Imperialism
source: Imperialism: Crash Course World History #35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alJaltUmrGo
By the start of the war, several nations held empires around the globe
The greatest are for empire building was occurring in Africa, with most of the continent becoming divided up from 1875. Terrible atrocities were committed against the people of many of these nations in the pursuit for money and power.
- The British Empire: India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong, parts of north Africa, islands in the Pacific and Caribbean and parts of China.
- Russia: Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Ukraine, Georgia and several regions in central Asia, such as Kazakhstan.
- France: Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, areas of West Africa and India, small colonies in South America, islands in the Pacific and Caribbean.
- Germany: Tanzania, Namibia and the Cameroon in Africa, German New Guinea and parts of China.
- Spain: small territories in South America and north-west Africa.
- USA: The Philippines, Guam, American Samoa and Puerto Rico.
- The Ottomans: Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Armenia and Macedonia.
- Portugal: Angola and Mozambique in Africa, Goa in India and East Timor.
- Belgium: the Belgian Congo in central Africa.
- Netherlands: Dutch Guyana (South America) and Indonesia.
- Italy: Libya, Somalia and Eritrea.
The greatest are for empire building was occurring in Africa, with most of the continent becoming divided up from 1875. Terrible atrocities were committed against the people of many of these nations in the pursuit for money and power.
'Scramble For Africa'
"They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force—nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it's the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea."
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad.
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad.
The Berlin Conference
In 1884 Von Bismarck, at the urging of Portugal, summoned the major European powers to decide the fate of Africa's colonies. Fourteen countries were represented at the conference (Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway, Italy, France, Britain, Germany, Portugal, Turkey, US). The major players were Portugal, France, Britain and Germany as they controlled most of continent at the time. Only the coastal regions had been colonised. At the conference, rules for colonisation were established, and countries scrambled to take their piece of Africa. |
Prior to the Berlin Conference, there were hundreds of tribal and ethnic groups in Africa, speaking over a thousand different languages. Whilst Europeans had long established contact with Africa, particularly those in the Sub-Sahara region, in 1880 only about 10% was colonised by Europeans.
Forces Driving the 'Scramble'
Belief in European Superiority -
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'I contend that we [Britons] are the first race in the world, and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race ... it is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race, more of the best, the most human, most honourable race the world possesses.'
Cecil Rhodes - Confessions of Faith 1877. |
Economics -
- cash-crops: peanuts, palm oil, cocoa, rubber Geo-politics -
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The Belgian Congo
In 1869 journalist Henry Stanley was commissioned to search for the missing explorer David Livingstone. Finding him in November 1871 sick by the shore of Lake Tanganyika he uttered the immortal words 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?'. Stanley's report of travelling the Congo River inspired King Leopold II of Belgium. Leopold II commissioned Stanley to negotiate for control of a large tract of land in the Congo. He claimed that his motivations were to abolish slavery and promote Christianity in the region. The land was controlled and owned by the King, rather than being a colony. It formally became Leopold II's property after the Berlin Conference. He named it the Congo Free State. Leopold II controlled the Congo Free State through a dummy NGO, Association Internationale Africane, of which he was both chairman and sole shareholder.
Leopold II's Congo became infamous for cruelty towards the people who collected the sap from the rubber plants. It is estimated that at least 10 million Congolese died as a result of the abuses of this virtual slave labour. British Consul Roger Casement (remember him from the Easter Rising? He negotiated with the Germans for arms, before deciding that the uprising had no chance, and when coming back to try to stop it, was discovered and tried for treason) reported on the atrocities, opening the eyes of the world to the truth of the Congo Free State. This lead to public and diplomatic pressure to end Leopold II's rule in the area, and the annexation of the Free State by Belgium, renamed the Belgian Congo Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness was inspired by the Congo Free State. |
A trade in hands developed in the Congo Free State. To make sure police didn't waste their bullets, they had to produce severed hands as proof of a victim.
Villages had quotas of rubber to fill, and were motivated by the threat of arson, rape, loss of a hand or being shot. As a result, a trade in severed hands developed between the police and villages. There are reports of Congolese pretending to be dead during a massacre, not moving as their hands were severed. |