European Influence and
Exploitation in Africa
(in four parts)
Part 1
• European Influence
Borders
Languages
Religion
Motives
• Curiosity
Mansa Musa etc.
Explorers searching
for the mouths of
the rivers
(Niger/Nile)
Motives
• Christianity
• Desire to convert
• Attempt to “civilize”
• Missionary fervor
Motives
• Conquest
• Fame and glory
• Each country was interested in
getting as much land as possible
Motives
• Commerce
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Rubber
Gold
Palm Oil
Ivory
Slaves
Pepper
Industrial Revolution
*New ideas
*New technology
(weapons, machines,
factories!)
*Spread of goods
(increase in trade)
!
Palm Oil
• Areas Affected:
West and Southwest Africa
• Uses
Mechanical lubricant
Rubber
• Areas Affected:
Congo Basin
• Uses
Tires, seals, tubing, belts etc.
Gold
• Areas Affected:
West Africa
DRC
South Africa
Zimbabwe
• Uses
Gold!
Part II
• Early
Exploration &
Slavery
Portugal: leader of the
pack
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Population
Islam
Advanced sailing
Borders
Resources
Proximity
Explorers
*1444 Portuguese trade sea
routes est. beginning in
Mauritania and ending in
what is present-day Kenya
*Brought slaves from
Mauritania
*Beginning of the slave
trade
Who was
involved?
• After the Portuguese
established slave trade routes,
other nations joined in.
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Dutch
Spanish
French
English
Slavery
• 15 million people over the course of 400
years were forced into slavery
• The Atlantic Slave Trade took place during
the 14th and the 19th centuries.
Chattel Slavery vs.
Bonded
Forced marriage
Forced labor
Slave Routes
The Atlantic Slave Trade
had a huge effect on Africa:
*shifts power to the coasts
*worsens violence through
increased warfare and the
introduction of new/more
weapons,
* drains many groups of
their most healthy,
productive members
Slaves were used to help further establish
New World colonies.
Sugar
Tobacco
Coffee
Cotton
*Eventually African Kingdoms began to rely
on goods produced in Europe and their
colonies.
Gun/slave cycle (increased warfare amongst
kingdoms)
Triangle Trade
Barriers
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Existing communities
Diseases
Geography
Vastness and a lack of accurate maps
Existing Communities
Battle of
Adowa 1896
Geography
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Rivers
Falls
Deserts
Dense Forests
Escarpments
TseTse Fly
Malaria
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y68F8YwLWdg
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5OBsoAXD9M
It is HUGE
Part III
• Missionaries and Explorers
Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go send your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child
Take up the White Man’s burden
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple
An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit
And work another’s gain
Take up the White Man’s burden—
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah slowly) to the light:
"Why brought ye us from bondage,
“Our loved Egyptian night?”
Take up the White Man’s burdenHave done with childish daysThe lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
Source: Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden: The
United States & The Philippine Islands, 1899.” Rudyard
Kipling’s Verse: Definitive Edition (Garden City, New York:
Doubleday, 1929).
“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
Part IV
• The Scramble for Africa
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http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m9/activity4.php 1914 map of Africa
http://www.mapwatch.com/news-blog/ Ethno-linguistic map of Africa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1813_Thomson_Map_of_Africa_-_Geographicus_-_Africa-thomson-1813.jpg Thomson map of Africa
http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/teachers/curriculum/m7b/activity1.php slave trade
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/exploration/resources/major-european-explorers Exploring Africa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_livingstone_travels_africa.jpg Dr. Livingstone’s map
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Livingstone Dr. Livingstone
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1624_story_of_africa/page34.shtml Exploring Africa
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/02/24/behind-africa-explorers-muslim-empires-make/cNgoft9VitWCC6y2crRfxH/story.html Exploring Africa
http://gdc.gale.com/nineteenth-century-collections-online/europe-and-africa-commerce-christianity-civilization-and-conquest/ Exploring Africa
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2013/01/antiguas-disputed-slave-conspiracy-of-1736/description-of-a-slave-ship/ interior of slave ship
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2013/01/antiguas-disputed-slave-conspiracy-of-1736/ slave trade
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2013/01/antiguas-disputed-slave-conspiracy-of-1736/slave-lashed/ slave photograph
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/8chapter4.shtml Missionaries in Africa
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/FacultyPages/PamMack/lec122/britir.htm industrial revolution
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/20979973 industrial revolution
http://www1.umassd.edu/ir/ industrial revolution
http://www.herald.co.zw/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/industrial-revolution.jpg industrial revolution image
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/agex/hd_agex.htm the Portuguese in Africa
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-colonization-of-africa.html The Scramble
http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-96185e82b9ab9a971dc8e4f55558da65?convert_to_webp=true map of Portuguese forts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsetse_fly Tsetse flies
http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m7b/activity4.php African resistance to colonialism
http://abolition.nypl.org/essays/african_resistance/ African resistance to the slave trade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangular_trade triangle trade
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5478/ “White Man’s Burden”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1624_story_of_africa/page39.shtml African resistance
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/photos/colonization/CO1.jpg African resistance
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/photos/colonization/C06.jpg Battle of Adowa
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-colonization-of-africa.html Battle of Asowa
http://petergreenberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/african_jungle.jpg jungle image
http://web2.ges.gla.ac.uk/~rbrown/research/landscapes/graphics/oblique_aerial.jpg Drackenberg Escarpment