Period 5: Africa Flashcards
1
Q
What was South Africa valuable to the Europeans for prior to the discovery of gold and diamonds in South Africa in the 1860s and 1880s?
A
- valuable only for shipping and military reasons
- the Dutch settled Cape Town as a stopping point for ships on the way from Europe to India
- the British seized Cape Town in 1795
- the South African Dutch (aka Boers or Afrikaners) trekked northeast and settled in a region known as the Transvaal and discovered diamonds and gold
2
Q
What was the Boer War?
A
- 1899-1902
- the British fought the Boers for the rights to diamonds and gold in the Transvaal in South Africa
- the British won and all of South Africa was annexed as part of the British Empire
3
Q
What were beys?
A
- local rulers who had far more influence over developments in Egypt than the Ottoman rulers in Istanbul
4
Q
Who was Muhammad Ali?
A
- when Napoleon tried to conquer Egypt, Muhammad Ali defeated the French and the Ottomans
- gained control of Egypt in 1805
- Egypt technically remained part of the Ottoman Empire but Ali wielded almost exclusive control as viceroy
- began industrialization of Egypt and directed the expansion of agriculture toward cotton production during the next 30 years
5
Q
Who was Abbas I?
A
- Muhammad Ali’s grandson
- temporarily halted Ali’s westernization attempts
6
Q
What is the Suez Canal?
A
- completed in 1869
- connected the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean
- eliminated the need to go around the Cape of Good Hope
- more important to Britain because Britain had a huge colony in India
7
Q
What did Egypt do when its finances went into a tailspin due to excessive government spending?
A
- Egypt started selling stock in its canal to raise money which the British government eagerly bought
- Britain controlled the Suez Canal by 1882 and declared Egypt a British protectorate which was essentially a colony except Egyptians remained in political power
8
Q
Who was Otto von Bismarck?
A
Otto von Bismarck hosted the major European powers at a conference in Berlin in 1884 intended to resolve some differences over various European claims to lands in the African Congo.
9
Q
Which two countries in Africa remained independent of European rule by 1914?
A
Ethiopia and Liberia.
