Race for Africa
As scramble for Africa is colonization of the African continent in the heyday of imperialism between 1880 and the First World War called.
From 1880, European imperialism changed . Before an “informal” imperialism was applied, characterized by military and economic superiority, around 1880 more and more direct imperialism crystallized. Its characteristic is the direct influence of European states in affairs in Africa. All attempts to regulate imperialist competition (for example through the Congo Conference ) failed. The conflicts over the African colonies were part of the global political striving for power of many European states, which led to the First World War (see War aims in the First World War ).
Exploration
European explorers began exploring and mapping Inner Africa in the early 19th century. The exploration of Northwest Africa was completed as early as 1835. Among the most prominent European explorers of Africa are David Livingstone (1813–1873), who explored large parts of inner Africa, and Serpa Pinto (1846–1900), who traversed and mapped southern and central Africa . In numerous other expeditions in the 1850s and 1860s Richard Burton , John Speke and James Grant discovered the great lakes ( Lake Tanganyika , Lake Victoria , Lake Albert , Lake Edward , Lake Kiwu , Lake Malawi ) and the sources of the Nile . By the end of the century, other European explorers and adventurers, including Henry Morton Stanley , the couple Florence and Samuel White Baker, and Romolo Gessi , had explored and mapped the entire length of the Nile, the Congo , the Niger and the Zambezi . At the same time, there was considerable demand for raw materials (e.g. ores ) and colonial goods (e.g. ivory , natural rubber , tea , coffee ) from Africa.
At the time, around ten percent of Africa was under European control. The most important colonies at the time were Algeria , whose colonization France had been advancing since the 1830s, the Cape Colony , which belonged to the British , and Angola , which was occupied by Portugal .
Technological advances in various fields facilitated expansion in Africa. The industrialization has enabled great advances in transportation and communication, particularly through improved navigation , telegraph and the railroad . The steamship made it easier to navigate rivers against the current. Medical advances were also important, particularly in the fight against malaria and other tropical diseases.
Reasons for the race for Africa
Africa and the global market
One of the last regions in the world that was not yet in contact with “informal” imperialism was black Africa . Therefore, it was attractive for the European elites to conquer new markets there and to bring supposed achievements of their civilization to the local population in a moral sense of superiority. Since Europe was in a long depression (" founder crisis ") from 1873 to 1896 and the European markets shrank, but at the same time their isolation increased, there was a good opportunity for Great Britain, Germany, France and other (European) countries to purchase goods sell off and improve the chronically negative trade balances .
Foreign markets were particularly important for Great Britain, which was the first country to enter the post-industrial age . Through financial exports and their profits one could relieve the highly deficit trade balance . World-wide important markets for Great Britain at that time were Africa, colonies with white settlers, the Middle East , South Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania .
Overseas investments were often more profitable than at home. This was due to cheap labor, little competition and very easily available raw materials. In addition to these advantages, Africa also offered resources that the European states needed but did not or hardly exist in Europe. Particularly noteworthy here are copper , cotton , rubber , tea and tin . European consumers had got used to the colonial products. For example, copper was essential for the electrification that began at the end of the 19th century .
However, the Europeans invested relatively little capital in Africa compared to other continents. South Africa was the only colony with a significant number of white settlers. The firms investing in Africa were relatively small, with the exception of Cecil Rhodes ' mining company De Beers , which was mining diamonds in Rhodesia . For a long time, it was dangerous and unattractive for white settlers, soldiers, traders or officials to live in Africa, especially in the tropics. That slowly changed with advances in tropical medicine, the consolidation of foreign rule and the expansion of infrastructures.
These observations should actually have weakened the arguments of the proponents of imperialism such as the Pan-German Association , Francesco Crispi or Jules Ferry . They believed that African markets would solve the problems of overproduction and low prices initialized by the Depression.
