By the seventies of the XIX century. on the African continent, European powers owned 10.8% of the total territory. Less than 30 years later, by 1900, the possessions of European states in Africa already amounted to 90.4°/0 of the continent's territory. The imperialist division of Africa was completed. Hundreds of thousands of Africans who defended their land and independence died in an unequal struggle with the colonialists. The imperialists received ample opportunities to plunder the country's natural resources, unbridled exploitation of its peoples and unprecedented enrichment.
Historically, Africa was divided into two main parts that differed from each other ethnically, in terms of the level of socio-economic development and in the form of political structure. Northern Africa, right down to the great deserts, has long been closely connected with the Mediterranean world. Its population is Arab and Arabized, and is characterized by relative ethnic homogeneity. Egypt, Tunisia, Tripoli and Cyrenaica were part of the Ottoman Empire: Morocco was an independent state. The social system of the countries of North Africa was a complex set of social relations - from emerging capitalism in urban centers to the tribal system of nomads. However, despite all the diversity of social orders, feudal relations prevailed.
Another part of the continent, located south of the Sahara, represented! presents a more complex picture. The northeast (the northern part of Eastern Sudan, Ethiopia, the countries of the Red Sea coast) was inhabited primarily by peoples speaking Semitic-Hamitic languages. Negroid peoples speaking Bantu languages, as well as various Sudanese languages, inhabited vast areas of tropical and southern Africa. In the extreme south lived the Koikoin (Hottentots) and San (Bushmen) tribes. A special place among the African peoples was occupied by the population of Madagascar, who anthropologically belong to the Mongoloids and speak the Malagasy language (Malayo-Polynesian group).
The socio-economic system and forms of political organization in this part of Africa were very diverse. In a number of regions of Western Sudan, as well as in Madagascar, feudal orders constituted the main type of social relations, combined, as a rule, with significant elements of the slaveholding and primitive communal system. Along with the feudal states, which in certain periods achieved significant centralization (Ethiopia, the state of Imerina in Madagascar, Buganda, etc.), tribal unions and rudimentary state formations arose, disintegrated, and were revived again. Such were the alliances of the Azande and Mangbettu tribes in Western tropical Africa, and the Zulu in South Africa. Many peoples in the central zone of Western Sudan, in the northern bend of the Congo and other areas did not even know the rudimentary forms of state organization. There were no clearly defined boundaries. Intertribal wars that never stopped were a constant phenomenon. Under these conditions, Africa became easy prey for the colonialists.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to settle on the African continent. Back at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. they explored the African coast from Gibraltar to the eastern protrusion of the mainland north of Mozambique and founded colonies: Portuguese Guinea and Angola in the west and Mozambique in the east. In the second half of the 17th century, the Dutch (Cape Colony) gained a foothold in the extreme south of Africa, partly exterminating and partly enslaving the San and Koikoin. Following the Dutch, colonists from France and other European countries headed here. The descendants of these first colonists were called Boers.
A struggle developed between the Europeans themselves for colonies in Africa. At the very beginning of the 19th century. The British captured the Cape Colony. The Boers, pushed north, created the South African Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free State on new lands forcibly taken from the indigenous population. Soon after this, the Boers took Natal from the Zulus. In wars of extermination against the indigenous population that lasted almost 50 years (the “Kaffir Wars”), England expanded the possessions of the Cape Colony to the north. In 1843, the British captured Natal, displacing the Boers from there.
The northern coast of Africa was the object of colonial conquests mainly by France, which, as a result of long wars against the Arab population, by the middle of the 19th century. took possession of all of Algeria.
In the early 20s of the XIX century. The United States of America bought land on the West Coast of Africa from the leader of one of the local tribes to organize the settlement of blacks released by individual slave owners. This was an attempt to create a base for further expansion in Africa and at the same time for the settlement of free blacks who posed a threat to the existence of slavery in the United States . The colony of Liberia created here was declared an independent republic in 1847, but in fact it remained dependent on the United States.
In addition, the Spanish (Spanish Guinea, Rio de Oro), the French (Senegal, Gabon) and the British (Sierra Leone, Gambia, Gold Coast, Lagos) owned strongholds on the west coast of Africa.
The division of Africa at the end of the 19th century. was preceded by a series of new geographical explorations of the continent by Europeans. In the middle of the century, large Central African lakes were discovered and the sources of the Nile were found.
The English traveler Livingston was the first European who managed to cross the continent from the Indian Ocean (Quelimane in Mozambique) to the Atlantic (Luanda in Angola). He explored the entire course of the Zambezi, Lake Nyasa and Tanganyika, discovered the majestic phenomenon of African nature - Victoria Falls, as well as lakes Ngami, Mweru and Bangweolo, crossed the Kalahari Desert. The last of the major geographical discoveries in Africa was the exploration of the Congo in the 70s by the Englishmen Cameron and Stanley.
Geographical exploration of Africa made a major contribution to science, but European colonialists used their results for their own selfish interests. Christian missionaries also played a significant role in strengthening the positions of European powers on the “Dark Continent”.
The most common form of European penetration into Africa was the ever-expanding trade in manufactured goods in exchange for the products of tropical countries on the basis of unequal calculations. The slave trade continued on a large scale, despite its official prohibition by the European powers. Enterprising adventurers equipped armed expeditions into the depths of Africa, where, under the banner of the fight against the slave trade, they engaged in robbery, and often hunted for slaves themselves.
European colonialists were attracted to Africa by its enormous natural wealth - significant resources of valuable wild trees, such as oil palms and rubber trees, the possibility of growing cotton, cocoa, coffee, sugar cane, etc. Gold was found on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, and then in South Africa and diamonds.
The division of Africa became a matter of “big policy” for European governments.
By the mid-70s, Egypt was already experiencing the consequences of the country's involvement in the world capitalist economy. The capitulation of Muhammad Ali in 1840 and the extension of the Anglo-Turkish trade convention of 1838 to Egypt led to the abolition of previously existing trade monopolies. Foreign industrial goods gained wide access to the country. The process of introducing export crops, especially cotton, was underway. The industry for the primary processing of agricultural products developed, ports were refurbished, and railways were built. New classes emerged - the national bourgeoisie and the proletariat. However, the development of capitalism was hampered by feudal relations in the countryside and the increasing penetration of foreign capital. The Egyptian government, due to the large expenses caused by the construction of the Suez Canal, ports and roads, was forced to resort to external loans. In 1863, Egypt's public debt reached 16 million pounds. Art.; the payment of interest alone absorbed a significant part of the country's income. The loans were guaranteed by the main revenue items of the Egyptian budget.
After the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the struggle of the capitalist powers, primarily England and France, to establish their dominance over Egypt became especially intense.
In November 1875, as a result of the financial bankruptcy declared by the Ottoman Empire, the rate of Egyptian securities fell catastrophically. The British government took advantage of this to force the Egyptian Khedive Ismail to sell his shares in the Suez Canal Company to England for next to nothing.
Foreign creditors began to openly interfere in Egypt's internal affairs. The British government sent a financial mission to Cairo, which compiled a report on the difficult financial situation of Egypt and proposed establishing foreign control over it. After lengthy Anglo-French disputes, the Egyptian Debt Commission was formed from representatives of England, France, Italy and Austria-Hungary; English and French controllers received the right to manage the income and expenses of Egypt. In 1878, the so-called European cabinet was formed, headed by the English protege Nubar Pasha. The post of Minister of Finance was taken by an Englishman, and the post of Minister of Public Works by a Frenchman.
Foreign ministers levied heavy taxes on the fellahs (peasants) and increased taxation on landowners' lands. In February 1879, they fired 2,500 Egyptian officers, which accelerated the outbreak of indignation in the army, which resulted in a demonstration by officers. In April 1879, the Khedive was sent an appeal signed by more than 300 ulemas, pashas, beys and officers demanding the immediate removal of foreigners from the government. Khedive Ismail was forced to satisfy this demand. The new cabinet was composed only of Egyptians, headed by Sherif Pasha.
In response to the removal of foreigners from the government, England and France obtained from the Turkish Sultan the removal of Ismail and the appointment of a new khedive, Tevfik. He restored Anglo-French control over finances and reduced the size of the Egyptian army to 18 thousand people.
The omnipotence of foreigners offended the national feelings of the Egyptians. The national liberation movement was led by representatives of the young Egyptian national bourgeoisie, the Egyptian intelligentsia, officers, and patriotic landowners. They all united under the slogan “Egypt for Egyptians” and created the first political organization in Egypt, Hizb-ul-Watan (Homeland Party, or National Party).
In May 1880, a group of officers protested against the obstacles to the promotion of Egyptian officers, the forced use of soldiers in labor, and the systematic withholding of salaries.
At the beginning of 1881, officers led by Colonel Ahmed Arabi sent a petition to the Egyptian government demanding the resignation of the Minister of War and an investigation into his promotions. Arabi, a fellahi, was a talented and energetic leader of Hizb-ul-Watan. He understood the importance of the army as the only organized force in the country and tried to find support among the peasantry. In February 1881, soldiers under the command of patriotic officers seized the War Ministry building and arrested the Minister of War.
The success of the Arabi group caused fear among the government and its foreign advisers. An attempt to remove patriotic regiments from Cairo met with resistance. The Vatanists demanded the resignation of the cabinet, the development of a constitution and an increase in the Egyptian army. The armed uprising of the army in September 1881 forced the Khedive to accept all the demands of the Vatanists.
These events increased the anxiety of the colonialists. British and French diplomacy tried to organize Turkish intervention in Egypt. When this failed, France put forward a project to establish joint Anglo-French military control over Egypt. England, which sought to independently capture Egypt, refused to accept this proposal.
