19th Century European Imperialism Out with the Old and in with the New…

The British Empire

The New Imperialism In the late 1860s and 1870s, European powers began to reverse their disdain for obtaining formal colonies. In the period from 1870 to 1914, European nations (as well as the U.S. and Japan) would go on a colonization drive like never before. In just a couple of decades, nearly all of Africa and large areas of Asia and the Middle East would come under European domination.

Battle of Rouke’s Drift in the Anglo-Zulu War. The British Empire Egypt In 1875, the British bought a 44 percent share in the previously French controlled Suez Canal (1869). The British took a greater role in Egyptian affairs until it was made a British Protectorate in 1882. East and West Africa In East and West Africa, Britain expanded its old trading posts into full colonies, leading to conflict with the natives (example: Anglo-Zulu War of 1879) These included Gambia, Sierra Leone, The Gold Coast, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Somalia. Battle of Rouke’s Drift in the Anglo-Zulu War.

The French Empire In the 1870s, the French extended their colonial control over North and Western Africa. Algeria was made a full colony, with large numbers of French settlers moving in to farm. Control was then extended to Tunisia and Morocco and large amounts of territory in French West Africa, Senegal, Guinea and the Ivory Coast, as well as Madagascar In Asia, French Indochina was colonized.

Anglo-French Conflict in Sudan An uprising in the Sudan under the leadership of the infamous Mahdi threatened British interests. General Charles Gordon reached Khartoum in 1884 to evacuate the garrison but was besieged by the Madhi, the British troops were massacred.

Scramble for Africa – Leopold II In the 1870s, King Leopold II of Belgium began the process of creating a personal colony in the Congo Basin, the Berlin Conference made his acquisitions legal. Leopold used forced labor in the production of rubber, ivory and minerals. As international protests intensified, the Belgian government took control of the Belgian Congo in 1908.

Scramble for Africa – Berlin Conference Intense rivalries among Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and Portugal for additional African territory, and ill-defined boundaries of their various holdings, instigate the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 (organized by Bismarck) Powers defined their spheres of influence and laid down rules for future occupation on the coasts of Africa. No African states were invited to the Berlin conference, and none signed these agreements.

Africa