According to John A. Hobson , who at least influenced authors like Lenin , Trotsky and Hannah Arendt , the shrinking European markets nevertheless caused the new imperialism. Later historians suggest, however, that these were just sham arguments. Indeed, control over tropical Africa served strategic purposes at a time of imperial rivalry between the great powers. For example, a sea power - Great Britain was by far the leading sea power in the world at the time - needed some African coastal ports with infrastructure as bases for sea traffic with their colonies in South and Southeast Asia. British India was Britain's largest colony. With the opening of the Suez Canal in November 1869, this aspect lost its importance.
The gold rush in Witwatersrand , which led to the founding of Johannesburg , was the main reason for the Second Boer War and, according to Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), represented a new element of imperialism. The gold rush resulted in “superfluous capital and manpower becoming shook hands and left the country (in this case Great Britain) ”.
Strategic competition
Although relatively little was invested in tropical Africa overall, it was strategically all the more important to protect the Suez Canal . This was strategically of enormous importance to reach lucrative markets such as India, China or the east coast of Africa. As a result, the British government has been under great pressure, particularly from the Conservative Party , to take control of the key waterways. There was rivalry between the British Empire , France , Germany and other European countries.
Before the "new period" of imperialism, the newly founded German Reich had no colonies available and eagerly took part in the race for Africa. However, the empire had some weaknesses: it was not yet able to control overseas territories because it had no experience in modern nautical science , was unified late and was still very fragmented. However, this changed under Bismarck . After laying the foundations for the isolation of France through his double alliance with Austria-Hungary , which later became the Triple Alliance with Italy, he convened the Congo Conference in 1884/1885 , which laid down rules for the effective control of foreign territories. Germany's urge to expand ultimately led to the Tirpitz Plan , which envisaged building the second largest fleet behind Great Britain (“ risk fleet ”). Great Britain reacted irritably because it was absolutely dependent on colonial goods. It couldn't even produce the food it needed on the island. Therefore, the Imperial Navy and the Royal Navy started an arms race in 1898 . In 1914, the German navy was finally the second largest in the world, but still 40 percent smaller than the British. According to Tirpitz, this aggressive naval armament was more supported by the National Liberal Party than by the conservative parties. This suggests that imperialism had its greatest support from the bourgeoisie.
Beginnings of German colonial policy
Prepared for the media by Friedrich Fabri , a chief inspector of the Rhenish Mission , and encouraged by the nationally-minded bourgeoisie, Germany began its worldwide expansion in the 1880s. Some called for colonies in the Philippines , others in Timor and the next wanted to take Formosa (now the Republic of China (Taiwan) ). At the end of the 1870s, these isolated demands began to be followed up. Later, under Kaiser Wilhelm II , they would go down in history under the name of world politics . The arguments for this came mainly from mercantilist theses. In 1881 Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden published the work German Colonization , in which he argues that national consciousness requires an independent overseas policy. In the pro-imperialist circles, " Pan-Germanism " often played an important role. One expression of this spirit was the founding of the German Colonial Association , which was also "ideologically related" to the nationalist Pan-German Association .
The conflict of the imperialist states
While Pierre Brazza explored the Kingdom of the Congo for France , Stanley also explored the Congo on the orders of Leopold II of Belgium . Leopold was later to build a private colony there.
France occupied Tunisia in 1881 and Guinea in 1884 . This led Italy to rapprochement with Germany and Austria-Hungary and the establishment of the Triple Alliance . In the same year Britain occupied the officially Ottoman Empire belonging Egypt , which at that time the Sudan and parts of Somalia had occupied. Italy occupied parts of Eritrea in 1870 and 1882 . The German Reich declared Togo , Cameroon and German South West Africa (now Namibia ) to be so-called protected areas . In East Africa between 1885 and 1890, German representatives tried to establish a hegemony of the German Empire, which was to extend from the Somali coast via Wituland to German East Africa . With the exception of the founding of German East Africa, however, this failed due to British and Italian colonial efforts in the region. France established French West Africa in 1895 and French Equatorial Africa in 1910 .