Meanwhile, the new government of Sherif Pasha, formed after the September uprising, decided to hold parliamentary elections (based on the very limited electoral law of 1866). Most of the Vatanists entered parliament. They insisted that the future constitution should give parliament the right to fully control at least that part of the state budget that was not intended to pay off the national debt. The draft constitution developed by Sherif Pasha provided parliament with only advisory rights in this matter. The majority of deputies of the Egyptian parliament at the session that opened on December 26, 1881 expressed dissatisfaction with this project. Arabi put forward a proposal to form a new cabinet.
In January 1882, the Khedive was presented with a joint Anglo-French note demanding the dissolution of Parliament and the suppression of Arabi's activities. Despite this pressure, the Egyptian parliament forced the resignation of Sherif Pasha's government in early February. Ahmed Arabi entered the new cabinet as Minister of War. The creation of a national government was marked by large gatherings in its support. The new cabinet adopted a draft constitution, which provided for the approval of the budget by the government together with a parliamentary commission (except for the part intended to pay off the public debt).
After an unsuccessful attempt to bribe Arabi, England and France on May 25, 1882 presented the Khedive with notes demanding the resignation of the cabinet, the expulsion of Arabi from the country and the removal of prominent Watanists from Cairo. The national government resigned in protest against gross foreign interference, but this caused such serious unrest in Alexandria and Cairo that Khedive Tewfik was forced to restore Arabi as minister of war on 28 May.
At the international conference on the Egyptian question convened in Constantinople in June 1882, British delegates were forced to accede to a protocol obliging all European powers not to resort to annexation or occupation of Egyptian territory.
Without waiting for the protocol of this conference to be approved, the commander of the English squadron stationed on the Alexandria roadstead, Vice Admiral Seymour, sent a provocative demand to the military governor of Alexandria to stop the construction of forts by the Egyptians. The English ultimatum, delivered on July 10, 1882, proposed that this demand be fulfilled within 24 hours.
On July 11, 1882, the English fleet subjected Alexandria to a fierce 10-hour bombardment. Then the British ground units, numbering 25 thousand people, landed on the shore and occupied the city. Khedive Tewfik, betraying the interests of his people, fled from Cairo to Alexandria, occupied by the British. An Extraordinary Assembly of representatives of the nobility, clergy and Watanist officers was formed in Cairo to govern the country and organize its defense against British aggression. An extraordinary assembly declared Khedive Tewfik deposed and appointed Arabi commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Arabi had about 19 thousand regular troops and 40 thousand recruits at his disposal. The Egyptian army had a significant amount of ammunition and weapons, including about 500 cannons. A strategic plan for the defense of Egypt was developed.
However, in implementing the defense plan, Arabi made serious military-political miscalculations: he did not strengthen the Suez Canal zone, hoping that the British would not violate the convention on neutralizing the canal; entrusted the most important defensive positions to undisciplined Bedouin troops, whose leaders the British managed to bribe. Without taking into account the neutralization of the Suez Canal, the British transferred troops from India to Port Said and Ismailia, thus ensuring an attack on Cairo from two directions.
English forces broke through the front, stretched and weakened by the betrayal of the Bedouin leaders. On September 13, 1882, Arabi's troops were defeated at Tel-ay-Kebir. On September 14, British troops captured Cairo and subsequently occupied the entire country. Arabi was arrested, put on trial and expelled from Egypt. At that time there was no social force capable of leading a victorious popular struggle against foreign conquerors. The weak, barely emerging national bourgeoisie hoped to achieve expansion of its rights through compromises and was not interested in a revolutionary war. The feudal elements who joined Arabi at the most acute moment of the struggle against the English aggressors took the path of open betrayal. All this taken together led to the defeat of the national movement and facilitated the transformation of Egypt into an English colony.
In the Maghreb countries (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco), large tracts of land in the agricultural coastal zone belonged to landowners and were cultivated by peasants who paid feudal rent. Communal land ownership also remained on a noticeable scale here. The steppe regions adjacent to the desert were inhabited mainly by nomadic tribes, in which the process of feudalization was at the initial stage and elements of the tribal system played a significant role. Handicraft and small-scale production was developed in the cities.
The Maghreb was not only one of the first targets of French colonial expansion in Africa, but also the gateway through which this expansion spread to other parts of the continent.
Back in 1830, the French army invaded Algeria, but more than two decades passed until France established its colonial rule in the country in a bloody war against the Algerian people. The privileged elite of the European population in Algeria - landowners, speculators, military personnel - barely numbered 10 thousand people. They seized the best lands and became the main support of the French colonial regime, the inspirers of further expansion, which was directed from Algeria to the west and east.
The next target of this expansion was Tunisia. The capture of Tunisia by France in 1881 sparked a rebellion that spread throughout almost the entire country. Only after a difficult war were the colonialists able to break the stubborn resistance of the Tunisian people.
The French authorities created a new system of government in Tunisia. The French Resident General, while retaining only nominal power, was also the Prime Minister of Tunisia. The post of Minister of War was taken by the commander of the French expeditionary force.
French generals, senators, ministers, and newspaper editors became major Tunisian landowners. On their estates, which reached 3-4 thousand hectares, Arab peasants were forced to work on sharecropping terms. In total, about 400 thousand hectares of the best lands were captured.
At the expense of the Tunisian people, the French colonialists built strategic railways, highways, and ports. When large reserves of minerals were discovered in the depths of the country - phosphates, iron ore and non-ferrous metal ores, French industrial companies and banks began to take part in the exploitation of Tunisia.
In North Africa by the end of the 19th century. only Morocco still retained its independence. This was mainly due to the fact that the intense rivalry between several European powers did not allow any of them to establish dominance over a country that occupied an important strategic position and had rich natural resources.
For a long time, the Moroccan Sultanate was divided into two unequal zones: one included the main cities and their surroundings, which were actually controlled by the Sultan’s government, and the other was an area inhabited by tribes that did not recognize the authority of the Sultan and were often at enmity with each other. On the territory of Morocco there were those captured by Spain back in the 15th century. the cities of Ceuta and Melilla. France, having strengthened itself in Algeria and Tunisia, began to intensively penetrate into Morocco!
Southern Africa, along with the Maghreb, was one of the oldest areas of European colonization, a springboard for expansion into the interior of the continent. The western part of South Africa was inhabited by the Koikoin and San, as well as related tribes speaking Bantu languages.
The main occupation of most Bantu tribes was cattle breeding, but they also developed hoe farming. On the eve of the clash with the Europeans, and especially during the resistance to the colonialists, the Bantu formed more or less stable tribal alliances.
The colonialists managed to cope with the Koikoin and San tribes with relative ease, partly exterminating them and partly pushing them into desert areas. The conquest of the Bantu turned out to be more difficult and lasted for several decades.
The situation in South Africa was significantly complicated by the fact that, along with the main conflict between the colonialists and the indigenous population, there were acute contradictions between the two main European population groups: the British and the descendants of the Dutch colonists - the Boers, who had lost all contact with the mother country. This second conflict sometimes took on extremely acute forms. Initially, it developed as a clash of interests between the English, mainly commercial and industrial, population, as well as the English administration and the Boer farmers.
By the 70s of the XIX century. England owned Basutoland, Cape Colony and Natal. English possessions, like a huge horseshoe, stretched along the coast, blocking the Boers from further spreading to the east. The object of European colonization in southern Africa was the lands of the Zulu in the northeast, the Bechuana, Matabele and Mashona in the north, the lands of the Herero, Onambo, and Damara in the northwest.
In the summer of 1867, near the Hopetoun trading post on the banks of the river. The first diamonds in South Africa were accidentally discovered in Orange. A stream of prospectors poured into Orange. The previously deserted desert came to life. The number of miners quickly increased to 40 thousand people. New villages and cities arose around the diamond mines.
For diamond mining, joint-stock companies began to be created, using cheap labor from the indigenous population. In the competition, one of the companies, De Beers, led by Cecil Rhodes, managed to monopolize diamond mining.
A serious obstacle to English expansion in the direction of the Boer republics was the Zulu state.
From the beginning of the 70s, when Ketchwayo became the leader of the Zulus, in the Zulu state (Zululand), which was acutely aware of the lack of grazing land, preparations began for a war of liberation, for the reconquest of territories captured by the colonialists. Ketchwayo restored the Zulu army, updated its organization, and purchased weapons in Mozambique. However, the Zulus failed to complete the necessary preparations.
On December 11, 1878, British colonial troops in Natal sent Ketchwayo an ultimatum, the acceptance of which would mean the liquidation of the independence of the Zulu state. The Council of Tribal Chiefs and Elders rejected the ultimatum.
On January 10, 1879, British troops crossed the river. Tugela and invaded Zululand. A brutal bloody war began. The English army consisted of 20 thousand infantry and cavalrymen and had 36 guns. Nevertheless, the Zulus repeatedly dealt serious blows to the invaders. Soon after the war began, the British had to retreat to the Natal borders.
Ketchwayo repeatedly turned to the British with a peace proposal, but the British command continued hostilities. Despite the enormous superiority of forces, England achieved victory in this inglorious colonial war only six months later. Fierce internecine wars, organized by the British, began in the country, which drenched Zululand in blood for another three years. In January 1883, the unity of Zululand was restored under the supreme rule of Ketchwayo on the terms of recognition of the British protectorate. In 1897, Zululand was officially incorporated into Natal.
