Why was there a 'Scramble for Africa' between 1860 and 1900 - Essay Example

?Scramble for Africa' between 1860 and 1900 The Imperialism began to reign at the end of the 19th century. It is defined as “an unequal human and territorial relationship, usually in the form of an empire, based on ideas of superiority and practices of dominance, and involving the extension of authority and control of one state or people over another” (Gregory et al , p.373). The definition itself can form negative attitude towards this phenomenon. In history this period is characterized mainly by the cruel attitude of people from developed countries towards the people from less developed territories. Really, we can find many facts of cruel exploitation of one nation by another nation, facts of humiliation, which serve as the reason of such a bad attitude towards imperialism. It is a well-known fact that after the abolition of slavery, Africans appeared in not less difficult situation. They did not know how to live without a job and accommodation. Former slave owners also lost their labor force and experienced many difficulties. All these factors could influence the economy negatively, thus the quite different relations between Africans and Europeans should have been established. Here imperialism can be considered from the point of view of mutual advantage and beneficial cooperation between Europe and Africa. The 1880s brought many changes to the life of Africa and these changes can’t be called positive. There was a period in the history of African continent, when the European countries had been struggling for its territory and resources. “The nature of European imperialism remains very contested. Much of the discussion revolves around notions of empire by rule and ignores both the wider context of Western expansion and the recourse to ‘informal’ influence in large areas of the non-Western world” (Darwin 2013, p.1) It was a period of colonization. The great changes, which happen in Europe that time served as the reasons (Hobson, 2005). During this period Europe was going through rapid changes in economic, social and military aspects. Many parts of Africa were occupied by Europeans. Great Britain had a big part of the African continent beginning with Freetown in Sierra Leone, some fortresses near the Gambia, some places in Lagos and ending with the Gold Coast territory. The significant part of the continent was occupied by France. The colonies in Dakar and in Senegal, the land near river Senegal belonged to France (Simon, 1998). It had power over the Assinie and Grand Bassam and the cost of Dahomey. Moreover, France had a successful attempt to colonize Algeria already in 1830. Portugal and Spain had their territory in Africa as well. Portugal occupied the territories of Angola and Mozambique. Spain possessed lands in Ceuta and Melilla. The Ottoman Turks were among the most powerful colonists. They had power over Egypt, Tunisia and Libya (Bennet, 1984). The question is how such struggle for Africa can be explained. The reasons can be found in the events that had happened in Europe that time. “Here the growth of imperial rivalries in the late nineteenth century is explained in terms of a far-reaching series of geopolitical crises, ignited by processes of political and economic transformation in non-Western states in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, and East Asia. It is argued, nonetheless, that conventional accounts grossly exaggerate the ‘tooth and claw’ nature of imperialist competition before 1914, which was closely constrained by the requirements of Europe’s own politics. Until, that is, the onset of the Great Depression, and the rise of radical nationalist states in Germany and Japan, created the conditions for unrestricted imperialist warfare on a global scale, with catastrophic results” (Darwin 2013, p.1). The most important reason was the abolition of the slave trade. In reality this abolition was related only to the trade out of the land and in the continent the situation was quite different. Slaves’ owners were not ready to lose them. The Muslim merchants continued the trade. This information reached the Europe. After slave trade was finished, the relations of European countries with Africa became vague. The problem was that the Europeans wanted to continue the exploration of the African continent and the trade between Africa and Europe should have continued (Winslow, 1931). The struggle for Africa was officially recognized at the Berlin Conference in 1884. The competing European countries divided the Africa like a cake. Only Liberia and Ethiopia remained independent, because they managed to conquer the Italians, which penetrated their land. Europeans divided the territory not paying any attention to what peoples lived on it. They introduced new methods of controlling the states. Only few Africans have legal rights. Europeans tended to capture the best fertile lands and all the profits were sent to Europe (Bohannan, 1995). The nineteenth century was special for Africa because of numerous expeditions made by the Europeans. African Association was created in 1788 by a rich Englishmen. The purpose of this association was very interesting and unusual. He wanted to discover the imaginary Timbuktu city and to reveal direction of the Niger River. The interest to Africa was growing. Henry Morton Stanley played a very important role in the struggle for Africa. He was the first to get agreement with the Africans when the King Leopold II wanted to organize a colony (Hobsbawm, 1989). The expansion of European lands was stopped due to several reasons, the cost of this expansion was one of them. Thus, Europeans turned their attention to the overseas lands, which served as an alternative. The effort of expansion that was taken at the beginning of the 19th century was not so successful. It is enough to recollect the experience of Spain, Britain and Portugal. Spain had some colonies in South and Central America, but it had no power to keep them. Portugal occupied Brazil. Only Britain and Holland were involved in foreign activities. Other European countries had chosen other strategies in broadening their territories. Russia with its