Italy continued to pursue the strategy that it had to have a place in the sun (i.e. colonies). After it had occupied part of Somalia in 1889 and 1890 and all of Eritrea (1889), it also wanted to subjugate Abyssinia , but was defeated in the war against the Empire in 1896 . In 1911 Italy provoked a war against the Ottoman Empire, in which it won what is now Libya . The second Italian-Ethiopian war in 1935/1936 was one of the last colonial wars that a colonial power fought to occupy another country (there were still many wars of independence).
At the beginning of the 20th century, Great Britain also freed itself from its isolation by entering into an alliance with the Japanese Empire and thus enabling Japan to win the Russo-Japanese War . In 1904, Great Britain allied with France through the Entente cordiale , which was expanded to include Russia in 1907 . It was directed against the Triple Alliance of Germany.
American Colonial Society and Liberia
The USA also took part in the race for Africa through the American Colonization Society founded by Robert Finley in 1816 . The plan was to return “free” blacks to their “homeland”. These “free” blacks became the first Baptist preachers in Africa. However, this colonization was fought by the local population.
The first President of the American Colonization Society was the future US President James Monroe of Virginia . Ironically, the same man created the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 . It implied that European nations should withdraw from the American continent and no longer interfere in the affairs of sovereign American nations. In return, the US remained neutral between the European powers themselves, and between them and their colonies. The Monroe Doctrine was the basis of 19th century isolationist American foreign policy.
Even if the colony of Liberia was never to grow as big as planned, proponents believe that this was only the first step in Africa. One of the first presidents of the society was Jehudi Ashmun . He dreamed of an American empire in Africa. In 1825 and 1826 he annexed and bought tribal land along the coast and major rivers in the country. Even his predecessor, Robert Stockton , forced a tribal leader to sell Cape Mesurado by force of arms . Ashmun also relied on violence and unfair means to expand. So he bought land from local kings for 500 bars of tobacco, three barrels of rum, five containers of gunpowder, five umbrellas, five iron rods and ten pairs of shoes.
The company controlled Liberia until 1847. That year Liberia declared itself independent under the impression of a possible British invasion. This made Liberia the first decolonized state in Africa. By 1867 the society had sent around 13,000 emigrants into the country. After the American Civil War , many black people wanted to emigrate to Liberia, but the colony's financial support waned. During its final years, the colonial society concentrated on educational and missionary tasks, less on immigration.
A series of crises up to the First World War
The colonization of the Kingdom of the Congo
David Livingstone's expeditions, continued by Henry Morton Stanley , soon led to desires among European nations. But for the time being, the European powers, with the exception of the Belgian King Leopold II , were not interested in colonization. Leopold founded the International African Society in 1876 and sent Stanley on a secret mission to the Congo from 1879 to 1884. Stanley signed contracts with the local guides and secured Leopold an area of around 2,300,000 km² (for comparison: Germany has a size of around 357,000 km²). The colony, known as the Congo Free State , was Leopold's private property, and from 1885 he exported ivory and rubber there . At the same time, the concession companies established a terror regime . Around ten million Congolese people died as a result of mass executions, slave labor and disease (see Congo horror ). Under this impression, Belgium decided in 1908 to annex the Congo Free State.
The Suez Canal
In 1854 acquired Ferdinand de Lesseps of Ismail Pasha to the license, the Suez Canal to build. During the construction period 1.5 million people were forced to work on the construction. 125,000 died of malnutrition, fatigue and illness, mainly cholera . Shortly before the canal was completed, Ismail Pasha borrowed enormous sums from English and French banks at high interest rates . The result was financial difficulties in 1875. As a result, Ismail Pasha was forced to sell his Suez Canal shares . These were bought by the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli , who thus secured Great Britain control of the strategically important waterway. When Ismail Pasha refused to acknowledge the foreign debt in 1879, Britain and France took financial control of Egypt and forced him to abdicate . Since the Egyptian elite disliked the interference from abroad, the Urabi uprising broke out. In the course of the suppression of the uprising, Egypt fell under British rule .