In 1877, British troops invaded the Transvaal; The British organized a government of British officials in Pretoria. During the Anglo-Zulu War, the Boers did not take advantage of England's predicament. The common interests of the colonialists in the fight against the Zulu tribal union - the most serious force opposing European expansion in South Africa - turned out to be more powerful than their contradictions. The situation changed after the end of the Anglo-Zulu War.
At the end of 1880, the Boer uprising against the British began. Soon, at the Battle of Mount Majuba, the Boer militia inflicted a serious defeat on the British forces advancing from Natal.
Gladstone's liberal cabinet, which came to power in England at that time, preferred to resolve the conflict peacefully. Self-government for the Transvaal was restored. According to the London Convention of 1884, England recognized the independence of the Transvaal, which, however, was deprived of the right to conclude treaties with foreign powers without the consent of England (this did not apply to the Transvaal’s relations with the Orange Republic) and to develop territorial expansion to the west or east - to the coast. But even after the conclusion of this convention, England persistently continued the policy of encircling the Boer republics with its possessions.
German expansion also began in this area. Despite the protests of the British government, Germany declared in April 1884 a protectorate over the territories from the mouth of the Orange River to the border of the Portuguese colony - Angola. Following this, German agents began to advance into the interior of the mainland, securing German dominance over vast possessions through “agreements” with the leaders. The strip of these possessions (German South-West Africa) was approaching the Boer republics.
In 1887, England annexed the Tsonga lands, north of Zululand. Thus, a continuous chain of English possessions closed along the east coast and came close to Portuguese Mozambique. The Boer republics were completely cut off from access to the east.
Germany's annexation of South-West Africa sealed the fate of Bechuanaland, a vast territory that occupied a significant part of the Kalahari Desert. The infertile lands of Bechuanaland, where no mineral resources had yet been discovered, were of no independent value. However, the threat of contact between German and Boer possessions prompted England at the beginning of 1885 to proclaim its protectorate over Bechuanaland, thus driving a wide wedge between its rivals. The seizure was carried out on the basis of agreements with several leaders of the Bechuana tribes and under the pretext of countering the aggressive plans of the Boers. After this, the British dismembered Bechuanaland: the southern, more fertile part was declared British possession and later included in the Cape Colony, while the northern, deserted part was formally left under British protectorate.
In 1884-1886 Rich gold deposits were discovered in the Transvaal. Gold miners flocked to the Transvaal. Within a few years, the center of the gold mining industry, Johannesburg, grew near Pretoria. The establishment of monopoly dominance in the gold mining industry took place much faster than in its time in the diamond industry. This was partly due to the fact that monopolistic enterprises, already established in the diamond industry, immediately expanded their scope of activity to gold-bearing areas. The powerful owners of the De Beers company, led by Rhodes, bought gold-bearing areas from farmers on a large scale and invested large amounts of capital in gold mining.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Rhodes group, having gained a dominant position in key sectors of the rapidly developing industry, secured complete control over the British administration of South Africa. In 1890 Rohde became Premier of the Cape Colony (he remained so until 1896). From isolated, sometimes random annexations in the south of the African continent, England moved in the 80-90s to the consistent and persistent implementation of the Rhodes Plan, which provided for the creation of a continuous strip of British possessions in Africa from Cairo in the north to Cape Town in the south.
After the annexation of Bechuanaland, there was only one vast area of South Africa that had not yet been subjected to European colonization - the lands of the Mashona and Matabele. By the end of the 80s, a large knot of contradictions had arisen here: not only England and the Boer republics, but also Germany and Portugal intended to seize these lands, which, as was believed at that time, were not inferior to the Transvaal in terms of mineral wealth.
In February 1888, the British authorities managed to get the Matabele leader Lobengula to sign a friendship treaty. Lobengula undertook not to enter into negotiations with anyone or enter into agreements for the sale, alienation or cession of any part of his country without the sanction of the British High Commissioner. Thus, the Matabele and Mashona lands subject to Lobengula were included in the British sphere of influence.
In September of the same year, a new embassy headed by Rhodes's companion, Rudd, arrived to Lobengula in his capital Bulawayo. During six weeks of negotiations, Rudd managed to deceive Lobengula into signing a treaty, the contents of which he had the vaguest idea of. For a thousand guns of an obsolete design, a gunboat and a monthly pension of 100 pounds. Art. Lobengula granted the Rhodes company the full and exclusive right to develop all the mineral wealth of the country, “to do whatever they (i.e., the company) may think necessary to extract it,” as well as the right to expel all their competitors from the country.
In 1889, the British government granted the British South Africa Company created by Rhodes a royal charter, i.e., broad privileges and government support to implement the treaty with Lobengula.
The company established its own administration on the occupied lands. The company's employees behaved like conquerors. Bloody massacres of the local population became increasingly frequent. The situation was heating up. In October 1893, the British moved their troops from the areas they occupied in Mashonaland to Bulawayo. In November, Bulawayo was captured and burned. The Matabele army, which heroically defended its country, was almost completely exterminated: the advantage of the British, who widely used machine guns, was felt. Lobengula fled from the advancing British troops and died in January 1894.
The defeat of the last organized military force that the indigenous population of South Africa could oppose to the colonialists provided the Rhodes Company with the opportunity for unchecked plunder. In the spring of 1895, she introduced a new name for the country in her official documents - Rhodesia, in honor of the inspirer and organizer of its capture, Cecil Rhodes. The confiscation of land and livestock belonging to the local population began at an extremely rapid pace. Preparations began for the eviction of a significant part of the residents to areas specially designated for them - reservations. Forced labor was widely used.
In March 1896, a rebellion began in Matabeleland, which spread to Mashonaland a few months later. The fierce struggle continued until September 1897 and ended in victory for the British troops. The uprising, however, forced the British to make some concessions to the rebels: the Matabele were allowed to return to the areas from which they had previously been evicted; The less well-organized Mashona tribes were unable to achieve similar results.
After the capture of the Limpopo-Zambezi interfluve by Rhodes's company, the conquest of South Africa by England was almost complete. The last obstacle to the implementation of the imperialist plan to create a continuous strip of British possessions from Cape Town to Cairo remained only two Boer republics.
If the main direction of English colonial expansion in Africa was determined by the Cairo-Cape Town plan, then French policy was imbued with the desire to create a continuous strip of possessions from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. In the late 70s and early 80s, three main directions of the French offensive deep into the continent were outlined: to the east from Senegal, to the northeast from the region of the river. Ogowe and the opposite direction - to the west from French Somalia. The French possession of Senegal was the main springboard for this offensive.
Another area from where European colonialists advanced into the interior of the continent was the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, where a bitter struggle began between France and England. Later, Germany also joined this fight.
In 1890, the French authorities in Senegal, concerned about the rapid advance of England and Germany from the Guinea coast, considered that the time had come to put an end to the independence of the states led by the emirs Samori and Ahmadou. In 1890-1893 The state of Ahmad was defeated, in 1893 Djenne, the center of the Masina region, was taken, in 1894 French rule extended to Timbuktu - the ancient center of caravan trade routes crossing West Africa. The further advance of France to the east was stopped for about a year and a half by the Tuaregs, who in 1594 defeated a large detachment of French troops.
The colonial war with Samori dragged on. Only in 1898 was the armed resistance to the invaders in Western Sudan, which had lasted for about 50 years, broken.
In the 80s, on the site of scattered trading posts located at a great distance from each other, significant colonial possessions of France were formed - first in Guinea, and then on the Ivory Coast.
French expansion met serious resistance in Dahomey (Slave Coast), the strongest of the states in West Africa. Dahomey had a permanent regular army, part of which was formed from women. The army was replenished by trained reserves, and, if necessary, by general militia. In 1889, clashes began between Dahomey and French troops. The Dahomeans dealt a number of serious blows to the colonialists, and in 1890 a peace treaty was concluded, according to which France undertook to pay 20 thousand francs annually for the possession of Cotonou and Porto-Novo. However, in 1892 the war resumed. This time France sent a formidable force to Dahomey, and by the end of the year the Dahomey army was defeated.
On the eve of the final division of West Africa, England owned small settlements at the mouth of the river. The Gambia, Sierra Leone with its natural harbor Freetown, the Gold Coast and Lagos. The Ashanti state offered particularly stubborn resistance to the British colonialists. In an effort to weaken their enemy, the British colonialists fueled conflicts between the Ashanti and the Fanti people inhabiting the coastal areas. The Fanti lands became a springboard for the English offensive into the interior of the country. In 1897, the invaders managed to capture the Ashanti capital, Kumasi, but in 1900 they found themselves faced with a powerful popular uprising. For four months the English garrison was besieged in Kumasi, and only the arrival of significant reinforcements changed the balance of forces. It took England several more years to extend its dominance to the northern territories of the Gold Coast.
Advancing up the Niger, the British encountered French expansion moving in the opposite direction. The final demarcation of British and French possessions in West Africa was fixed by a series of agreements concluded in 1890. A British protectorate was declared over Northern and Southern Nigeria.
The Muslim sultanates in the west and east of Lake Chad seemed tempting prey not only to the British and French colonialists. In the mid-80s, Germany began expanding in the same direction, striving to get ahead of its competitors. Territorial conquests were prepared by the creation of German trading posts in West Africa, as well as by the activities of scouts and explorers who entered into agreements with tribal leaders. In July 1884, the German traveler Nachtigal, on behalf of Bismarck, hoisted the German flag in a number of points in Togo and Cameroon, after which Germany officially declared its protectorate over the coastal strip of these regions.
