

imperialist• Rhodesia, founded

1895

King of Belgium, Leopold II (r. 1865-1909)

• 1860: "I believe that the moment is come for us to extend our territories. I think that we must lose no time, under penalty of seeing the few remaining good positions seized upon by more enterprising nations than our own.”

• 1876: International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of the Congo

Henry M. Stanley (1841-1904)

• Orphan• Self-made• Wanderer• Journalist• Explorer• Found David

Livingstone• 1878: goes to work

for Leopold

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Pierre de Brazza (1852-1905)

• Italian born, 7th son of nobleman

• Explored the north of the Congo river for France

• Brazzaville• Ran into conflict

with Stanley

Egypt• Muhammad Ali, 1769-

1849; r. 1805-1848• Ottoman general

(Albanian) turned ruler and reformer

• Focus: Military reform• Agriculture: Cotton,

profitable but devastating• Tried to Europeanize

Egypt.• 1820s conquered Sudan

Egypt

• Ismail Pasha, r. 1863-1879 (grandson of Ali)

• Paris educated• 1867: Khedive/Hidiv of

Egypt and Sudan• Further modernized:

– Post office– Sugar industry– Railroads– Suez Canal

Egypt• Suez Canal (completed 1869)• But Europeanization greatly

increased debt, from 3 to 100 million pounds

• 1875: Ismail forced to sell shares in Suez Canal Company

• British PM D’Israeli paid 4 million pounds

• British and French interference increased.

• 1879: Pressured Ottoman Sultan to replace Ismail with Tewfik.

Urabi revolt, 1879-1882

• Col. Ahmed Urabi– Egyptian nationalist party– Anti-European– Anti-Ottoman

• British and French worried of debt and Suez (sent warships)

• June 1882: Provoked riots in Alexandria

• British decided to occupy

Berlin Conference (1884-1885):Otto von Bismarck and Jules Ferry

1. Effective Occupation2. Congo Free State3. Abolished Slavery

Participants:GermanyAustria–HungaryBelgiumDenmarkFranceUnited KingdomItalyNetherlandsPortugalRussiaSpainSweden-NorwayOttoman Empire

Battle of Khartoum, 1885

Battle of Adwa, 1896Menelik II of Ethiopia vs. Italy

• Ethiopians: 100,000 troops; 40 artillery guns• Italians: 15,000 troops, 56 artillery guns• Casualties: 8000 each side

Battle of Omdurman, 1898

Maxim gun and modern artillery

Fashoda incident, 1898

French: Jean-Baptiste Marchand

British: Horatio Herbert Kitchener

(later Lord Kitchener)

George Washington Williams (1849-1891)

• First African American

Historian

• 1889: Leopold II

• 1890: Congo Free State to

settle African Americans

• 1890: wrote Leopold an open

letter

• 1891: died

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

• Jozef Teodor Konrad

Nalecz Korzeniowski

• Merchant marine

• Languages

• Congo in 1890

• Heart of Darkness

(1899)

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Consequences of New Imperialism

1. ARMY OF OCCUPATION: Guns and plunder

2. AFRICAN SOCIETY

a) DEATH

b) RULES OF SOCIETY

c) ECONOMY: World Map of GDP per capita

d) NEW BORDERS

e) HUMILIATION

Consequences (cont.)

3. CULTURE

4. CONFLICT AMONGST IMPERIAL POWERS

5. ENCOURAGED EUROPEANS’ SENSE OF

SUPERIORITY and RACISM