Africa (6)

1. Africa (6) Mtra. Marcela Alvarez Pérez

2. Colonization: general characteristics and effects • Colonial Period: 1885-1960 • 19th century: administration dependent on a European metropolis • Portuguese: miscegenation • German: disciplined administration • British: commercial basis • Belgian: exploitation • French: interventional

3. Racial/racist component • Pax Colonial • "White man's burden" • "Mission Civilitrice" • Trade missionaries military administrators • Two main types of administration: • Direct Administration (FR, AT, PO, BE) • Indirect Administration (GB) • Consequences of European presence: complex, sometimes contradictory effects

4. Contrasting management systems between the two dominant colonial powers • Different notions of the role of the West in the colonized world • France: assimilation (accommodation)- Europeans bringing the universal benefits of illustration to an uncivilized world • GB: Englishmen helping an inferior people acquire a better standard of living through a benevolent, but paternalistic, sponsorship • Common notion of African inferiority (racist) • FR: cultural inferiority Direct Administration • GB: genetic inferiority  Indirect Administration

5. Independent African states: • Nonexistent without colonial period • There was no national states: notion of unity, homogeneity and territorial delimitation • Territorial property • Consequences: aspiration to independence • Population Movements  Migration, exchanges, rearrangements: new centers of attention, roads... • Colonization: limits • Linguistic phenomena / demographic Phenomena • monetary economies • End of slavery, colonial pacification: • Boosting black population (still low population density)

6. Colonialism: France • Louis XIII and Richelieu: • 1633company monopoly to carry trade between Senegal and Gambia. • 1638-pier at mouth of Senegal R. ; • 1659 Saint Louis, first French city • Louis XIV and Colbert: new impetus to colonialism • triangular Trade • Payments to African princes, competition between companies, European wars: decay and bankruptcy of French companies • France: Extends territories more due to exploration than by trade • End of first phase: few/poor economic results

7. Colbert’s French colonial Doctrine: "colonial pact" • FR creates and maintains the colonies and they only trade with FR • France in Africa: political appropriation • Richelieu: colonization= extension of national domain • Colbert: colonization encourages the colonized to a community of life with the French • French Revolution (1789-1799) • Revocation of trading privileges: free trade • Abolition: Colonial Philanthropic Society (1817) takes 200 colonists to Senegal but fails • The Senegalese (1819): successful extraction of peanut oil • 1833: civil and political rights of citizenship to every freeman or freedman of the colonies • 1848: Second Republic abolishes slavery and proclaims representation in the National Assembly

8. Second Empire new phase of French colonization • 1854: colonies ruled by decree of the Emperor • Contradictions in the application of the law: Civil Code not applied to all regime with three categories • Originary people of the Senegalese communes: citizens with different personal status • French citizens • Protected/French subjects: Citizenship access by accepting the Civil Code • Authoritarian Hierarchy • Governor General governors village chiefs • No separation of powers • until WWII • General Faidherbe (1854-1865): responsible for the creation of a French colonial empire • Colonization: military implantation of a form of civilization, peace and administration

10. Pacification = Prosperity • Geographic orientation: West to East, Senegal Niger Chad • Policy of Napoleon III and France in Algeria (Arab kingdom) • Keep occupation of the coast and the interior from North to South • Organization of the Senegal colony • Administrative cadre later used throughout French colonization in Africa • Suspension of the expansion: Faidherbe leaves, fall of Napoleon III

11. 1880: Third Republic impetus for expansion • French Sudan (1892) one year after reaching Tombuctu • Tuaregs expelled until 1898 • Communication is established between the Sudan and the coast: junction between Senegal, Ivory Coast trade, Guinea and Dahomey

12. 1895: Foundation of the General Government of French West Africa in Dakar-civil authority • Senegal, Sudan, Guinea and Ivory Coast • Dahomey (1899) Upper Volta (1919) Mauritania (1920) • Agreed with the British territorial delimitation • By 1922 eight territories with the Niger Colony • Equatorial Africa: mission of St. Mary of Gabon (1844) • Libreville 1849 • Exploration of the Congo before Stanley • Agreements with local chiefs