From Cameroon and Togo, Germany sought to advance to Niger and Lake Chad parallel to the directions of British and French expansion. In this competition, the old colonial powers had a number of advantages and, above all, greater experience. With the final settlement of the borders, carried out diplomatically in the 90s on the basis of actual seizures, Germany got a narrow strip in Togo, limited in the east by French Dahomey, and in the west by the English Gold Coast. In Cameroon, Germany managed to assert a territory five times larger than Togo and advance north all the way to Lake Chad, but the regions of Niger and Benue remained outside German possessions. The rule of the German imperialists already in the 90s caused a number of uprisings of the local population.
By 1900, the division of West Africa was completed. The predominant part went to France. French acquisitions merged with possessions in the Maghreb and formed a continuous colonial territory from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Guinea.
English possessions remained like islands - albeit sometimes of impressive size - among the array of French colonies. Economically, as well as in terms of population, the British colonial possessions in West Africa, located along the lower reaches of the most important rivers - the Gambia, Volta and Niger, significantly exceeded the French ones, among which the barren Sahara occupied the largest area.
Germany, which took part in colonial conquests later than others, had to be content with a relatively small part of West Africa. Economically, the most valuable of Germany's African colonies were Togo and Cameroon.
A small territory of Guinea was retained by Portugal and Spain.
In the 70s of the XIX century. Belgium's colonial expansion also intensified. Belgian capital sought to take an active part in the division of Africa.
In September 1876, on the initiative of King Leopold II, who was closely connected with the influential financial circles of the country, an international conference was convened in Brussels, in which, along with diplomats, experts in international law, economists, travelers - explorers of Africa, etc. participated. Belgium, Germany, Austria-Hungary, England, France, Italy and Russia were represented. The organizers of the conference in every possible way emphasized the scientific and philanthropic goals it supposedly pursued - the exploration of the continent and the introduction of its people to the benefits of “civilization.”
The conference decided to found an Association designed to organize expeditions and set up trading posts in Central Africa. To conduct ongoing work, national committees were created in individual countries and a commission heading the entire enterprise was created. The Association's funds were to come from private donations. Leopold II personally contributed large sums to the Association's fund. The Belgian National Committee was the first to be formed, already in November 1876. Similar committees were soon created in other countries.
The Brussels Conference of 1876 was the prologue to the division of Central Africa. A certain part of the ruling circles of Belgium associated plans for the creation of a Belgian colonial empire with the activities of the Association. On the other hand, it seemed to the governments that took part in the Brussels Conference and in the founding of the Association that such a method would allow them, under the guise of an international organization, to ensure their own interests in Central Africa.
The Belgian committee organized several expeditions to the Congo Basin, but managed to create only one trading post there. The Englishman Stanley, who entered the service of the Association, launched energetic colonial activities in the Congo.
In 1879-1884. Stanley and his assistants founded 22 factories in the Congo Basin - strongholds of the Association's economic, political and military dominance - and concluded about 450 treaties with tribal leaders to establish a protectorate of the Association (in fact, a protectorate of the Belgian king). In cases where the diplomatic skill of Leopold's agents could not achieve the desired results, military expeditions were undertaken to force the tribal leaders to sign the required treaties. Thus, within a few years, the Association became the sovereign of a vast, although not clearly defined, territory in the Congo Basin.
Belgium failed to seize the planned areas without hindrance; its interests collided with the interests of other powers, primarily France and Portugal.
When in 1880 the Stanley expedition reached a small lake that the Congo River forms near its confluence with the Atlantic Ocean and which later became known as Stanley Pool, it was to its surprise to see a French flag on the right bank.
Back in 1875, the French began advancing from previously captured Gabon towards the Congo River. In September 1880, Savorgnan de Brazza, acting on behalf of the French national committee of the Association, concluded an agreement with the chief Makoko, whose domains extended around Stanley Pool, to grant France “special rights” to the lower reaches of the Congo and thereby cut off the Belgian Association’s access to to the sea. On November 30, 1882, the French Chamber of Deputies secured the acquisition of de Brazza for France. All French possessions in Equatorial Africa were united into a colony called French Congo.
A threat to the possessions of the Belgian Association also arose from another side. In 1882, Portugal protested against Stanley's seizures. She accused the Association of seizing “other people's property” and contrasted it with her “historical rights.”
England actually stood behind Portugal. In February 1884, an Anglo-Portuguese treaty was signed, according to which England recognized the coastal strip for Portugal, and Portugal provided British subjects, ships and goods in this strip with the same rights that the Portuguese had.
The implementation of the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty would deal a crushing blow to Belgian colonial plans. However, in April 1884, the French government, alarmed by the strengthening of the position of its main colonial rival, England, chose to partially resolve its conflict with the Association in order to present the latter as a shield against Anglo-Portuguese claims. In the agreement concluded with the Association, France actually recognized its sovereignty over the captured lands, although without clearly specifying the boundaries. Soon the Association's position was also supported by Germany, which stated that it did not recognize the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty.
England thus found itself in a state of isolation. This prevented the implementation of its plans in other areas of the African continent (for example, along the lower reaches of the Niger), where British interests were more significant than in the Congo Basin, and where its main competitors were the same France and Germany. England also feared that the economic strangulation of the Association, which could result from the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty, would lead to the strengthening of France. In view of all this, the British government did not submit the treaty with Portugal for ratification to Parliament, and in June 1884 it was annulled.
By the mid-80s of the XIX century. The struggle for the division of Africa has intensified noticeably. Almost every attempt by one or another colonial power to occupy new lands ran into similar aspirations of other states.
In November 1884, on the initiative of Germany and France, an international conference of 14 states with “special interests” in Africa was convened in Berlin. The association did not directly participate in the conference, but its representatives were part of the Belgian and American delegations. The conference lasted until the end of February 1885.
The Berlin Conference adopted decisions on free trade in the Congo Basin and on freedom of navigation on African rivers, but its real goal was the division of Central Africa between the imperialist powers.
During the negotiations conducted by representatives of the Association with the countries participating in the conference, international recognition of the Association and its vast possessions in the Congo Basin was achieved. In November 1884 - February 1885, the Association concluded relevant agreements with Germany, England, Italy and other countries, and mention of it as a new state in the Congo Basin was included in the General Act of the Conference.
On August 1, 1885, a few months after the end of the Berlin Conference, the International Association of the Congo was transformed into the Congo Free State. Formally, ties with Belgium were limited to a personal union carried out by King Leopold II, but in fact the Congo Basin became a Belgian colony.
Of the European powers that began conquests in Northeast Africa in the 70s and 80s, England was in the most advantageous position. Even before the occupation of Egypt, it tried to gain a foothold in Eastern Sudan, which, like Egypt that conquered it, was considered an integral part of the Ottoman Empire. The administration of Eastern Sudan was carried out at the expense of the Egyptian budget. However, the actual power here belonged to the English General Gordon, who was officially in the Egyptian civil service.
By enslaving Eastern Sudan, England thereby asserted its dominance over Egypt, whose agriculture was entirely dependent on the supply of Nile waters.
On the coast of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, England met its rival, France, which relied on a small territory around the city of Obock, which occupied a commanding strategic position at the exit from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. In the 80s, France captured the entire coast of the Gulf of Tadjoura, as well as the city of Djibouti, which became the main stronghold of French expansion in Northeast Africa. However, the main danger to British plans in this area was not these small territorial acquisitions of France, but the growing ties of the French with Ethiopia. In the late 1980s, Djibouti became the main port through which Ethiopia's foreign trade was carried out. A French military mission was invited to the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.
At the same time, Italian expansion began in Northeast Africa. Back in 1869, immediately following the opening of the Suez Canal, the Genoese shipping company acquired Assab Bay and the Damarquia Islands from Sultan Raheita to establish a coal depot on a sea route that was destined to become one of the busiest in the world. Ten years later, the Italian government bought its rights from the company. Assab became an Italian colony and was occupied by Italian troops in 1882 and formally annexed. Assab was the main bridgehead from which Italy later launched an attack on Ethiopia.
The British government supported Italian claims in Northeast Africa, seeing them as a counterbalance to the colonial aspirations of France. Thanks to this, Italy was able to significantly expand its possessions to the south and north of Assab. In 1885, the city of Massaua, previously captured by England, was transferred to Italy. In 1890, these territories were united into the colony of Eritrea.
Even earlier, in 1888, Italy declared a protectorate over the vast territory of Somalia. Most of the Italian acquisitions took place in the heat-dried desert, but they were of strategic importance, because they cut off Ethiopia from the coast. England's colonial conquests in northeast Africa were relatively small. In 1876, she established a protectorate over the island. Socotra, which occupies a key position at the entrance to the Indian Ocean, in 1884 captured part of the lands inhabited by Somalis on the coast of the Gulf of Aden.
The division of Northeast Africa by European powers was completed after the uprising in Sudan - the largest event in the history of the liberation struggle of African peoples against the colonialists.
In August 1881, during the Muslim fast of Ramadan, a young preacher Muhammad Ahmed, a native of the Nubian Dangala tribe, by that time already widely known in Sudan, declared himself the Mahdi - the messiah, the messenger of Allah, called to restore true faith and justice on earth. The Mahdi called on the people of Sudan to rise to a holy war - jihad - against foreign oppressors. At the same time, he proclaimed the abolition of hated taxes and the equality of all “in the face of Allah.” The peoples of Sudan were asked to unite to fight a common enemy. “Better a thousand graves than paying one dirham tax” - this call spread throughout the country.
Muhammad Ahmed, under the name Mahdi, soon became the recognized leader of the popular liberation uprising that unfolded in Sudan.
