• Berlin conference (1884-1885) a peaceful meeting of major
Western powers to set rules for establishing colonies in Africa,
and determine “who gets what.”
• The only African countries avoided the colonization to which their
neighbors succumbed were Ethiopia (Abyssinia), and Liberia
(1900).
• Italy’s defeat at the Battle of Adowa insured Ethiopia’s independence
(1895).
• Colonial borders tore
apart unified societies
or placed rival groups
under the same
colonial government.
• These borders
remained, even after
African states won
independence in the
20th century.
• They set the stage for
20th-century civil
wars in Africa.
•
•
•
During the Napoleonic
wars, the British gained
control of the Cape
Colony.
The “Afrikaners,”
descendants of Dutch
settlers, moved east of
the Cape Town.
Came into conflict with
the Zulus,
• As the Cape colony
expanded eastward, the
British came into
conflict with the Zulu
nation (1870s).
• The Anglo-Zulu war
(1879) initially favored
the Zulus, but
eventually the British
defeated them, and
their lands became part
of the British colony of
South Africa.
• Disputes between British and Dutch farmers led to the Boer
Wars (1880-1881, 1899-1902).
• Afrikaners forced into refugee camps.
• These settlements came to be known as “concentration
camps.”
• Many Afrikaners died of starvation.
• The Boer wars left Great Britain with control of South Africa
• Afrikaners and black African farmers were displaced onto
poor land, making it hard for them to earn a decent living.
• Unlike other European
rulers, King Leopold II (r.
1865-1909) of Belgium
owned the colony of Congo
personally.
• The most brutal conditions
of any colony, laborers were
forced to harvest ivory and
rubber.
•
•
•
•
The Suez Canal (completed in
1896) connects the Red Sea to the
Mediterranean.
Built by French using Egyptian
corvee laborers.
Colonial rule alter ways of
working in Africa and Asia as
more people worked on public
projects for free.
British took over control of Egypt,
due to unrest that threaten British
commercial interest (1882).
• The British East India
Company had commercial
relationship with the
Mughal Empire (17th
century).
• Britain shared India with
France; but the British
victory in the Seven Years
War (1763), drove the
French out of India.
• The East India Company began
recruiting native Indians to join
their colonial army.
• “Sepoys,” Indian soldiers under
British rule, compose the
majority of the British Armed
Forces in colonial India.
• The sepoy mutiny (1857)
erupted when sepoys believe
that their rifle cartridges had
been greased with the fat cows
and pigs.
• Convinced that the British were
trying to convert them to
Christianity.
•
•
•
An example of
resistance to colonial
rule, the revolt led to the
British government
taking a more active role
in governing of India.
Because of his
involvement in the
mutiny the last Mughal
Emperor was imprisoned
in exile.
The British raj, colonial
government, ruled India
from 1888 to 1947.
• British rule not popular:
1. Mahatma Gandhi said “This civilization takes note neither of morality
nor of religion.”
2. The Azamgarh Proclamation stated, “both Hindus and Muslims, are
being ruined under the tyranny and oppression of the infidel and the
treacherous English.”
3. And like the Americans, Dadabhai Naoroji request political
representation for Indians in the British government.
• Australia was a
British penal colony.
• Convicts were not
allowed to return to
England.
• Gold rush brought
free settlers (1851).
• European diseases
decimated the
Aborigines
(indigenous
peoples).
•
•
Disease wiped out 75% of the Maori population allowing the
British to colonize New Zealand.
The colonization of New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii during
the nineteenth century was most similar to the colonization of
North America in the seventeenth century.
•
•
•
The Mexican-American War
(1845 – 1848) United States
gaining territories in the
southwest.
During 19th century, the
U.S. occupied settling this
territory.
Late 1800s, feelings of
nationalism and cultural
superiority, drove America’s
desire for territorial
conquest.
•
The Spanish-American War
(1898), U.S. gets Guam,
Cuba, Puerto Rico, the
Philippines.
• Wanting to expand US
influence throughout the
Western Hemisphere, Pres.
Roosevelt issued the
“Roosevelt corollary” (1904).
• If a country in Latin
America demonstrated
instability, the United
States would feel free to
intervene.
That concludes the European
Imperialism.