My Sources for the “How Europe Took Over Africa So Quickly”
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After some initial occupation of coastal regions by different colonial powers, most notably Portuguese, Dutch, French and British, the continent was explored and conquered more and more in the 1800s. For a timeline see: https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191737589.timeline.0001
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The land Europeans controlled as colonies or had been controlled as colonies in 1800 amounts to 35% as described in Economics and empire, 1830-1914 Fieldhouse D.K.. https://archive.org/details/economicsempire10000fiel_d3q6/page/n19/mode/2up
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The land Europeans controlled as colonies or had been controlled as colonies in 1914 amounts to 84% as described in Economics and empire, 1830-1914 Fieldhouse D.K.. https://archive.org/details/economicsempire10000fiel_d3q6/page/n19/mode/2up
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This includes all land that has been colonized by Europe, such as the Americas.
From Economics and empire, 1830-1914 Fieldhouse D.K.. https://archive.org/details/economicsempire10000fiel_d3q6/page/n19/mode/2up
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The interior of Africa was a big unknown. The European powers were able to get all their needs met by trading with established empires. In addition forays into the interior had led to high casualties from disease. This made the exploration not very attractive.
Pakenham, Thomas, The scramble for Africa. https://archive.org/details/scrambleforafric0000pake/page/238/mode/2up
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The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was the first publicly traded company and led to the invention of the stock market. De Geschiedenis van de VOC - Femme S. Gaastra, 2001
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Following the Dutch, the French and English greatly expanded their maritime empires in the course of the 1600s. But even German states, Danish and Swedes joined the fray.
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http://www.britishpoliticalspeech.org/speech-archive.htm?speech=8
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Colonization was not a linear endeavor with clear goals and action. It has been said that the British Empire was acquired in an 'absent state of mind'. And small incidents, competition with other powers and local colonial rulers that acted without the agreement of the authorities in the home country led to decisive outcomes.
Sathnam Sanghera, Empireland - How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain
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The Haitian Revolution was a revolution by (formerly) enslaved peoples and European. It established an entirely new political, economical and social society. Free from slavery. It is the only successful revolution by enslaved peoples.
Knight, Franklin W. “The Haitian Revolution.” The American Historical Review 105, no. 1 (2000): 103–15. https://doi.org/10.2307/2652438.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2652438
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The French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic wars and the introduction of the conscript army ravaged Europe to a great extent. The carnage of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was devastating in Germany, but was ultimately smaller in geographic scale.
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During and after the French Revolution a new revolutionary fervor spread to other European countries. Uprising were shut down, but aristocratic rulers were terrified they would suffer the same fate as the fated Louis XVI, who was beheaded.
Annelien de Dijn, Freedom - An Unruly History
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The congress of Vienna led to an unprecedented 50 years without major conflict in Europe. Spearheaded by the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Secretary Metternich a new balance of power system emerged: the Concert of Europe. European powers agreed on restoring the political situation to pre-1789, curtailing the power of France and deciding on spheres of influence. It broke down with the Crimean War (1853-1856) and in the two decades after that. But it arguably held up until the First World War.
Henry Kissinger - Diplomacy
European powers had a shared agenda when it came to quashing revolutionary zeal.
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The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 was not the start of the Scramble for Africa. It followed when multiple powers gushed into Africa at the same time. Leading to tensions over who should own what. To remove the grounds of war a conference was called.
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Curtin, Philip D. “The End of the ‘White Man’s Grave’? Nineteenth-Century Mortality in West Africa.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 21, no. 1 (1990): 63–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/204918.
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Curtin, Philip D. “The End of the ‘White Man’s Grave’? Nineteenth-Century Mortality in West Africa.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 21, no. 1 (1990): 63–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/204918.
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Curtin, Philip D. “The End of the ‘White Man’s Grave’? Nineteenth-Century Mortality in West Africa.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 21, no. 1 (1990): 63–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/204918.
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At the Congress of Vienna Belgium was added to the Netherlands to form a buffer state to contain France. It rebelled against the Netherlands in 1830. In 1839 it was recognized as an independent country.
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Leopold asked the Spanish to lease the Philippines and Portugal whether they would part with Angola or Mozambique.
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The British didn't own New Guinea, but they were so powerful he felt he needed permission from them to start a colony there. It was quite close to Australia after all.
Pakenham, Thomas, The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912 (1992)
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Portugal, Spain, France and Great Britain had a colonial presence in coastal areas of the continent. Including in (small parts of) the South African Cape, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Algeria, Angola and Mozambique.
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Leopold sent the journalist turned explorer Morgan Stanley to the interior of Africa to stake out his claim. By this time the use of quinine to combat malaria was established. And Stanley travelled 'with what seemed like a well-equipped private army' of some 132 porters and soldiers. He made contact with local rulers and negotiated 'claims' to the lands he found.
Pakenham, Scramble 24.
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So the top map is the extent of mapped territory during an exploratory expedition in 1880 and then the bottom is the extent of mapped territory 11 years later in 1891
https://1886.u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr/s/1886/item/204053#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=385%2C241%2C1480%2C1148
This Map was published in in a Belgian Geographic magazine "Le Mouvement Geographique" in 1891 and the bottom one was personally done by A. J. Wauters, the editor of the magazine who was a Belgian Geographer.