13. Right bank of Congo R. to France: 1886 French Congo and Gabon 1888 • Explorations north toward Lake Chad • Rabah’s Dominance: last great African adventurer about to found an African federation • French Project: send three columns from Algeria, Sudan and the Congo • French colonial empire unity manifested • April 22, 1900: elimination of Rabah

15. September 1900: Chad military territory • Djibouti (1892) • Menelik of Ethiopia: treaty in 1897 for an exit port for Ethiopian trade • Railway Djibouti-Addis Ababa-Chad: gateway to the Nile • Cptn. Marchand (1896) mission that faces him against Ahmed el Mahdi in 1898 • British aid to Egypt: Marchand retreats to avoid war between FR and GB

16. Effects of the French colonization: • Little contact with French administration • Small French presence: only one strong center • Commercial establishments not numerous: Most merchants Lebanese or Syrian • Essentially administrative, military and temporary presence • Few requirements: only problem with forced labor • Construction of roads, railways: not for private use

18. Series of resistances peace and security in the region • Dissemination of ethnic groups over the wastelands, extension and development of crops • Internal Colonization: benefits for the disinherited and anonymous mass • Damaged some who saw their prestige, power and luxury diminished. • Assimilation and direct rule: • Civilizing mission of European powers: replace African cultures with their own • Assumption of European superiority: conquest due to superior culture: ability for technological and social development

19. Faidherbe: concept of assimilation on two levels • Colonial Territories assimilated to existing administrative systems, part of a Greater France (Algeria) • Subjects would become French citizens, with no cultural differences with the metropolis • Principle of illustration (18th and 19th centuries): any person, if he/she received proper education, was rational and had the potential of being responsible for their own actions

20. Sovereignty-right to make decisions-in the individual, not the ruler or elite (heritage of French Revolution) • Distrust in aristocratic / religious authority African political systems • Take them on the road to a more secular and egalitarian society • Ideal for inclusion: four communes of Senegal • Citizenship, representation in the House of Representatives, French local administration, city councils, standardized access to public education • Évolués: culturally evolved • Indigenes: subjects, excluded from political participation and especially legal code for punishments, fines, etc… • Barriers: unclear criteria for the status, more difficult to obtain over time • share power and prestige • Many Africans did not totally abandon their practices

21. There was no general agreement as to the objectives of assimilation • Many argued that Africans were intellectually incapable of appreciating / applying the complexities of European culture (scientific racism) • Reconsideration of assimilation: • Association (1910): respect for the ways, customs and religion of the natives • More like the British Model • Association and effort to use existing African administrative systems effectively applied in Morocco • Little effect on the rest of the colonies: very firm notions about the superiority of French culture • French: administrative and education language • Continue subordinating and marginalizing the African authorities and cultures

22. British Colonization • More commercial: 4 guiding principles 1) Tradition of the British Royal Navy: occupation from the coast • subsidized and methodical private explorations 2) justification for the colonization: commercially sound and profitable operation • Occupation only for commercial movement: less direct administration (self-government) = less financial burdens 3) accountability for the natives in their area of influence -- dignity and freedom 4) Obsession with the route to India: Egypt, France and Suez Canal

23. 1880: only 4 points installed on the coast without significant penetration: Gambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast and Niger Delta • Consulate in Zanzibar • Monarchical continuity vs. French Revolution • More complex system, little control and coordination • Trading ports: isolated scattered enclaves, problematic. • Sierra Leone: no profitable trade, problems between freedmen and indigenous peoples. • English authority on short radio: in 1808 Freetown was the colony and the rest a protectorate • missions of evangelization and education

24. Gold Coast: • Control of territory: treaties with the coastal people of the Fanties • Ashantis: slave trade with the interior, seeking to eliminate the Fanties and initiate war with GB from 1806-1815 • Colonial Office: 1816 decides to take over British stores to ensure peacekeeping and antislavery politics • War resumes in 1825 and GB decides to stay to protect their allies

