Scramble for Africa: Threats to Empire, Brussels/Berlin Conferences and Informal Empire Flashcards
Germany as a threat to the British Empire:
1) What happened in 1871, which threatened the UK’s supremacy?
2) Factors that caused Germany to become a powerhouse:
3) When did Germany’s naval programme start posing a threat?
4) Why did Germany join in with France’s advancements in South East Asia?
5) What did the Germans begin doing in 1884?
1) Germany was united as a single country, becoming a new powerhouse.
2) Natural resources and a favourable location in the centre of Europe.
3) 1890s.
4) They were seeking commercial concessions.
5) They began making annexations in the southwest and western regions.
France as a threat to the British Empire:
1) Which event in 1871, did France have to overcome?
2) What did the French do in the 1880s, to threaten the Empire?
3) How were the French challenging Britain’s position in South East Asia?
4) How did the British react, to French expansion in Indo-China?
5) What was Thailand used as?
6) When did the French become more active in Africa?
1) They had been defeated by the Germans, but rapidly recovered.
2) They created a strong naval building programme.
3) They established a foot-hold in Indo-China, in the 1860s, and began pushing north.
4) The British annexed territory in Malaya (from 1874), extending its influence beyond Singapore (1819). They took Sarawak and North Borneo (1881), Brunei (1885) and Upper Burma (1885).
5) A buffer between European powers.
6) In the 1880s, they expanded from their old coastal settlements.
Russia as a threat to the British Empire:
1) What was happening to Russia’s economy?
2) By 1884, into which area had Russia extended its control
3) What did the British fear about the Russian railway?
4) What did the Russians do in the 1880s, to threaten the Empire?
5) Where else did Russia appear set on imperial expansion?
6) Which mega-project facilitated this, and when did it begin.
1) They began to transform their economy, making them a bigger threat.
2) Into central Asia, they were at the borders of Afghanistan.
3) They feared that it could carry an army that would challenge its position in India.
4) They created a strong naval building programme.
5) In the north of China.
6) Work on the Trans-Siberian railway began in 1891.
1) How did the Long Depression encourage expansion into Africa?
1) Markets for manufactured goods, and sources for raw materials could still be used.
1) Which two conferences were held to discuss spheres of influence in Africa.
2) What were these conferences described as?
1) The Brussels Conference of 1876, and the Berlin Conference of 1884 to 1885.
2) The beginning of the scramble for Africa.
Brussels Conference 1876:
1) Who was it hosted by, and what was its purpose?
2) What did the meeting conclude?
3) What infrastructure needed to be developed, and what international association has to be established?
4) Did the conference cause more cooperation, or more competition?
5) Who did the IAA hire to advise in the Congo region, and why didn’t this work?
6) Who did the French hire to make their claims in the region?
7) Who did the Germans hire to assert their influence?
8) How did France extend its control in 1879?
9) What claims did Portugal make in 1884?
1) Hosted by King Leopold of Belgium, who wanted to protect British interests in the Congo.
2) Africans were unable to develop their national resources, so European intervention was necessary.
3) Routes to Africa’s great lakes needed to be developed, by building roads or railways, and an international African Association should be established to coordinate European efforts.
4) More competition, as people were suspicious of Leopold’s intentions.
5) Henry Morton Stanley, however it became clear that Leopold wanted to create his own Congo Empire.
6) Italian-born explorer, Pierre de Brazza.
7) Explorer Gustav Nachtigal.
8) From Senegal to Western Sudan.
9) They made claims to control the mouth of the Congo river.
Berlin Conference 1884-85:
1) In 1884, how much of Africa was still under local control?
2) Who hosted the conference?
3) Who attended?
4) What did Bismarck see Africa as an opportunity for?
5) What was its initial task?
6) What did the representatives of the major powers do?
7) The conference concluded with the signing of the General Act, which promised:
8) What was ‘effective occupation’?
9) To what extent did the General Act trigger a further scramble?
10) Why was the conference a success?
11) Did the conference help indigenous peoples?
12) Was there an effort to stop the slave trade?
1) 80%, with the Europeans largely being restricted to coastal areas.
2) The German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck.
3) Foreign ministers of 14 European countries, however, the main players were the USA, France, Germany, Great Britain and Portugal, as they controlled most of Africa.
4) An opportunity to create tensions between Britain and France, as the two had already clashed on Egypt and Sudan.
5) To secure that both the basins and mouths of the Congo and Niger river, would remain neutral and open to trade.
6) Negotiated claims to territory, which were then formally mapped out.
7) > All nations can trade in the Congo and its outlets.
> Countries with power in that region should protect indigenous people, suppress slavery, and protect religious, scientific and charitable undertakings.
> If a power took possession of further land on the coast of Africa, it should notify the signatories of the Act, so that they could make their own claims.
8) A power could assert its claim to land that is ‘effectively’ occupied, and notify other powers. Only if another power put in a rival claim, would its right to colonise be questioned.
9) By 1990, 90% of the continent was in European hands.
10) It allowed Europeans to expand without the risk of conflict.
11) There was no African representation at the conference, and spheres of influence were mapped out without regard for ethnic, linguistic or religious division.
12) No, barely any attention was given to indigenous concerns.
Informal Empire:
1) What type of places did the ‘informal empire’ consists of?
2) What did these economic agreements consist of?
3) What did this allow Britain to enjoy?
4) What sometimes happened, when the links were very strong?
1) Areas where Britain had no legal claim, but did have substantial economic influence.
2) Free trade arrangements or British investments.
3) Power around the world, without the cost of responsibility.
4) Areas became settled by British citizens, and British culture and language were adopted.
China:
1) What were the treaties of Nanking (1842) and Tientsin (1858)?
2) What originally gave these areas their influence?
3) What was the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs office, and who was its head?
4) How did Britain defend its lucrative opium trade?
1) They gave Britain trading bases in Shanghai and Hong Kong. They were settled by British people and governed by British laws.
2) The way Britain used them to sell opium, which helped provide the necessary funding for the British East India Company.
3) This was a branch of the Qing government, that protected government interests. In 1863, Robert Heart became its head.
4) By using its navy.
East Africa:
1) How did Britain spread its influence through diplomatic pressure, and the appointment of key advisers?
2) What did this lead to in 1891?
1) Britain spread its influence on the Sultanate of Zanzibar, with the help of the trader John Kirk.
2) A government was established that made the Sultan’s first minister, a British representative.
Middle East:
1) Where did Britain spread influence using trade treaties?
2) How did Britain respond to the threat, of an invasion of Afghanistan?
1) Iran
2) Through the Treaty of Gandamak, which provided Britain with strategic territorial gains, and control over foreign policy.
South America:
1) By the second half of the 19th century, how much of Britain’s exports and imports did South America account for?
2) Give examples of how threats of force were used to maintain trade agreements:
3) How much of Britain’s foreign investment between 1850 and 1900, went to Argentina?
4) What was built with British investment?
5) How strong was Britain’s control on the business aspect of Argentina?
6) What lives did British citizens live in Buenos Aires?
7) What was imported from Argentina?
8) Why was financier Charles Morrison, important in Argentina?
1) 10%
2) Mexico was put under pressure to respect fair trade treaties in 1861, and the royal navy ensured compliance in Peru in 1857, and Chile in 1863.
3) 10%
4) Hundreds of miles of railways.
5) It was almost as if it was a colony.
6) They lived an elite lifestyle, with their own institutions.
7) Mutton, beef, wheat and maize.
8) In 1881, he acquired the Mercantile Bank of the River Plate in Argentina, and invested into the countries utilities.