"The first edition of the 'Mouvement Géographique' was published in Brussels on April 6th 1884. Its primary aim was the promotion of Belgian colonisation in Africa."
https://journals.openedition.org/civilisations/1710
Cool French language paper on A.J Wauters and Le Mouvement Geographique
http://belgeo.revues.org/10172
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The French sent the Italian born explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. The city Brazzaville is named after him.
Pakenham, Scramble
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France annexed territory like Tunisia as GB annexed parts of Ottoman Empire 'protectorates'. Taking over Egypt in 1882. Germany made a claim to modern day Cameroon, Togo and Namibia.
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191737589.timeline.0001
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The European powers were clear to demarcate spheres of influence in Africa. This didn't mean there were no conflicting interests. France and Great Britain almost came to war after an encounter in Sudan.
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The principle of effective occupation mentioned in the General Act of the conference stipulated that countries needed to have 'effective occupation'. This was initially meant as an attack on Great Britain that already had claims in Africa, without actually having a sizeable force to enforce these claims. The final agreement reduced the scope of this article to the coastal regions. Still this was different from prior practice.
Pakenham - Scramble
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For a timeline of the scramble see the following source: https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191737589.timeline.0001
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The Congo had many natural riches to offer, but the biggest the Belgians were after was rubber. The colonial administrators would impose quotas to be reached. If the quota wasn't reached administrators would chop off the arms many Congolese that were forced to work on the extraction of this resource. Famine and disease also resulted from the colonial practices. There is a big debate on the number of deaths and population decline but even conservative numbers are in the millions.
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The scramble took just under 30 years. An unprecedented landgrab compared to the more gradual expansion of previous colonial ventures.
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From the start of the scramble in the 1880s to the First World War just 34 years had passed. 90% of the continent was occupied now.
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The amount of Western administrators was very low. In the early 20s Japan had 52.000 civil servants to administer 22 million Koreans. Great Britain had 12.000 British to administer 340 million people. Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa saw fever than 300 British administrators.
Sanghera, Empireland.
Osterhammel, Colonialism.
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Sanghera, Empireland.
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The Italians occupied Ethiopia from 1936-1941. But realistically only occupied the big cities. They were ousted by the British in 1941. Ethiopia got self rule back in 1944.
Sbacchi, Alberto. “ITALIAN COLONIZATION IN ETHIOPIA: PLANS AND PROJECTS, 1936-1940.” Africa: Rivista Trimestrale Di Studi e Documentazione Dell’Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente 32, no. 4 (1977): 503–16. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40760485.
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Curtin, Philip D. “The End of the ‘White Man’s Grave’? Nineteenth-Century Mortality in West Africa.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 21, no. 1 (1990): 63–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/204918.
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15:28
Linnaues was a swedish scholar who made this ranking of people. https://www.linnean.org/learning/who-was-linnaeus/linnaeus-and-race
and Turgot (dawn of everything)
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British explorer and missionary Dr Livingstone believed in the 3 C's: Christianity, Commerce and Civilization. It was the duty of Europeans to stop the slave trade in Africa, bring trade and spread christianity.
Pakenham Scramble
Jürgen Osterhammel - Colonialism. A Theoretical Overview.
Hans van der Jagt - Engelen uit Europa. A.W.F. Idenburg en de moraal van het Nederlands Imperialisme
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The European powers felt they needed to bring stability and civilization. But they needed to conquer them first to establish the necessary rule of law. There was always next place to conquer.
Hans van der Jagt - Engelen uit Europa. A.W.F. Idenburg en de moraal van het Nederlands Imperialisme
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Charles Darwin - On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life) 1859
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Although Darwin made it very clear that his theory wasn't applicable to modern human society, the rising 'science' of eugenics became obsessed with the ideas of degeneration. The idea that civilizations could slide back into an inferior status. One reason being the mixing of races. This was to be prevented at all cost.
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https://pages.uoregon.edu/kimball/Rhodes-Confession.htm
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Countries such as Canada and Australia had dominion status within the empire. This meant they could decide internal legislation, but ultimate legislative powers rested with the British. When WW1 broke out they didn't have a say in whether to join the war or not.
https://www.sfu.ca/~aheard/324/Independence.html
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The First and Second World War are the two wars were slaughter is at an industrial scale. And the difference to previous wars in Europe is how the civilian populace is affected by the warfare. https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uL9flHX6lDC-VrJbAuRLYyT20T8=/0x0:3088x2018/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3088x2018):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3816326/ourworldindata_wars-long-run-military-civilian-fatalities-from-brecke1.0.png
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Osterhammel - Colonialism
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All territories with big populations once under colonial rule have become independent. Still there are countries that are overseas territories.
For instance France has 13 overseas territories. Citizens are French nationals.
Britain has 14 overseas territories. Dutch have rebranded as a kingdom but stil incorporate some overseas territories in that. Denmark rules Greenland.
https://www.dw.com/en/europes-overseas-territories-what-you-need-to-know/a-46145298
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The amount of people that die from war is at an all time low.
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