25. 1874: declared the coast a Royal Colony to protect its allies • Ashanti people remain independent • 1895: French proximity moves them to proclaim the northern territories a British protectorate • Ashanti monarchy exterminated due to fear of proximity from the French (Ivory Coast) and the German (Togo) • Ashanti territory annexed and becomes a colony with direct administration in 1902

26. Nigeria : palm oil • National African Co.: starts to move down the river • 1884 : agreements with local powers  Berlin Conference • Oil Rivers Protectorate 1885: theoretical rule of the company. • Monopoly privileges, defense and agreements: Royal Niger Co. • private army  exercise authority on behalf of British interests • 1900 : Protectorate of Northern Nigeria: end the slave trade and to stop French advances • Unification of territories in the Federation of Nigeria, 1914 • Emirs and Coranic schools North, Christian missions South

28. Central and Eastern Africa • 1860-1870: GB became interested in East-African coast  route to India • 1870 Suez Canal changes operating conditions and route: shortest route, faster and cheaper for steamships • GB: buys shares (1875), protectorate in Egypt (1882), creates coal port in Aden • 1884 British Somaliland, 1899 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan • East African Explorations: an end to the slave trade and scientific curiosity • Discover sources of the Nile (Burton and Speke) • They also find Arab slave trade and black kingdom of Buganda • African Lakes Company (1871): missionary, consular and commercial efforts on Nyassa region  clashes with the Portuguese and Arabs

29. British government supports the company: From 1888 its agents assume pacification and colonization of the territory • Protectorate treaties: limiting the Portuguese and King Leopold II • British Central Africa Protectorate: slow pacification until recognition of all the tribes  Nyasaland 1907 • Kingdom of Buganda: 1893 British protectorate proclaimed • 1895: takes control of the rest of the territory to build Uganda Railways joining the coast • Importing Indian labor

30. Convention of 1900: reform the land tenure system association of British authority and indigenous authority to establish stable structures • European notion: elites as property managers / owners of large domains rather than temporary custodians administrative function. (similar to feudalism) • Peasants turned into simple settlers • GB: political and social progress, develop new oligarchy of African landowners and elite with a sense of responsibility and power linked to the British

31. The Belgian Congo • King Leopold II: individual, no support from capitalists/institutions • Fierce imperialism and exploitation • Informal occupation of Congo territories between 1880-1884 • Berlin Conference: • Free state, independent, neutral, free trade zone, open to navigation and commerce • Bismark: considered him to be a philanthropist that would open Africa to the rest of colonizers • Company: the king could not accept a concession in person

32. Free State of Congo established in 1885 • Non-existent model of colonization to exploit vast and unexplored regions without military force • Territory larger than its resources: simple government • Most of his imperialist and expansionist efforts were fruitless financial ruin when he’s no longer able to invest in the company • Evades legal obligations state monopoly system • Private companies get concessions for the railways and territories • 50% of the stocks were owned by Leopold • Decree: rubber and ivory state-owned free commerce but no other products to buy/sell

33. More expenses than revenue: loans • Rubber exports forced labor, over exploitation, no long term development • Chiefdoms seen as sources of opposition replaced by Africans that would serve the white men • Aborigines’ Protection Society (GB): campaign against Leopold’s administration • October 18 1908: Belgian parliament takes over the Congo • No colonial experience or doctrines • No budget to control such a large territory • Companies privileges reduced or under Belgian control • Infrastructure development African peoples just as laborers • Official doctrine: prosperity would eventually benefit all

35. Germany: occupy territories before Berlin Conference but no intention to begin a colonial policy right away • Protectorates private companies, no public funding • Future options and diplomacy • Companies forces not enough for organization and control • Indigenous police forces since 1891 • Clashes with some tribes due to commerce monopoly war • Plantations forced labor only choice • Military Administration: Germany forced to take control after companies bankruptcy civil government with direct administration in 1903 • German Occupation: efficient, quick, general interest as main objective • Education to augment productivity and qualification of the laborers mandatory education since 1910 • Colonial agronomy institutes • Colonial administrators in office for long time to get acquainted with the situation