The Partition Of Africa

1. The Partition Of Africa Chapter 25 – Section 2

2. On The Eve Of The Scramble • Little was known about Africa. • Europeans sent explorers to Africa for colonies. • Between North, West, East, and South Africa there were many diverse cultures.

3. European Contacts Increase • 1500s – 1600s Europeans traded along the coasts of Africa. • Deadly diseases and geography problem. • Slave trade ended in the early 1800s. • 1787- British organized Sierra Leone for free slaves.* • Still slavery, in Middle East and Asia, therefore the slave trade continued. • European settlers explored Africa to map it out.*

4. Missionaries and Livingstone. • Protestant and Catholic missionaries followed the explorers. • Built schools and medical facilities alongside churches. • Urged Africans to forget their own traditions and follow them. • Dr. David Livingstone – best known explorer/missionary.* • Opposed to slave trade. • Believed to end slavery he had to open up Africa to Christianity and trading. • “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

5. The Great Scramble Begins • King Leopold II hired journalist Henry Stanley to explore the Congo River basin.* • Arrange trade treaties with African leaders. • His activities in the Congo set off the scramble. • Other European nations like Britain, France, and Germany were soon pressing rival claims to the region.

6. The Berlin Conference • Berlin conference – 1844. • European power could not claim any part of Africa unless it had set up a government office there. • Next 20 years European powers partitioned almost the entire continent.

7. Horrors In The Congo. • Riches of the Congo – copper, rubber, and ivory. • Stories of people being tortured, caused population to decline.* • Eventually forcing Leopold to hand over his colony to the Belgian government. • African inhabitations were given little or no role in either the government or economy of the colonies.

8. Carving Up A Continent • 1830- France invaded and conquered Algeria in North Africa. • Britain share of Africa was smaller, and more scattered. • Yet more heavily populated and more natural resources. • British gained control of Egypt. • The Boer War – Britain gained the Cape Colony from the Dutch in 1806. • In the late 1800s, the discovery of gold and diamonds in the Boer republics set off the Boer War.* • Lasted from 1899 to 1902, the British won, but at a great cost.

9. “Our Place In The Sun” • Other Europeans joined the scramble to further their economic growth and influence. • The Portuguese got Angola and Mozambique. • Italy got Libya and attempted to get the “horn” of Africa, but ended in defeat. • The newly united Germany empire took lands in eastern and southwestern Africa. • “Our place in the sun.” – German politician

10. Africans Fight Back • The Algerians fought the French for years. • The British battled the Zulus. • In east Africa Germany fought wars against people like the Yao. • The Maji-Maji Rebellion of 1905 was effective. • Germans let thousands of local people starve to death, triumphing in the end.

11. Ethiopia Survives • Successful resistance. • In the late 1800s , a reforming ruler, Menelik II, began to modernize his country. • Hired European experts to plan modern roads, bridges, school systems, and weapons. • Had European officers to help train his army, that way when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1896, Menelik was ready. • In this way Ethiopia alone among African nations preserved its independence.

12. Impact • Some middle class Africans admired western ways and rejected their own culture. • Others valued their traditions. • Tried to condemn western societies that upheld liberty and equality for whites only. • By the early 1900s, African leaders were forging nationalist movements to pursue self-determination and independence. • By Sara Slusher