The Scramble for Africa – Week 9 Flashcards
1
Q
Key Themes:
A
- The “Dark Continent”
- Blundering into Empire
- The Scramble for Africa
- Missionaries
- Explaining Imperialism
2
Q
The “Dark Continent”
A
• The view from Europe – Trevor Roper – “Only the history of Europeans in Africa, the rest is darkness”
3
Q
Greater Zimbabwe:
A
- Europeans first discovered the ruins of Great Zimbabwe in 1868
- Assumed that it could not have been built by Phoenician Gold Miners
- Begun 11th century and work continued for c.300 years
4
Q
African Empires:
A
- During Europe’s Middle Ages there was more than one African Empire in sub-Saharan Africa
- Ghana (not near modern Ghana), iron-working and trade centre, almost entirely a black creation: the Arabs were impressed when they arrived in the 11th century
- Mali, another Savanna empire. Massively wealthy because of trade. When its ruler, Kankan Musa, made the Haj to Mecca (c. 1324) Arab writers were astonished by his wealth
- Benin Empire was in what is now Southern Nigeria. Highly organised (possibly dating back as far as the 11th century). Annexed by the British Empire in 1897.
5
Q
“Darkest Africa”
A
• Slave Trade = damaging on African cultures
6
Q
Slavery’s Legacy:
A
- Eric Williams argued (1944) that the profits from the Atlantic Slave trade fuelled Britain’s industrial revolution
- Trade also had a devastating effect on African countries
7
Q
Egypt and Suez:
A
- Suez Canal completed in 1869
- Construction opposed by Britain who worried it would be too easily controlled by hostile powers
- Built entirely by French capital and engineers, using Egyptian labour
8
Q
Shipping Tonnage through Suez Canal:
A
- 1870: 436,609
- 1882: 5,074,809 (over 80% British)
- WW1: 20 million tons a year
9
Q
Lord Palmerston:
A
- Temple, Henry John, third Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister
- “Do not want Egypt or wish it for ourselves”
10
Q
Egypt and Suez – Isma’il Pasha (1830-1895):
A
- Isma’il Pasha ruled Egypt (under the Ottoman Sultan) from 1863 to 1879
- Took advantage of the massive boom in cotton prices during the American Civil War to borrow money to modernise Egypt
- American Civil War’s end saw cotton prices fall dramatically and Ismail had borrowed on very unfavourable terms, leaving the country deeply in debt
- By 1875, having repaid over £29 million in interest (on £35 million actually received), the Egyptian government still owed over £46 million
- 1875: British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli learned that Ismail was considering selling Egypt’s shares in the Suez Canal to French interests; would have given the French complete control
- With help from the Rothschild Banking Company, Disraeli bought the shares for Britain, giving the country a 45% state in the canal
- Gave the British public the peculiar sense that the Suez canal was ‘British’
- Debt repayments and poor harvests led to starvation and army mutinies after wages were unpaid, leading to Ismail’s overthrow in 1879 by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (of which Egypt was still nominally a part of)
- Succeeded by his son Tewfik, a weak leader, effectively leaving the British to run the country.
11
Q
How did Britain gain power?
A
- 1875: British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli learned that Ismail was considering selling Egypt’s shares in the Suez Canal to French interests; would have given the French complete control
- With help from the Rothschild Banking Company, Disraeli bought the shares for Britain, giving the country a 45% state in the canal
- Gave the British public the peculiar sense that the Suez canal was ‘British’
- Debt repayments and poor harvests led to starvation and army mutinies after wages were unpaid, leading to Ismail’s overthrow in 1879 by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (of which Egypt was still nominally a part of)
- Succeeded by his son Tewfik, a weak leader, effectively leaving the British to run the country.
12
Q
Egypt, Suez Canal and Britain:
A
- Dissatisfaction led to a nationalist uprising, with former army mutineers among its leaders
- 50 Europeans died in riots in June 1882 and a month later the British fleet bombarded Alexandria
- British became convinced that the Canal was in danger, Unable to get the Sultan to act, or the French to join them, the British sent in troops in August, ostensibly at Tewfik’s request to put down the ‘rebellions’ troops
- Within a month, the canal was in British hands
- Egyptian government effectively collapsed and British were left to run the country
13
Q
Britain and France:
A
- Anglo-French ‘understanding’ over the respective spheres of influence collapsed after British occupation of Egypt
- Complicated history of manoeuvre and counter-manoeuvre between French and British on the West Coast of Africa in the late c19
- Neither side particularly keen to colonise, but neither would risk losing control over trade (especially in palm oil)
- Result was a patchwork of forts, trading stations, informal protectorates and commercial companies protected by their respective governments
- Similar patterns with Portuguese and Dutch, but both much smaller players until the late c.19
14
Q
Leopold II of Belgium
A
- Dreamt of an African Empire ever since he’d become Crown Prince in the 1860s
- Reports of the potential wealth of the Congo basin persuaded him to act
- 1876: conference of international geographers in Brussels
- Founding of the Association Internationale Africane (AIA) for the suppression of the slave trade and the opening up of central Africa
- Leopold as President (Chairman of the British Committee was the Prince of Wales)
- Leopold II’s policies in the Congo were brutal and caused widespread outrage
- International outrage finally forced Leopold to give up control in 1908
- Congo free State was taken over by the government, becoming the Belgian Congo
15
Q
Henry Morton Stanley:
A
- The reports of Congo’s wealth were made by Stanley
- Described in his day as the ‘Napoleon of African Explorers: an ambitious and determined proponent of political and commercial intervention in Africa’
- During the 1880s, Stanley worked for Leopold II of Belgium and was active in expanding the Belgian Empire in the Congo
