Scramble for Africa

In 1880, less than five per cent of the African continent was ruled by European powers. Most European nations had been content with trading colonies around the coast. Only the British and the Boers in South Africa had moved inland and set up new settlements. But within 20 years, the situation changed completely, in what is known as the Scramble for Africa.

Seven Europeans nations took control of the whole of Africa, apart from Liberia and Ethiopia. By 1884, Belgium, Britain, France, Portugal and Spain had started to claim new colonies in Africa or expand their old ones. The newly unified countries of Germany and Italy also wanted shares of the continent. To prevent serious conflict, the Europeans powers met at an international conference on Africa held in Berlin.

CECIL RHODES

British-born Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) went to Natal in southern Africa when he was 17 years old. He became a member of the Cape Colony parliament in 1881 and prime minister in 1890. Rhodes helped to bring more territory under British control, but failed in his ambition to give Britain and empire in Africa that extended from the Cape to Egypt.

During the conference, the European nations decided to divide Africa among themselves. Little regard was given to the African peoples, their cultures or their natural boundaries. Resistance by black Africans, or indeed by white Boers in southern Africa, or indeed by white Boers in southern Africa, was crushed by well-equipped and well-trained European armies. Thousands of Africans died in the fighting, and many thousands more suffered hardship and hunger as their traditional ways of life were destroyed. Some were forced to work as cheap labour in mines and on plantations, growing cotton, tea, coffee and cocoa for export back to Europe. Europeans started farms in suitable areas, and built roads and railways.

In the better-run European colonies, schools and medical centres were set up for local people. In the worst-run colonies, African people were treated little better than slaves. Under European rule, Africans gained access to new ideas, but had no say in how their access to new ideas, but had no say in how their countries were governed and how their lives were run.