Europe. The world’s most infamous colonial
continent. Africa. The victims of such colonial ambitions…
Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda, Rhodesia, South Africa, and more were all once claimed
by the British Empire. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Madagascar, and additional regions fell claim to
France. Germany had their own regions by the names of German Southwest Africa, German East Africa,
Cameroons, and Togoland. Italy laid claim to Eritrea, Libya, and Somaliland. Angola,
Mozambique, and Cabinda joined Portuguese Guinea. Their Spanish neighbors snatched
the Spanish Sahara, Spanish Morocco, and Rio Muni. Belgium, or more particularly the Belgian monarch,
snared Congo. This was how the ownership of the African continent was split up
as of 1914. Only Liberia and Ethiopia remained free and without European rule.
However, just a short while earlier, the Europeans had claimed merely around
10% of African lands. That is, before the Scramble for Africa…
The 16th century would mark the beginning of European colonization on the African continent.
Portugal would start early by laying claim to their new colonies, nearly a century before
the Dutch would do the same in South Africa, creating a growing settlement in the Cape of
Good Hope. France’s Napoleon had his sights on later-British-controlled Egypt by the end of
the 18th century, and a couple of decades later the British would take aim at the Dutch Cape of
Good Hope. It was shortly after this that Liberia would become home to newly freed African-American
slaves with American approval to create their own colony. The following decade thus saw a
continued steamroll of European colonists rushing to African lands with eager hopes and ambitions
on behalf of each of their nations. France seized Algeria and pushed onward, Britain continued its
attempt to wrangle South Africa, Germany finally entered the scramble as Otto von Bismarck looked
to establish his country’s credibility as an imperial power alongside the others,
and further interest from additional European nations eventually led to the Berlin Conference…
With tensions on a precipitous rise between European powers all vying for
power and control in their newfound playground, one Leopold II of Belgium hoped to take advantage
of the chaos. Hoping to expand his kingdom beyond his humble lands of Belgium itself,
Leopold laid claim to what he named the “Congo Free State”. Informing his European neighbors
that he was a passionate humanitarian who only hoped to aid the people of Central Africa through
abolitionism and further humanitarian aid, Leopold asserted that this new “free state” would be a
land of rights and liberty for its people. This was the exact opposite of what Leopold would
actually do and he had known all along that his motives were far more sinister than what
he told his peers. His leadership over Congo was brutal, and the surrounding European colonizers
eventually caught on to his imperial scheme. They reacted by attempting to squeeze Leopold out of
Central Africa by briskly expanding their own territories around him, and around each other,
but this led each of them into a downhill tumble rapidly nearing a collision with one another.
Hoping to avoid an all-out war in Africa or even at home, German Chancellor Otto von
Bismarck called his rivals to a meeting. The Berlin Conference would open on November 15,
1884, and last until February 26, 1885. The conference, involving not a single
representative from any African nation, had one main aim: split up Africa and place its
lands into European hands. This was done first by solidifying claims already made
on the continent by the European powers, and additionally by laying a foundation for how
the rest of the territory could be taken by a European state. A clear process was set up,
although again, this was done entirely without the involvement of the local African populations.
Nevertheless, it went as follows: Once a European state sent explorers
to a certain African territory, treaties would be written up and signed between the Europeans
and local leaders - generally written only in European languages not understood by these
African leaders. The treaties allegedly gave European protection to these locals,
but this was far from the truth. After returning to their homelands,
the explorers would have their treaties approved by the local governments first,
who would then take the agreement to the rest of the European powers from the Berlin Conference
and negotiate recognition for their newfound claims. Once the treaty was confirmed by all
of the imperial powers, the annexation of the African territory became official.
Thus, with the aid of the rules established at the Berlin Conference,
the Scramble for Africa carried on into the early 20th century,
when the world instead turned to a new predicament - the First World War…
The official timeline for the scramble is generally
set from 1870 until 1914 - but why did it happen?
One exact reason does not exist, but multiple motivations seem to have cumulatively led the
European powers to act in such haste and disregard for the native peoples.
Fundamentally, it’s important to remember that the Europeans generally viewed their
African counterparts as culturally, racially, and intellectually inferior. This meant that the
explorers and their governmental authorities believed that Africa was free real estate,
and that the locals were incapable of forming their own independent, functioning states anyway.
To the European mind, to take all of Africa made perfect sense and was even morally justifiable.
It especially made sense when the Europeans discovered new resources in Africa,
such as coffee, sugar, and rubber, that could be extracted by utilizing the labor
of the local populations. These discoveries were made through exploration, something that
Europeans had been doing for some time now, often driven by each empire’s thirst for expansion.
This, however, was particularly difficult in Africa to start due, in one part,
to lethal diseases. Western Africa especially gained the reputation of being the “White Man’s
Grave” due to its malignant diseases like Malaria and Yellow Fever. The 1700s saw 9
in every 10 colonists sent to Africa by the Royal African Company meet an untimely end
while 6 of those 9 couldn’t even last a whole year. It wasn’t until quinine was discovered
within the bark of the cinchona tree that the Europeans even stood a chance, at least against
Malaria. Yellow Fever was still a threat but quinine put an end to the Malaria massacre.
This was crucial given the undeniable ambition of the European nations to
expand their territories and influence outside of their own continent. Capping
a lid on the imperial era was all but impossible, so without a cure,
many more lives would have simply been sacrificed for the cause - although it’s safe to assume that
this development rapidly increased the instance of exploration and colonization.
Another motivating factor that made life easier for the Europeans journeying to Africa was a new
wave of military innovations, saved only for the Europeans themselves. Breech-loading guns,
percussion caps, and the Maxim gun were massive leaps in weaponry for the Europeans, who ensured
that such tools would not be sold to the Africans they wished to colonize. This gave the European
nations tremendous advantage over the local leaders and warriors who did possess firearms,
but nothing to the capability of their invaders. The breech-loading guns allowed for quicker,
ease of use, the percussion caps lessened time, supplies, and limitations for utilizing
the firearms, and the Maxim gun was an early machine gun that could absolutely devastate
unsuspecting opponents, firing hundreds of rounds in a single minute as opposed
to less than 5 rounds capable of being fired by the type of firearms owned by the Africans.
Further inventions such as the steamboat and steam train made it even more effortless for
Europeans to breach Africa’s borders and interior whilst carrying their much-needed weaponry.
Easier travel, easier wars, and easier treatment of disease served as an added fire in the belly
of the European expansionist spirit. A sense of overarching superiority remained the outward
justification for colonizing faraway lands that were deemed “uninhabited” despite already housing
great numbers of indigenous peoples. Internally amongst those in power, an incurable hunger for
more power and land was the main driving force for the frantic land grabs, especially when
the neighborly rivalries became increasingly apparent and tense. The Scramble for Africa
was heavily successful for the Europeans, though not once did it factor the wishes of the Africans…
The 20th century, post-World War era, saw the decolonization of the African continent,
ultimately undoing all that the scramble had accomplished. Today,
Africans have their freedom and autonomy,
but there still remain some haunting footprints left behind from a history all too recent…