The ranks of the rebels, poorly armed but determined to fight the conquerors, grew rapidly. A year after the start of the uprising, by September 1882, only two heavily fortified cities remained under the control of the Anglo-Egyptian authorities in Kordofan - Bara and El Obeid. In January - February 1883, these cities, besieged by the rebels, were forced to surrender. The establishment of the Mahdists in El Obeid, the main city of Kordofan, was their greatest political victory. The uprising spread to the provinces of Darfur, Bahr el-Ghazal, and Equatoria. A particular danger to British rule was the spread of the uprising to the Red Sea coast of Africa - in close proximity to the main communications connecting England with its colonies.
In March-April 1884, the population of the Berbera and Dongola regions rebelled. In May, the Mahdists took possession of Berber. The route from Khartoum to the north was cut off. In January 1885, after a long siege, Khartoum, the capital of Eastern Sudan, was stormed and Governor General Gordon was killed. In the summer of the same year, the expulsion of Anglo-Egyptian troops from Sudan was completed.
The Mahdist uprising, directed against the British colonialists and the Egyptian feudal bureaucracy, had a pronounced liberation character. However, soon after the victory of the Mahdists and their conquest of state power, serious social changes took place in the rebel camp.
The deep upheavals that Sudan experienced in the 1980s undermined previous tribal ties. After the expulsion of the foreign administration, the tribal nobility came to power; the tribal union that arose during the uprising gradually turned into a class-type state organization. The Mahdist state was formed as an unlimited feudal theocratic monarchy.
Muhammad Ahmed died in June 1885. The Mahdist state was headed by Abdallah, a native of the Arab Bakkara tribe, who accepted the title of caliph. He owned all the power - military, secular and spiritual. Abdallah's closest associates were subordinated to certain branches of government. Taxes were not only maintained despite the Mahdi's promise, but new ones were introduced.
At the same time, the joint struggle brought the various peoples of Sudan closer together. The collapse of the tribal system was facilitated by the beginning of the formation of nationalities connected by an ethnic community.
The Mahdist uprising had echoes beyond Sudan. The beginning of the uprising coincided with the national liberation struggle of the Egyptian people. At least a third of the Egyptian soldiers who participated in the battles went over to the side of the rebels. Subsequently, the existence of an independent Sudan had a huge impact on enslaved Egypt. The echoes of the Mahdist uprising swept across the entire African continent and penetrated into distant India. The victories of the Mahdists inspired many peoples of Africa and Asia to resist the colonialists.
After the fall of Khartoum, the British colonialists did not take active action against the Mahdist state for over 10 years. During this decade, the political situation in East Africa changed dramatically. Sudan found itself surrounded by the possessions of a number of European countries, each of which sought to gain a foothold in the Nile Valley. Eritrea and most of Somalia were captured by Italy. German agents conducted feverish activity in East and West Tropical Africa. Leopold II energetically developed expansion from the Congo he captured to the northeast, to the southern provinces of Sudan.
France quickly expanded its colonial empire in this area, approaching Sudan from the west. Its influence has noticeably strengthened in Ethiopia.
From now on, France could launch an offensive towards the Nile Valley also from east to west and thus complete the creation of a continuous strip of French possessions from the Atlantic to the Red Sea.
All this posed a great threat to British colonial plans. The British government found it necessary to take decisive action in Sudan. In December 1895, Salisbury publicly announced that the destruction of Mahdism was the task of the British government. Following this, it was decided to occupy the Dongola region and from there launch an offensive to the south. The commander-in-chief (sirdar) of the Egyptian army, the English General Kitchener, was entrusted with leading the campaign.
By the beginning of the resumption of hostilities against Sudan, Kitchener had a ten-thousand-strong, well-armed Anglo-Egyptian army. There were about 100 thousand people in the Mahdist army, but only 34 thousand of them had guns. The advance of the Anglo-Egyptian troops proceeded very slowly. The capture of Dongola took more than a year. A major battle took place in April 1898 at Metemma. Despite the desperate bravery of the Sudanese troops, who marched in dense ranks to meet machine-gun fire, military technology and organization brought victory to the British. On September 2, 1898, the main forces of the Mahdists were defeated at the walls of Omdurman, losing more than half of their strength in killed, wounded and prisoners. Kitchener entered Omdurman. The victors subjected the defenseless city to a terrible defeat. The severed heads of prisoners were displayed on the walls of Omdurman and Khartoum. The ashes of the Mahdi were removed from the mausoleum and burned in the firebox of the steamship.
In January 1899, British rule over Eastern Sudan was legally formalized in the form of an Anglo-Egyptian condominium. All real power in Sudan on the basis of this agreement was transferred to the governor-general, who was appointed by the Egyptian khedive on the proposal of England. Egyptian laws did not apply to Sudanese territory. The independence that the people of Sudan defended with arms in their hands for 18 years was destroyed. Abdallah, who retreated with the remnants of his troops, continued to fight until 1900.
The defeat of the Mahdists in 1898 did not yet mean the establishment of England throughout the Nile Valley. Having captured Omdurman and Khartoum, Kitchener quickly moved south to Fashoda, where a French expeditionary force led by Captain Marsha had arrived earlier.
Kitchener categorically demanded Marchant's resignation. Marchand no less resolutely refused to comply with this demand without an order from his government. Since France was in no hurry to meet British claims halfway, the British cabinet took measures of pressure. The English press took an extremely militant tone. Military preparations began on both sides. “England is on the verge of war with France (Fasoda). They are robbing ("dividing") Africa" ( V. I. Lenin, Notebooks on imperialism, M., 1939, p. 620.), - V.I. Lenin later noted.
It did not come to the point of the Anglo-French colonial war. The French government saw that the balance of forces was not in favor of France: Marchand’s small detachment was opposed by Kitchener’s army; it tried to negotiate some kind of compensation from the British for the withdrawal of Marchand's detachment, but the British government stated that any negotiations were possible only after the evacuation of Fashoda by Marchand. Ultimately, France had to give in. In November 1898, Marchand left Fashoda. In March 1899, an agreement was concluded on the delimitation of British and French possessions in Eastern Sudan. The border passed mainly along the watershed of the Nile and Lake Chad basins. France was finally removed from the Nile Valley, but secured the previously disputed region of Wadai (northeast of Lake Chad).
By the beginning of the 80s, Eastern Tropical Africa became a field of fierce rivalry between British, German and French colonialists. Germany was especially active in this area, striving to create a continuous array of its possessions in Africa - from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, on both sides of the equator. The invasion of East Africa was carried out by a private company created in 1884 - the Society for German Colonization, headed by K. Peters. Based on the “rights” acquired by Peters under 12 treaties with local chiefs, the German East Africa Company was founded in February 1885, exercising sovereignty over a large territory.
Two weeks after the founding of the company, an imperial charter (similar to the royal charter granted to British colonial societies) placed both the rights and possessions of the company under the protection of the German state. At the beginning of 1885, a representative of the company concluded new agreements, according to which a coastal strip stretching several hundred kilometers north of Portuguese possessions would come under its control. The rich Bitu Sultanate found itself in the German sphere.
The emergence of vast German colonial possessions in the east of the African continent in an extremely short period of time caused alarm in London. In April 1885, at the direction of the British government, the Sultan of Zanzibar protested against the German invasion of his possessions. The German government objected that the Sultan was not carrying out the “effective occupation” in the disputed territories prescribed by the decisions of the Berlin Conference. In August 1885, the Sultan was forced to recognize the German protectorate over the areas captured by the Peters company. Not content with this, Petere came up with plans to create a vast German colony in East Africa, equivalent to British India. These plans, however, met resistance from a strong competitor - the Imperial British East African Company, which acted by similar methods (treaties with leaders, setting up trading posts, etc.). A motley stripe of English and German possessions arose in East Tropical Africa.
In 1886, an attempt was made to resolve the mutual claims of England, Germany and France in East Africa. The Zanzibar Sultan, that is, in fact, England, retained the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, as well as a coastal strip ten miles wide and a thousand miles long. The German East Africa Company received exclusive rights to lease the coastal areas from the Sultan, and the Imperial British East Africa Company was given corresponding rights to the north. Germany retained Bita, surrounded by English possessions. France was recognized as having freedom of action in Madagascar.
The agreements of 1886 were extremely fragile. A significant part of the lands divided by the European powers had not yet been captured by them. The lack of a sufficiently clear boundary between spheres of influence raised a large number of controversial issues. German colonial companies remained cut off from the ocean by the possessions of the Zanzibar Sultan, who increasingly became an obedient toy in the hands of England. On the other hand, the British were unhappy that the German possessions in Bitu were wedged into the British sphere. The situation was complicated by the fact that France did not abandon attempts to create its own colonies in this part of the mainland. Belgium tried to penetrate here from the west. In 1888, in the territories controlled by Germany, the Arabs united with the Bantu peoples and rebelled. Soon the colonialists were expelled from almost all the lands they had captured. The rapidly growing uprising posed a danger to all imperialists. Therefore, all the powers that had colonial interests in East Africa - Germany, England, France, Italy - united in the fight against the rebels. A naval blockade of the coast was organized. Taking advantage of this support and drawing up significant forces, Germany suppressed the uprising with incredible cruelty.
In 1889, having intervened in the internecine struggle in Buganda (part of Uganda), England subjugated this country. In the same year, it captured vast areas in the south, which later formed the territory of the British colony, called Northern Rhodesia. Thus, German possessions in East Africa were reduced to a minimum size. Peters' ambitious plans for a “German India” in Africa did not come true.
The final demarcation of English and German possessions in East Tropical Africa took place in 1890, when the so-called “Heligoland Treaty” was concluded. Having lost to Germany about. Heligoland, England included in its sphere of influence Zanzibar, Bita, Pemba, Kenya, Uganda, Nyasaland, as well as some disputed territories in West Africa, on the border of the Gold Coast and Togo.
