Skip to main content

According to Kevin Shillington in History of Africa, what reasons and justification(s) led to the "Scramble for Africa" and why was this scramble...

The "scramble for Africa" took place for several reasons, according to Schillington:


  • Various other countries managed to catch up to Great Britain in terms of industrialization and manufacturing abilities. This made them decent competitors in the sudden search for new markets for the sale of goods once their home markets (in other words, European markets) became oversaturated. 

  • European nations were also motivated by the belief that African countries contained raw materials (and, thus, sources of wealth) that had gone untouched. The potential reward of moving "in" on Africa was huge.

These two factors (combined with the colonialists' ability to exploit the already existing conflicts between African states and the European "home advantage" of having much more advanced military technology) made African resistance pretty much futile. 


The "scramble" itself was mostly delayed by how long Britain had managed to cling to the "free trade" market due to their advances in industrialization. As was already mentioned, other European countries' ability to catch up with Britain ended this singular control. France was the first to challenge the "free trade" policy by breaking ground on a railway from Dakar to the upper Niger valley. The British response was to support Portuguese claims to Angola and Congo. Germany quickly tossed in its hat to lay claim to Togo, Cameroon, and Namibia. 


This scramble was ultimately resolved without open conflict due to the 1884 to 1885 Berlin West Africa Conference, which set up some parameters for the land claims by 1) recognizing Leopold's International Association as the authority of the Congo basin and 2) by declaring that a European nation attempting to claim land must effectively occupy that land. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more