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Long before the Scramble for Africa,
Europeans had long had an interest in the continent,
setting up trading posts and establishing settlements
mainly in coastal regions since the Portuguese first
arrived in the fifteenth century as part of the creation of
trade routes to the Far East. With an early
form of globalisation taking place across the world,
particularly in the Americas, European nations were in need
of a strong, free work force and therefore adopted the
slavery practices already prevalent in Egypt, Sudan,
Zanzibar, Ghana and Mali amongst others.
When the Slave Trade was first abolished by the United
Kingdom in 1807, with others following suite through to the
1880s, very little of Africa was actually under European rule,
rather the presence in Africa consisted of trading posts and bases. The United Kingdom
had Freetown in Sierra Leone, forts in the Gambia and colonies
in South Africa. Portugal had bases in Angola and Mozambique
whilst Spain held small areas of North West Africa. France's
interests included settlements in Senegal, the Ivory Coast,
Benin and Algeria, whilst the fading Ottoman Empire controlled
most of northern Africa from Tunisia, Libya to Egypt.
As noted above, the Slave Trade had been abolished by the
'west' however slavery was still endemic within Africa itself
with local chiefs further inland culturally reluctant to give up
their use of slaves. When reports that the practice was still
rife filtered back to places like London, abolitionists took it
upon themselves to make expeditions to Africa, and along with
other explorers, these forays deep into the continent to reach
out to these chiefs revealed large population centres but more
importantly a mass of raw materials from palm oil, timber,
sugar, coffee and rubber amongst others.
To financiers who had lost a major source of income following
the end of the slave trade, not only were these newly identified
population centres a new market for European goods but an
abundant source of raw materials from which to make them. Now,
what better way to establish a monopoly than to actually
colonise the area and bring it under foreign control for
exploitation without negotiation? The seeds had been sewn for
what was to be called the Scramble for Africa. The impetus for this scramble was further spurred by the Imperial German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, who had recently seen German unification
followed a decade later by Italian unification, effectively
ending expansion within Europe and creating two new powers who
were keen to get in on the Africa 'act' whilst it still could
and leaving powers like France in need of new lands after ceding
territory to Germany during their unification process.
Two other events also
made the Scramble for Africa more
attractive during this period. Firstly a solution
for Malaria was found meaning that no
longer would vast numbers of explorers
die in Africa, and secondly the advent
of the iron hulled steam boats. This development made
the inland rivers of Africa such as the
Zambezi not only fully accessible but
open to the transport of bulk materials.
Scramble for Africa: Berlin Conference
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Scramble for Africa Colonialism in Africa
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