The only African country that was able to successfully repel European colonialists and defend its independence was Ethiopia (Abyssinia).
In the middle of the 19th century. In Ethiopia, fragmented into many feudal principalities, the formation of a centralized state began. In addition to economic processes, this was facilitated by political factors: the growing threat of aggression from European colonialists required the consolidation of forces to protect the country's independence.
By 1856, the regions of Tigre, Shoa and Amhara were united under the rule of Feodor II, who assumed the title of Negus (emperor) of all Ethiopia. Conducted by him in 1856-1868. Progressive reforms contributed to the weakening of feudal separatism, strengthening the power of the Negus, and the development of the country's productive forces. A single army was created instead of the fighting squads of the feudal lords. The tax system was reorganized, government revenues were streamlined, and the slave trade was banned.
In the 1980s, Ethiopia attracted increased attention from Italian colonial circles. Italy made the first attempt to significantly expand its possessions in Northeast Africa at the expense of Ethiopia in 1886. However, in January 1887, the Ethiopians inflicted a heavy defeat on the Italian expeditionary force.
At the beginning of 1889, when a struggle broke out between the major Ethiopian feudal lords for the crown of the Negus, Italy supported the ruler of Shoa, who ascended the throne under the name Menelik I. In May 1889, Menelik and the Italian representative signed the Ucchial Treaty, which was extremely beneficial for Italy a treaty that assigned a number of territories to it. Not content with this, the Italian government resorted to outright fraud. In the text of the treaty, which remained with the Negus and was written in Amharic, one of the articles (17th) indicated that the Negus could use the services of Italy in diplomatic relations with other states. In the Italian text, this article was formulated as an obligation of the Negus to turn to the mediation of Italy, which was tantamount to the establishment of an Italian protectorate over Ethiopia.
In 1890, Italy officially informed the powers that it had established a protectorate over Ethiopia and occupied the Tigray region. Menelik made a strong protest against the Italian interpretation of the Treaty of Ucchiale, and in 1893 he announced to the Italian government that from 1894, when the treaty expired, he would consider himself free from fulfilling all obligations under it.
Ethiopia was preparing for an imminent war. An army of 112,000 was created. Menelik managed to achieve a unification of individual regions unprecedented in the history of the country.
In 1895, Italian troops moved deep into Ethiopia. On March 1, 1896, a general battle took place near Adua. The Italian invaders suffered a crushing defeat. In October 1896, a peace treaty was signed in Addis Ababa, according to which Italy unconditionally recognized the independence of Ethiopia, renounced the Treaty of Ucchiala and pledged to pay indemnity to Ethiopia. The 1889 border was being restored, which meant Italy lost the Tigre region.
By 1900, the partition of East Africa was completed. Only Ethiopia managed to maintain independence. The richest areas of East Africa were captured by England. The array of English colonial possessions stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the sources of the Nile. In the north, Egypt, Eastern Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and part of Somalia came under British rule; in the south, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, adjacent to English possessions in South Africa. Rhodes's plan was close to fruition. Only German East Africa and Ruanda-Urundi were wedged into the territories subject to England. Portugal retained its possessions in Mozambique.
The example of Ethiopia and Eastern Sudan showed that the consolidation of African peoples and the establishment of state centralization help protect their independence and make it possible to resist the power of colonial powers. For the peoples of the African continent, this was a most valuable historical experience.
Madagascar was a centralized feudal monarchy, the core of which was the state of Imerina, which was formed on the basis of the Merina people. The dominant position was occupied by the feudal class, which had large land holdings. The largest part of the population were individually free peasants, united in communities. At the end of the 19th century. the community, previously a stable economic and social unit, entered a stage of disintegration.
In the last decades of the 19th century. Important reforms were carried out in Madagascar. In order to finally break the remnants of feudal separatism, the country was divided into eight provinces led by government-appointed governors. Central power was exercised by the king and the cabinet of ministers, headed by the prime minister, as well as the royal council. The army and judicial system underwent transformations.
Some progress also occurred in the field of cultural development. In 1881, a decree was issued on compulsory education for all children aged 8 to 16 years, although real conditions for its implementation existed only in Imerina, where up to 2 thousand schools were opened. The formation of a national intelligentsia began in the country. Newspapers and books began to be published in Malgash.
Back in the 30s of the XIX century. France concluded a series of “protectorate” treaties with tribal leaders, who transferred several points to it on the west coast, in the lands of Sakalava. In subsequent decades, French colonialists sought to expand their sphere of influence.
Relations between Madagascar and France deteriorated sharply in the early 80s. In 1882, the French government demanded that Madagascar recognize the French protectorate. At the same time, France opened military operations: the French squadron bombarded coastal cities, landings of French troops captured Majunga, an important port on the west coast, Diego Suarez Bay in the northeast, and the port of Tamatave. The Malgash people put up armed resistance. In September 1885, the colonialists were defeated at Farafati. However, the forces were too unequal, and the Malagasy government had to sign a peace treaty in December 1885, which satisfied the basic demands of France.
War 1882-1885 and the unequal treaty that completed it were the first stage on the path to the annexation of Madagascar by France.
In September 1894, the French Resident General presented a draft of a new treaty to Queen Ranavalona III; under its terms, control over the country’s foreign and domestic policy was transferred to the French authorities and armed forces were introduced into the territory of Madagascar in the amount that the French government “deems necessary.”
The rearmament and reorganization of the Malgash army, begun after 1885, was not yet completed, but the Malgash troops heroically defended the independence of their country. The march of French troops from Majunga to Tananarive took about six months. Only on September 30, 1895, the French expeditionary force approached Tananarive and bombarded the capital of Madagascar.
The next day, October 1, a peace treaty was signed, establishing French dominance over Madagascar. The power of the queen and her government was still nominally preserved, but the exercise of the country's diplomatic representation was entirely transferred to France; Internal management was also subject to its control.
At the end of 1895, a wave of popular resistance to the colonialists arose. The uprising spread throughout the country. Communication routes between Majunga and Tananariva were cut off. In May 1896, the rebels were 16 km from the capital. Guerrilla rule was established in most of the country.
In the summer of 1896, France decided to throw away all conventions: an act of the French parliament declared the annexation of Madagascar. In February 1897, the French deposed the queen and exiled her, and the country was divided into military districts. The colonialists established their unlimited power over the population. However, partisan warfare in a number of areas of the island continued until 1904.
Contrary to popular belief, Europeans did not begin to conquer it from the first second of their stay on the African coast in the same way as they did in America. Africa greeted the first colonists with dangerous diseases, centralized states and numerous, albeit poorly armed, armies. The first attempts at aggression against the African kingdoms showed that it would not be possible to conquer them with a detachment of 120 people, as Pizarro did with the Inca Empire. As a result, for almost four centuries after the appearance of the first Portuguese fort of Elmina in Africa (1482), European powers had virtually no ability to control the interior of the continent, being content only with colonies on the coast and at the mouths of rivers.
Many European countries managed to participate in the colonization of the Dark Continent. As the first “masters” of Africa, which was granted to them by a special bull of the Pope, the Portuguese extremely quickly, literally within the lifetime of one generation, managed to capture or establish strongholds in Western, Southern and Eastern Africa. At the beginning of the 16th century. North Africa was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. Only a century later, in the 17th century, these two empires were followed by young colonial lions - England, the Netherlands, France. Their colonies in Africa in the 17th century. had Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Brandenburg and even Courland, a small Baltic duchy that for some time owned an island and a fortress at the mouth of the Gambia River, where landless Latvian peasants were settled by colonists.
Europeans preferred to buy or rent land from local rulers rather than fight for it. In Africa, they were not interested in land, but primarily in goods: slaves, gold, ivory, ebony, and these goods could be bought relatively inexpensively or taken as tribute. In addition, in Europe at that time the prevailing belief was that in the interior of the continent the climate was unbearable for a white man, and this was the absolute truth: malaria, schistosomiasis and sleeping sickness significantly shortened the life of a European in Africa. The Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique and the Dutch colonists in South Africa were the ones who moved deeper into the continent, but overall the map of European possessions on the continent in 1850 was not much different from 1600.
In the 1720s. Peter I decided to equip an expedition for Russia’s exploration of the island of Madagascar. It was not destined to take place, but the archives preserved a letter from the All-Russian Emperor to a certain non-existent “king of Madagascar”, where Peter calls himself his “friend”: “By the grace of God we, Peter I, are the Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, etc., etc., and so on, to the highly venerable king and ruler of the glorious island of Madagascar, we have decided to send you our Vice Admiral Wilster with several officers for some matters: for your sake, we ask that you be inclined to admit them to us, to give them free stay, and to that in our name they will offer you complete and complete faith, and with such a willing answer they have deigned to release them back to us, which we trust from you, and we remain your friend. Given in St. Petersburg on November 9, 1723. of the year".
As for the map of the African interior before the European conquest, it is usually presented as a continuous blank spot. It is easy to see that this is not so: in the middle of the 19th century. there were at least two dozen fairly developed states on the continent, with which Europeans for the time being maintained very close and relatively friendly relations.
Everything changed literally overnight in the last quarter of the 19th century, and there were several reasons for this. Europe learned the properties of quinine, produced from the bark of the South American cinchona tree and capable of treating malaria, which was no longer so terrible for European settlers. Europe developed the technology of rifled weapons, which had enormous advantages over the smoothbore musket with which the most advanced African armies were equipped. Europe has accumulated enough information about inner Africa thanks to a whole cohort of glorious travelers who successfully passed through the jungles, swamps, deserts and proved that the sun there does not burn a person alive, as the ancient authors believed. Finally, Europe had experienced the Industrial Revolution and was in dire need of new markets for manufactured goods, which were being produced at unprecedented speed and in large volumes. To start the colonial race, all that was needed was to fire the first shot. It was destined not to be done by the great powers, but by little Belgium.
