Summary
Historians generally agree that the Scramble for Africa,
the rushed imperial conquest of the Africa by the major powers
of Europe, began with King Leopold II of Belgium. After reading
a report in early 1876 that the rich mineral resources of the Congo
Basin (the modern-day Republic of the Congo) could return an entrepreneurial
capitalist a substantial profit, the Belgian king ordered the creation
of the International African Association, under his personal direction,
to assume control over the Congo Basin region. When Leopold asked
for international recognition of his personal property in the Congo,
Europe gathered at the Berlin Conference, called to create policy
on imperial claims. The conference, after much political wrangling,
gave the territory to Leopold as the Congo Free State. The conference
further decreed that for future imperialist claims to garner international
recognition, "effective occupation" would be required. In other
words, no longer did plunging a flag into the ground mean that
land was occupied. The conference also created some definition
for "effective occupation," noting that significant "economic development"
was required.
Given notice by King Leopold, the major European powers sprung
into action. Within forty years, by 1914 and the end of the scramble
for Africa, Great Britain dominated the breadth of the African
continent from Egypt to South Africa, as well as Nigeria and the
Gold Coast; the French occupied vast expanses of west Africa; the
Germans boasted control over modern-day Tanzania and Namibia; the
Portuguese exerted full control over Angola and Mozambique. Only
Ethiopia and the African-American state of Liberia remained independent.
Conquest was relatively easy for the European states: because
of previous agreements not to sell modern weapons to Africans in
potential colonial areas, Europe easily held the technological
and armament advantage. Bands of just a few hundred men and barely
a handful of machine guns could obliterate thousands of Africans
in mere hours.
The only notable exception to this was Ethiopia, a strategically (especially
after the opening of the Suez Canal) placed state at the horn of
Africa. By the early 1870s, Ethiopia was in danger of invasion
from the British, French, and Italians. With Britain occupying Egypt
in 1882, France taking Djibouti in 1884, and Italy dominating Eritrea
in 1885, Ethiopia's Emperor Menelik II hatched a daring plan: he
would exploit European rivalries and competing interests for the
benefit of his country by playing one European power against the
other to obtain the modern weapons he needed to protect the boundaries
of his state. After Menelik II gave minor concessions to France
in return for weapons, Italy grew nervous of the growing French
interest in the country and offered Menelik Italian weapons, as
well. Soon, Britain and even Russia joined in the game. Throughout
the 1880s, Ethiopia grew stronger and stronger as the scramble for
Africa went on around it. However, by the early 1890s, Menelik's
plans began to unravel as war seemed imminent. In 1889, Italy
claimed Ethiopia as an Italian protectorate. When Menelik objected,
Italy moved against the emperor all of Europe had armed for over
a decade. Italy, longing for a glorious victory to enhance its
prestige, ordered its troops into battle. Outnumbered and outequipped,
the Italians lost over eight thousand men in the Battle of Adowa
on 1 March 1896. Ethiopia remained independent.
Why empire? What were the motives for empire in general,
and in Africa specifically? We can speak of this in general and
specific terms. When one asks, say, "Why did Great Britain decide
to take Kenya?", we may answer that it was a necessary stop in
London's goal to control a north-south corridor in Africa. Others
claimed lands so their enemies would not. Still others dominated
certain areas to please missionaries already in place. Various
specific reasons dominate any discussion of the specifics of the
scramble for Africa; however, what were the motives for empire
in general? Let us take a few possibilities in turn.
Economics: The economic potential of
empire, as Britain and Spain had been proving for centuries, was
unquestionable. Empire could insulate the mother country from
dangerous booms and busts in the economic cycle by keeping markets
open and exclusive. Mercantile policies could increase revenues
and natural resources could shore up the treasury.
Geopolitics: Some of these areas were
strategically important for maintaining trade routes to Asia or
maintaining refueling station for a world- wide navy. The Horn
of Africa, the southern tip of the continent, and the west- African
coast were all strategic locations for world control. Inside the
continent, territory was important for its location. Great Britain,
hoping to link Cairo in the north with Cape Town in the south,
wanted north-south dominion; therefore, all the territory between
those two points gained strategic value.
