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Age of Imperialism. What was it?. Between 1850-1914. Western powers carved up the rest of the world. European Motives Nationalism Economic Competition Racism ( Social Darwinism ) Missionary Impulse. What made it possible?. Industrial technology Maxim Gun Steamships & Rail
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What was it? • Between 1850-1914. Western powers carved up the rest of the world. • European Motives • Nationalism • Economic Competition • Racism (Social Darwinism) • Missionary Impulse
What made it possible? • Industrial technology • Maxim Gun • Steamships & Rail • Quinine for malaria • Internal Forces • Existing ethnic divisions allowed Westerners to “divide & conquer” less advanced peoples
The Scramble for Africa • Dr. David Livingstone’s journeys in the Congo (1860s) piqued European interest in African resources. • By 1870s, European powers began claiming African soil.
Berlin Conference 1884-85 • Meeting of 14 European powers to divide Africa. • No African representatives • Was done with no thought to Africa’s ethnic or linguistic divisions
3 Groups clash over South Africa • Dutch Farmers (Boers) had been in Cape town since the 1650s • Early 1800s, Zulu expansion under Shaka led to clashes with Boers. • Throughout the 1800s, the British began pushing into Boer & Zulu regions for its Diamonds & Gold
The Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 • British politician & diamond magnate Cecil Rhodes instigated war with Boers to gain Diamond fields • Bloody conflict: British burned Boer farms & forced their families into concentration camps
Results of the War • 28,000Boer women & children killed; 8,000 Boer soldiers; countless Africans • 22,000 British killed • Britain gained control of South Africa
Resistance could be long & costly, but superior fire-arms gave Europeans the upper-hand • Only Ethiopia under Menelik II was able to fight off Europeans • They defeated Italy at Battle of Adowa 1896
Europeans did bring Sanitation Literacy Infrastructure Economic development Mostly for their benefit though Africa today is rife with… Poverty Ethnic strife Civil war Disease Famine Due to legacy of Imperialism Impact of Colonial Rule in Africa