This shot rang out in 1876 in Brussels, when the Belgian King Leopold II announced the creation of the African International Association to promote scientific and humanitarian projects in the Congo Basin. Throughout Europe, this move was perceived as the beginning of the Belgian conquest of Central Africa, and so it actually was. Having landed at the mouth of the Congo, Belgian soldiers and the black militia armed by them headed deep into the continent, forcing local leaders to sign enslaving treaties with King Leopold on the “alliance”, which actually gave the land for next to nothing into the hands of the Europeans. Many leaders simply did not understand what they were putting their signature or fingerprint on. Dissenters were killed or imprisoned, and uprisings were suppressed with unprecedented cruelty. Western journalists were aware of cases of how policemen hired by the king not only killed, but also ate their victims among the civilian population, primarily children. In terms of its cruelty, the exploitation of the local population on rubber plantations, mines, and road construction organized by the Belgians was unprecedented in the history of Africa. People died in tens of thousands, and at the same time repression and plunder remained uncontrolled, because the “Congo Free State,” as this huge territory was called with terrible cynicism, was not governed by the Belgian state, but was the personal property of Leopold. This unique lawlessness continued until 1908.
Belgium was immediately followed by England, France, Portugal and Spain, and a little later the young great powers Germany and Italy, who also dreamed of their own colonial empires, joined in dividing the African pie that had suddenly become so fashionable.
The race acquired a hurricane speed. Everywhere in Africa, where it was possible to come to an agreement with tribal leaders or break the resistance of local principalities, the European flag was immediately hoisted, and the territory was considered annexed to the empire. At the Berlin Conference of 1885, where the division of Africa was legalized, the great powers called on each other to behave in a correct, civilized manner, but, as always happens during division, clashes were difficult to avoid. One of the most famous “incidents” occurred near the Sudanese town of Fashoda in 1898, when Marchand’s French detachment, coming from West Africa, came face to face with Kitchener’s English expedition, which was also busy planting flags. Intensive negotiations and numerous concessions were needed to avoid war: the French withdrew to the south and Sudan moved into the British sphere of influence.
It cannot be said that this lightning-fast division of the continent cost the colonialists without losses. The British had to go through several bloody battles to capture the Ashanti Confederacy in Ghana and the Zulu state in South Africa, while the French overcame the desperate resistance of the Fulani emirates and the Tuaregs of Mali. For two years, German troops had to suppress the Herero uprising in Namibia, which ended in a large-scale genocide of Africans.
Although by 1900 the African continent had turned into a kind of patchwork scarf, painted over with the colors of European empires, Tanganyika (the territory of present-day Tanzania) was subjugated by Germany only in 1907, and France secured control over West Africa no earlier than 1913. The liberation struggle of the Libyan tribes against the Italians continued until 1922, and the Spaniards managed to pacify the warlike Berbers of Morocco only in 1926.
Only one state created by Africans managed to maintain independence - Ethiopia. At the end of the 19th century. the Ethiopian Negus Menelik II even managed to take part in the division of Africa, more than doubling the borders of his state at the expense of various tribes in the south, west and east.
At the beginning of the 19th century. Most of the North African states belonged to the Ottoman Empire. But the collapse of this empire was already beginning and the place of the Turkish authorities began to be gradually taken by European ones. Thus, France subjugated Algeria, followed by Tunisia and Morocco. Here is an episode of an attack by warriors of an African tribe living in the desert on a French fort, which is defended by soldiers of the famous Foreign Legion. The ruler needed money and therefore sold his share of the Suez Canal to Great Britain, which could thus influence the internal affairs of Egypt and completely subordinate it to its power. Egypt, in turn, dominated Sudan. In 1883, a Muslim preacher led a revolt there against Egyptian rule. British troops were sent to suppress it, but they were defeated at Khartoum.
Trade with Europeans in West AfricaThese gold items were made by Ashanti craftsmen, a people who lived in western Africa. The Ashanti state became rich by selling gold and slaves to Europeans. For several years the Ashanti fought against Britain, which sought to conquer them, and in 1901 they were defeated and their state ceased to exist.
This was the name of the capital of a wealthy state in southeast Africa. It was destroyed during a war with rival tribes. The surviving ruins, such as the remains of the temple depicted here, indicate that the city was once built by very skilled craftsmen.
In 1652, the first Dutch settlers arrived in South Africa. The settlement they founded at the Cape of Good Hope was called the Cape Colony. Most of them began to engage in farming, and the colonists were given the name Boers (from the Dutch word “boer” - farmer). By international treaty concluded in 1814, the Cape Colony became a British possession. In 1835-1837, many Boers, who were unhappy with living under British rule, abandoned their homes and farms and, loading their belongings into wagons, moved north from the Cape to find a new place to settle, free from British rule. This episode went down in South African history as the Great Boer Migration.
Cecil Rhodes made a huge fortune from gold and diamond mining and founded the British South Africa Company, one of the goals of which was to build a railway connecting British possessions in the south with the diamond mines north of the new Boer settlements. In 1895, the entire territory received the name Rhodesia.
The Boers began to have armed clashes with the Zulus - the most warlike tribe that lived next to the new Boer settlements. British troops, entering the war on the side of the Boers, helped to finally defeat the Zulus in 1879. Gradually, Britain increased its influence in those areas where the Boers lived. In 1886, gold was found in one of them, which caused a new influx of British people who decided to settle in these places.
In 1880, most of Africa was still independent from any European countries. But between 1880 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, European powers one way or another divided almost the entire African continent among themselves.
In 1889, war broke out between the Boers and the British. At first, the advantage was on the side of the Boers, who rode beautiful, fast horses, knew how to track down the enemy and knew the terrain where the fighting was taking place. British troops destroyed Boer farms and their livestock, and the Boers they managed to capture, including women and children, were placed in special prisoner camps. As a result, in 1902 the war ended with the surrender of the Boers.
The “economic civilization” of most of Africa (with the exception of the “river civilization” of the Nile Valley) had developed over thousands of years and by the time the region was colonized in the second half of the 19th century. changed very little. The basis of the economy was still slash-and-burn agriculture with hoe tillage.
Let us remember that this is the earliest type of agriculture, followed by plow farming (which, by the way, is not very widespread even at the end of the 20th century, which is hampered by the reasonable desire of local peasants to preserve a thin fertile layer of soil; a plow plowing to a fairly large depth , will do more harm than good).
Higher-level agriculture (outside the Nile Valley) was widespread only in Northeast Africa (in the territory of modern Ethiopia), West Africa and Madagascar.
Animal husbandry (mainly cattle breeding) was auxiliary in the economy of African peoples, and it became the main one only in certain areas of the mainland - south of the Zambezi River, among the nomadic peoples of North Africa.
Africa has long been known to Europeans, but was not of great interest to them.
Reserves of precious metals were not discovered here, and it was difficult to penetrate deep into the mainland. Until the end of the 18th century. Europeans knew only the outlines of the coasts and river mouths, where strong trading posts were created and from where slaves were exported to America. The role of Africa was reflected in the geographical names that whites gave to certain sections of the African coast: Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Slave Coast.
Until the 80s XIX century More than 3/4 of Africa's territory was occupied by various political entities, incl.
There were even large and strong states (Mali, Zimbabwe, etc.). European colonies were only on the coast.
And suddenly, within just two decades, all of Africa was divided between European powers. This happened at a time when almost all of America had already achieved political independence. Why did Europe suddenly become interested in the African continent?
The most important reasons are as follows
1. By this time, the mainland had already been quite well explored by various expeditions and Christian missionaries.
American war correspondent G. Stanley in the mid-70s. XIX century crossed the African continent with the expedition from east to west, leaving behind destroyed settlements. Addressing the British, G. Stanley wrote: “South of the mouth of the Congo River, forty million naked people are waiting to be clothed by the weaving factories of Manchester and provided with tools by the workshops of Birmingham.”
By the end of the 19th century. Quinine was discovered as a remedy for malaria. Europeans were able to penetrate deep into malarial territories.
By this time, industry in Europe began to develop rapidly, the economy was booming, and European countries were getting back on their feet. This was a period of relative political calm in Europe - there were no major wars. The colonial powers showed amazing “solidarity”, and at the Berlin Conference in the mid-80s. England, France, Portugal, Belgium and Germany divided the territory of Africa among themselves. Borders in Africa were “cut” without taking into account the geographical and ethnic characteristics of the territory.
Currently, 2/5 of African state borders run along parallels and meridians, 1/3 along other straight lines and arcs, and only 1/4 along natural boundaries that approximately coincide with ethnic boundaries.
By the beginning of the 20th century. all of Africa was divided between the European metropolises.
The struggle of the African peoples against the invaders was complicated by internal tribal conflicts; in addition, it was difficult to resist the Europeans, armed with the advanced rifled firearms invented by that time, with spears and arrows.
The period of active colonization of Africa began.
Unlike America or Australia, there was no mass European immigration. Throughout the African continent in the 18th century. there was only one compact group of immigrants - the Dutch (Boers), numbering only 16 thousand.
people (“Boers” from the Dutch and German word “bauer”, which means “peasant”). And even now, at the end of the 20th century, in Africa, the descendants of Europeans and children from mixed marriages make up only 1% of the population (This includes 3 million Boers, the same number of mulattoes in South Africa and one and a half million immigrants from Great Britain).