Siberia and Alaska and the attempts to conquer the territories that were under the rule of the Ottoman Empire is an interesting example. The road to Imperialism was passed also by other countries. The consequences of the Franco-Prussian war were the key moment. Germany as well as Italy experienced unification (Pakenham, 1992). The 19th century was a period of Industrial Revolution in Europe that also served as the reason for territory expansion. It caused the necessity in raw materials, people, who would agree to work for low salary, and the manufactured goods should found their markets. In that case colonies could offer cheap workers and served as an excellent place for goods realization (Benedikt, 2011). The newly occupied lands served as perfect fields of action for missionaries. It became easier for them to spread their religious believes. When a country established a colony, it established its laws and rules as well as religious beliefs. The main goal of the missionaries from Europe was to convert people from Asia, Africa and Pacific Islands to Christianity. They also wanted to westernize the people from overseas lands and claimed that European powers could manage the slave trade. The Europeans tended to think their mission is to improve the life of people from occupied countries. They found themselves better than others. Social Darvinism was the reason of this belief. The main concept of that belief was based on the Charles Darwin’s theory that was on the top of popularity that time. His ideas became the integral part of human ideology. He states that those people who had gained success and prosperity were considered better than others. Other were considered by Europeans to be second rate people, individuals who dropped behind in cultural and physical aspects (Curtin, 1995). Speaking about Africans, they were considered second rate by Europeans due to the lack of technological and cultural progress in the African continent. European countries were rather developed by this time that makes Europeans think that they can dominate over other nations. “Modern empires were not artificially constructed economic machines. The second expansion of Europe was a complex historical process in which political, social and emotional forces in Europe and on the periphery were more influential than calculated imperialism. Individual colonies might serve an economic purpose; collectively no empire had any definable function, economic or otherwise. Empires represented only a particular phase in the ever-changing relationship of Europe with the rest of the world: analogies with industrial systems or investment in real estate were simply misleading” (Painter 2009, p.184). At that time Europeans, for example, were familiar with the Maxim gun that was invented in 1884, while Africans had to use the out-of-date arms. The high development of Europe provided it with the opportunities to implement better control over their colonies. When the steam engine was invented they acquired even more possibilities. From that moment Europeans could easily control all the occupied African territories. It allowed them to provide a good communication between colonies. Ideology played a very important role in the occupation of the overseas lands. The political theorists strongly believed that if country did not have colonies it could easily vanished from the history. Thus, such occupation was the way to demonstrate the strength of the nation. If a country had a colony it automatically gained many advantages in terms of military forces, number of population and served as a field of activity for those, who demanded the second chance for realization (Hobsbawm, 2008). Imperialism of the 19th-20th century influenced the world greatly. “We live in a world today in which the consequences of nineteenth-century Western imperialism are still being felt. By about 1914 Western civilization reached the high point of its long-standing global expansion. This expansion in this period took many forms. There was, first of all, economic expansion. Europeans invested large sums of money abroad, building railroads and ports, mines and plantations, factories and public utilities. Trade between nations grew greatly and a world economy developed. Between 1750 and 1900 the gap in income disparities between industrialized Europe and America and the rest of the world grew at an astounding rate. Part of this was due, first, to a rearrangement of land use that accompanies Western colonialism and to Western success in preventing industrialization in areas Westerners saw as markets for their manufactured goods” (Schmiechen 1999, p.441). Notwithstanding that Europeans seemed powerful and invulnerable there were factors that they could not manage. Malaria was one of them. European did not have the immunity to this disease. Only due to the quinine European found the way to struggle with that illness (Petringa, 2006). To sum it up, it should be stated that Africa was an easy catch for Europeans, because of its diverse population and huge number of languages. The African society was split and therefore easy to conquer (Said, 1998). Imperialism could be depicted as brutal and cruel, from the point of view of modern progressivism. Nevertheless, it deserves to be considered one of the best methods in developing the world in general. Despite all the negatives issues and cruelty, the progress in technological and economical development of the colonies was obvious. The positive achievements are clean water, education, new crops etc. If to analyze the history, it is possible to find the evidences of many efforts taken by Europeans in order to make African world better. Now we can observe the results of their work: both positive and negative. References Bennet, Norman R 1984, Africa and Europe: From Roman Times to National Independence. 2nd ed. New York: Holmes & Meier Bohannan, Paul and Curtin, Philip D 1995, Africa and Africans. 4th ed. Prospect Heights, IL:      Waveland Curtin, Philip, ed. African History: From Earliest Times to Independence. 2nd ed. Boston:      Addison Wesley, 1995. Darwin, John 2013, Nationalism and Imperialism, c.1880–1940. 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