Africa 1857-90 (SECTION 1) Flashcards
Why would Britain have expanded in Africa for trade and economic purposes?
1) The prospect of further trade given the opening up of new routes inland and subsequent discovery of minerals and resources.
2) Unlimited capacity for the production of cattle, cereals and all the usual articles of tropical trade.
3) The climate was less unhealthy, and the great mountain ranges afforded a European climate in easy reach of the coast once roads had been built.
Why would Britain have expanded in Africa for Personal Influence?
1) An increase in trade led to a growth in the personal influence of British merchants such as George Goldie and Cecil Rhodes recognised and capitalised on new commodities and in the process found fame and fortune.
2) British public and political interest was also stimulated. by mid century Victorian explorers who sought and traced the continents waterways.
3) There was a sense that Africa was being discovered for the first time.
What strategic factors would have led to British expansion in Africa?
1) British coastal interests in West Africa demanded protection, and a string of forts was built along the Gold Coast, as were coastal defences in Sierra Leone and Gambia.
2) Further colonisation in Africa - The Cape. The temperature climate and deep water port of the Cape held advantages over the harbours. Cape Colony protected sea routes to the middle east, China, Australia and India, giving Britain considerable power over the sea routes to the East.
What moral factors would have led to British expansion in Africa?
1) Christian missionaries saw it as their ‘moral’ duty to spread their faith among non-Christian or ‘heathen’ peoples.
2) Empire was a force for ‘civilisation’.
Who was the most famous British missionary explorer?
1) David Livingstone
Why would Britain have adventured further into Africa for exploration?
1) By 1857, most of Africa had been added to European maps.
2) Explorers located vast reserves, already known to local inhabitants of raw materials such as gold, palm oil and diamonds, which European merchants sought to exploit and trade.
When was the Brussels Conference?What was the purpose of the Brussels conference?
1) It was in 1876.
2) It was largely motivated by the desire to protect King Leopold of Belgium and his personal interests and holdings in the Congo.
What did the Brussels conference conclude?
1) It concluded that Africans were incapable of developing the natural resources to be found in central Africa and that European intervention was therefore necessary.
2) The routes to Africa’s great lakes needed to be developed by building roads or railways.
3) An international African Association should be established to coordinate the Europeans’ efforts.
What were the effects of the Brussels conference? Provide 6, and think about what other European countries did in response to it.
1) The cooperation that the conference supposedly promoted actually heightened the competition as people were suspicious of Leopold’s intentions.
2) The IAA hired Henry Stanley to advise in the Congo region but it soon became apparent that Leopold was intent on establishing his own Congo Empire.
3) French hired an Italian born explorer Pierre de Brazza to stake their own claims in the region.
4) The Germans hired the explorer Gustav Nachtigal to assert their influence in the region.
5) France extended its control from Senegal into Western Sudan in 1879.
6) Portugal asserted its claims to control the mouth of the Congo in 1884.
When was the Berlin Conference?
1) November 1884- February 1885.
Who hosted the Berlin conference and why did they do so?
1) German chancellor Otton von Bismarck hosted it.
2) Although 80% of Africa was under local control, the European powers believed that need for regulation had become apparent.
What was the initial task of the Berlin conference?
1) To secure agreements that both the basins and mouths of the Congo and Niger river would remain neutral and open to trade.
What did the Berlin conference conclude with?
1) Concluded with the General Act:
-All nations should be permitted to trade in the base of the Congo and its outlets.
-There should be free trade in those regions. The powers should support and protect religious, scientific or charitable undertakings.
-If any power took possession of further land on the coast of Africa it should notify the signatories of the Act, in order to enable them to assert any claims of their own.
What principe was established at the Berlin Conference?
1) ‘Effective Occupation’, where a European power could assert their claim to land that is ‘effectively’ occupied and notify other powers. Only if another power could put in a rival claim was its right to colonise questioned.
What did the General Act trigger?
1) Triggered a further scramble for territory across Africa and by 1900, 90% of the continent was in European hands.
In what ways was the Berlin conference a success?
1) It allowed European countries to expand their empires without the risk of conflict with one another.
2) Africa acted as a ‘safe arena’ for competing countries where, thanks to its size, they were unlikely to come into conflict.
In what ways was the aftermath of the Berlin Conference not so successful?
1) The conference did little for indigenous populations. There was no African representation at the conference and European ministers mapped out spheres of influence with little concern for natural borders of ethnic, linguistic or religious division.
2) Despite the apparently good intentions, in the following years there was no concerted effort to combat the African/Arab slave trade, nor much attention was given to indigenous concerns. The well being and religious customs of the local were frequently overlooked.
Why did British interest in Egypt revive and when did it revive?
1) British interest revived during the American civil war of 1861-1865, when British mills were starved of cotton..
2) Egypt with its good quality cotton attracted the attention of British companies who began investing heavily in the production of Egyptian cotton.
Who was Isma’il Pasha, and what was his ambitious plan? What did this include?
1) Isma’il came into power in Egypt in 1863.
2) He created the ambitious plan of cutting the Suez canal through Egypt to connect the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.
3) This canal meant that the trading route to India was 5,000 miles shorter than via the Cape.
When was the Suez Canal completed?
1) Work on the Suez Canal started in 1859 and was completed 10 years later in 1869.
Why did the British show little interest in the Suez Canal?
1) At first, the British had little interest because they thought that the canal would be to small for big ships to go through.
What led to the British increasing their interest in the Suez canal?
1) The canal had an immediate effect on world trade.
2) In 1875, Isma’il sold his companies shares in the canal for £4 million, and British PM at the time Disraeli stepped forwards.
What did Disraeli buying shares in the Suez canal do?
1) This gave Britain more control over Egypt and subsequently encouraged further interest in the country.
2) However, France still had a greater number of shares in the Suez canal.