Africa has the lowest level of socio-economic development compared to other regions of the world.
According to all main indicators of economic and social development, the region occupies the position of a global outsider.
The most pressing problems of humanity are most relevant in Africa. Not all of Africa has such low indicators, but the few more fortunate countries are only “islands of relative prosperity” among poverty and acute problems.
Perhaps Africa's problems are caused by difficult natural conditions and a long period of colonial rule?
Undoubtedly, these factors played their negative role, but others also acted alongside them.
Africa belongs to the developing world, which in the 60s and 70s.
demonstrated high rates of economic and, in certain areas, social development. In the 80-90s. the problems sharply worsened, the rate of economic growth decreased (production began to fall), which gave rise to the conclusion: “The developing world has stopped developing.”
However, there is a point of view that involves the identification of two close, but at the same time heterogeneous concepts: “development” and “modernization”.
Development in this case refers to changes in the socio-economic sphere caused by internal reasons that lead to the strengthening of the traditional system without destroying it. Has Africa experienced a process of development of its traditional economy?
Of course yes.
In contrast to development, modernization is a set of changes in the socio-economic (and political) sphere caused by modern requirements of the outside world. In relation to Africa, this means expanding external contacts and its inclusion in the world system; T.
e. Africa must learn to “play by global rules.” Will this inclusion in modern world civilization destroy Africa?
One-sided, traditional development leads to autarky (isolation) and a lag behind world leaders.
Rapid modernization is accompanied by a painful breakdown of the existing socio-economic structure. The optimal combination is a reasonable combination of development and modernization and, most importantly, a gradual, step-by-step transformation, without catastrophic consequences and taking into account local specifics.
Modernization has an objective nature, and there is no way to do without it.
The history of Africa goes back many millennia, and according to some scientific hypotheses, it was in Africa that the first people appeared, who subsequently multiplied and populated all other lands of our planet (well, except for Antarctica). So, if you believe these hypotheses, Africa is the cradle of humanity.
And it is not surprising that many people were drawn to this continent and returned, sometimes as explorers, missionaries, and sometimes as conquerors, such is our human nature.
The first European colonies in Africa began to appear at the beginning of the 15th-16th centuries.
The British and French showed genuine interest in North Africa, and especially in one of the cradles of human civilizations - Egypt with its majestic pyramids and the mysterious Sphinx.
The Portuguese were the first to penetrate West Africa, creating their colonies there. Subsequently, representatives of other European countries also joined them: Holland, Belgium, Germany.
The greatest peak of colonialism in Africa occurred in the 19th century, here is an interesting fact: at the beginning of the century before last, only 10% of African territories were European colonies, but at its end, 90% (!) of African lands were already European colonies. Only two African countries managed to maintain full independence: Ethiopia and Eastern Sudan.
All other countries were under someone’s heel, so many countries of North Africa belonged to France: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, in each of them French dominance was established by force. For some other countries, such as, say, the already mentioned Egypt, there was even a desperate military struggle between France and England. The latter, too, was not against taking possession of this tasty morsel, but in Egypt the British had to meet a strong and talented enemy, the famous general Napoleon Bonaparte, who would soon become the French emperor, conquer all of Europe and reach all the way to Moscow.
Although further military defeats of Napoleon reduced the influence of France in North Africa, Egypt eventually fell to the British.
The Portuguese, thanks to their brave sailors and cartographers, were the first to reach West Africa, where they entered into numerous contacts with the local population and founded their colonies. The largest Portuguese colony in West Africa was Angola, a huge African country whose area is several times larger than the area of little Portugal .
The British also did not catch crows and, in addition to Egypt, founded many colonies, both in Western, Eastern and Southern Africa.
Subsequently, representatives of other European states also came to Africa: the Germans managed to capture part of the territory of West Africa: Cameroon, Togo and Namibia (the latter country still strongly resembles Germany with its cozy cities built by the Germans themselves).
Windhoek, Namibia
The Belgians, since by the time they arrived the African coast was already occupied by other Europeans, decided to move deeper into the African continent, where they founded their colony in the country of Congo (Central Africa).
The Italians received lands in eastern Africa: the countries of Somalia and Eritrea became their colonies.
What attracted Europeans to Africa? First of all, numerous natural resources, as well as human resources - that is, slaves, into which Europeans actively turned the local population. The slaves were then transported to the New World for hard labor on local sugar plantations.
In general, the slave trade is one of the darkest pages of African history, about which there will be a separate article on our website.
Returning to colonialism, in addition to its clearly negative consequences, there were also some positive aspects.
So the Europeans brought a certain civilization and culture to Africa, they built cities, roads, Christian missionaries went along with the soldiers, who wanted to convert the local population to Christianity (whether it was Protestantism or Catholicism), they also did a lot to educate Africans, built schools taught African natives European languages (primarily English, but also French, Spanish, Portuguese, German) and other sciences.
THE DECAY OF COLONIALISM
Everything comes to an end sooner or later, and so did colonialism in Africa, the decline of which began in the 60s of the last century.
It was at this time that active socio-political movements for the declaration of independence began in various African countries. In some places it is possible to gain independence peacefully, but in some places it was not without an armed struggle, as, say, in Angola, where a real war for independence took place against Portuguese rule, which, however, after that turned into a civil war between Angolans who were carried away by communist ideas (MPLA party) and those who wanted to build communism in Angola and the Angolans who did not like it, but that’s another story.
Also, the negative impact of colonialism after its collapse was that some newly created African countries contained culturally heterogeneous and even hostile populations.
Sometimes this led to real civil wars, as was the case in Nigeria, a former British colony, where, after the declaration of independence, the Ibo and Yoruba tribes, hostile to each other, found themselves in the same country. But again, that's another story...
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It dates back many millennia, and according to some scientific hypotheses, it was in Africa that the first people appeared, who subsequently multiplied and populated all other lands of our planet (well, except Antarctica). So, if you believe these hypotheses, Africa is the cradle of humanity. And it is not surprising that many people were drawn to this continent and returned, sometimes as explorers and sometimes as conquerors, such is our human nature.
The first European colonies in Africa began to appear at the beginning of the 15th-16th centuries. The British and French showed genuine interest in North Africa, and especially in one of the cradles of human civilizations - Egypt with its majestic pyramids and the mysterious Sphinx. The Portuguese were the first to penetrate West Africa, creating their colonies there. Subsequently, representatives of other European countries also joined them: Holland, Belgium, Germany.
The greatest peak of colonialism in Africa occurred in the 19th century, here is an interesting fact: at the beginning of the century before last, only 10% of African territories were European colonies, but at its end, 90% (!) of African lands were already European colonies. Only two African countries managed to maintain complete independence: Eastern Sudan. All other countries were under someone’s heel, so many countries of North Africa belonged to France: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, in each of them French dominance was established by force. For some other countries, such as, say, the already mentioned Egypt, there was even a desperate military struggle between France and England. The latter, too, was not against taking possession of this tasty morsel, but in Egypt the British had to meet a strong and talented enemy, the famous general Napoleon Bonaparte, who would soon become the French emperor, conquer all of Europe and reach all the way to Moscow. Although further military defeats of Napoleon reduced the influence of France in North Africa, Egypt eventually fell to the British.
The Portuguese, thanks to their brave sailors and cartographers, were the first to reach West Africa, where they entered into numerous contacts with the local population and founded their colonies. The largest Portuguese colony in West Africa was Angola, a huge African country whose area is several times larger than the area of little Portugal .
The British also did not catch crows and, in addition to Egypt, founded many colonies, both in Western, Eastern and Southern Africa. Subsequently, representatives of other European states also came to Africa: the Germans managed to capture part of the territory of West Africa: Cameroon, Togo and Namibia (the latter country still strongly resembles Germany with its cozy cities built by the Germans themselves).
The Belgians, since by the time they arrived the African coast was already occupied by other Europeans, decided to move deeper into the African continent, where they founded their colony in the country of Congo (Central Africa). The Italians received lands in eastern Africa: the countries of Somalia and Eritrea became their colonies.
What attracted Europeans to Africa? First of all, numerous natural resources, as well as human resources - that is, slaves into which Europeans actively turned the local population. The slaves were then transported to the New World for hard labor on local sugar plantations. In general, the slave trade is one of the darkest pages of African history, about which there will be a separate article on our website.
Returning to colonialism, in addition to its clearly negative consequences, there were also some positive aspects. So the Europeans brought a certain civilization and culture to Africa, they built cities, roads, Christian missionaries went along with the soldiers, who wanted to convert the local population to Christianity (whether it was Protestantism or Catholicism), they also did a lot to educate Africans, built schools taught African natives European languages (primarily English, but also French, Spanish, Portuguese, German) and other sciences.
THE DECAY OF COLONIALISM
Everything comes to an end sooner or later, and so did colonialism in Africa, the decline of which began in the 60s of the last century. It was at this time that active socio-political movements for the declaration of independence began in various African countries. In some places it is possible to gain independence peacefully, but in some places it was not without an armed struggle, as, say, in Angola, where a real war for independence took place against Portuguese rule, which, however, after that turned into a civil war between Angolans who were carried away by communist ideas (MPLA party) and those who wanted to build communism in Angola and the Angolans who did not like it, but that’s another story.
Also, the negative impact of colonialism after its collapse was that some newly created African countries contained culturally heterogeneous and even hostile populations. Sometimes this led to real civil wars, as was the case in Nigeria, a former British colony, where, after the declaration of independence, the Ibo and Yoruba tribes, hostile to each other, found themselves in the same country. But again, that's another story...
