Title 4. FROM COLONIALISM TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR.pdf ✅

1 HISTORY 1 Topic 4 From Colonialism To The First World War, 1880s -1914 MsomiBora.com
2 FROM COLONIALISM TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1880s -1914 Colonialism is a political-economic phenomenon whereby a powerful nation explores, conquers, settle, and exploit a weak nation. Or. Colonialism is defined as “control by one power over a dependent area or people.” It occurs when one nation subjugates another, conquering its population and exploiting it, often while forcing its own language and cultural values upon its people. By 1840, businessmen from Europe had established small trading posts along the coast, but they seldom moved inland, preferring to stay near the sea. They primarily traded with locals. Large parts of the continent were essentially uninhabitable for Europeans because of their high mortality rates from tropical diseases such as malaria. In the middle decades of the 19th century, European explorers mapped much of East Africa and Central Africa. Even as late as the 1870s, Europeans controlled only ten percent of the African continent, with all their territories located near the coast. The most important holdings were Angola and Mozambique, held by Portugal; the Cape Colony, held by Great Britain ; and Algeria, held by France. By 1914, only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent of European control, and Liberia had strong connections to the United States. Technological advances facilitated European expansion overseas. Industrialization brought about rapid advancements in transportation and communication, especially in the forms of steamships, railways and telegraphs. Medical advances also played an important role, especially medicines for tropical diseases, which helped control their adverse effects. The development of quinine, an effective treatment for malaria, made vast expanses of the tropics more accessible for Europeans. The Berlin Conference of 1884, which regulated European colonization and trade in Africa, is usually referred to as the starting point of the Scramble for Africa. There were considerable political rivalries among the European empires in the last quarter of the 19th century. Partitioning Africa was effected without wars between European nations. In the later years of the 19th century, the European nations transitioned from "informal imperialism" — i.e., exercising military influence and economic dominance — to direct rule, bringing about colonial imperialism. To large extent the scramble in Africa initially it was a straight the French and the British. Denmark and Holland had withdrawn from Africa in the period when colonial possession were not very much
3 in favor with other European nations in Africa, therefore showed little interest in the expansion there. It was only the Germany that made the colonization of Africa a three cornered fight. In 1880 Germany interests in Africa were very negligible. Colonial possessions in Africa; a) Belgium; the Belgium Congo (present day Democratic Republic of Congo), Ruanda- Urundi (mandated to Belgium after the first world war) b) Britain; Lesotho, British South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Zanzibar, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Egypt, Sudan and the British Somaliland (northern Somalia) and Togoland, British Cameroon, Namibia and Tanganyika mandated to her after the First World War. c) France; Benin, Albreda (in Gambia) Algeria, Chad, French, Congo), French Guinea (Guinea), Upper Volta, Burkina Faso, French Somaliland (Djibouti), Mali, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Central African Republic, Tunisia and the French Cameroon and French Togo mandated to France after the First World War.