Ch. 14
 Seizure
of a country or
territory by a stronger country
 Stronger country controls
political, economic and social
life of weaker country
 Raw
materials
 New markets
 National pride
◦Empire = national
greatness
 Religion
◦End evil practices
◦Slave trade
 White
Europeans believed they
were better
 Social Darwinism
◦ Superior people should rule
◦ Non-Europeans seen as inferior
 Duty of Europeans to “civilize,”
“Westernize”
 White Man’s Burden
 Mid-1800s
◦ Hundreds of ethnic groups
◦ 1,000s of languages
 Europe controls 10%
◦ Could not travel in-land
◦ Disease
 Africans control own trade
networks
 Technological
superiority
◦Steam engine and ships
◦Railroads
◦Telegraph cables
◦Machine guns
◦Quanine
 Protected Europeans from malaria
 King
Leopold II of Belgium
◦ Claimed wanted end to slave
trade
 Increase Christianity
◦ Real goal was rubber
 10 million die because of abuse
 Other
nations alarmed by Belgian
control
 Scramble
for territory begins
in 1880
◦Discovery of diamonds in
1867
◦Gold - 1886
 14
European countries
 1884-1885
 Rules for division of Africa
◦Notify others of claim
◦Show they could control it
 No African rulers invited
 1914 – only Ethiopia and
Liberia independent
 Demand
for Raw Materials Shapes
Colonies
◦ Countries think Africans will buy
goods
 Wrong
◦ Main source of wealth is rich
mineral resources
 Belgian Congo contains copper
and tin
 Small compared to diamonds
and gold in South Africa
◦Businesses develop cashcrop plantations
 Peanuts, palm oil, cocoa, rubber
 Displaces food grown by natives
 Leads to starvation