Congo Conference
The occupation of Egypt and the occupation of the Congo were the first big steps in the race for Africa. In 1884, the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck called to the Congo Conference to solve the problems that arose with the annexations of African countries. The conference took place under humanitarian pretexts, such as condemning the slave trade and banning the sale of alcohol and firearms in some areas. Missionary work should also be encouraged. More important, however, were the established rules for the colonization of Africa. Leopold II of Belgium was recognized as the head of the Congo, but its territory was declared neutral so that everyone could act at will. Furthermore, it was stipulated that no nation in Africa could draw borders without informing the other great powers, and that claims could only be made to a territory if it could also be effectively controlled. Nevertheless, the great powers ignored these rules at will, which is why armed confrontations were often difficult to avoid.
British occupations in Africa
In order to secure the sources of the Nile, Egypt was occupied by the British in 1882 (however, until 1914 it was formally declared a protectorate ); The corollary to this policy was the occupation of Sudan , Kenya and Uganda in the late 1880s and early 20th century. The British also occupied Nigeria .
After the British won the Zulu War , they annexed the Boer Republic of the Transvaal . However, the Boers resisted annexation, which led to the First Boer War in 1880 . In the peace treaty of 1881 an agreement was reached on extensive self-government for the Boer republics. In the Second Boer War , however, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State were defeated and integrated into the British Empire .
race
The start of the actual race was the establishment of the French protectorate in Tunisia in 1881 and the British occupation of Egypt in 1882, which led to covetousness among the other "established" colonial powers, but also among emerging countries such as Belgium and Germany . Leopold II had made claims to the Congo and Germany also claimed colonial property for itself after the establishment of the Empire in 1871.
At the Congo Conference (1884–1885) it was determined that only that power should have the right to acquire a colony that actually took possession of it (principle of effectiveness). This decision formed the basis for the significantly accelerated division of Africa into colonies by European powers in the years that followed. In 1896 only the empire Abyssinia , Liberia and the settlement colonies Orange Free State and South African Republic (incorporated into the British colonial empire after the Second Boer War) were independent south of the Sahara .
The Faschoda crisis of 1898 is considered the end of the race, here there was a conflict between British and French colonial troops, which resulted from a collision of French claims to gain connection to the Red Sea for the territory of Sudan , and British efforts to control the Nile Valley , resulted.
Even after the “Race for Africa” ended, there were still territorial disputes.
On September 29, 1911, the Kingdom of Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire ( Italian-Turkish War ). The reason for the war was that Italy wanted to conquer a colony. The war ended with the Peace of Ouchy on October 18, 1912. In it, the Ottoman Empire Tripolitania and Cyrenaica ceded to Italy.
Disputes between the colonial powers Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium and Portugal did not lead to any fundamental changes to the colonial borders until 1914.
See also
literature
- Patricia Clough: Emin Pasha, Lord of Equatoria . An eccentric German doctor and the race for Africa. DVA, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-421-04376-4 (Original title: Emin Pasha and the Scramble for Africa . Translated by Peter Torberg ).
- Robert-Hermann Tenbrock , Kurt Kluxen , Erich Goerlitz and others (eds.): Times and people . Volume 3: The Development of the Modern World (1648–1918) . Schöningh Schroedel , Paderborn 1977, ISBN 3-506-34631-8 , p. 296 .
- Manfred Hergt, Hermann Kinder, Werner Hilgemann , Harald Bukor, Ruth Bukor, Werner Wildermuth (illustrations): dtv atlas on world history . From the French Revolution to the present. tape 2 . dtv , Munich 1966, p. 375 .
- current edition: Manfred Hergt, Hermann Kinder, Werner Hilgemann, Harald Bukor, Ruth Bukor, Werner Wildermuth (illustrations): dtv-Atlas zur Weltgeschichte . From the beginning to the present. Updated new edition. Special edition in one volume, 2nd edition. dtv, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-423-08598-4 .
- Thomas Pakenham : The crouching lion. The colonization of Africa 1876–1912 . Econ, Düsseldorf 1993, ISBN 3-430-17416-3 .