Chapter 4, Sections 4,5.

Age of European Imperialism

and

Effects of European Rule

By WW1 Europeans claimed all of Africa except Liberia and Ethiopia.

• Britain controlled most with France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain also represented.

By the late 1800’s industrialization required lots of raw resources. Africa was a source for palm oil

(soap), cotton and gum (paper and fabrics).

Rainforests provided rubber, ivory and rare hardwoods. Plus Africa was a new market for

manufactured goods.

Congo Free State- King Leopold exploited human and mineral resources, and made

Africans produce rubber and ivory without pay.

• When resistance occurred, the Belgians cut off ears and hands. Eventually Leopold had to hand over his fiefdom to the Belgian gov.

Only in Ethiopia did resistance succeed. Emperor Menelik II hired Europeans to train and arm his

forces.

At the Battle of Adowa in 1896, he defeated the Italians and protected his country’s

independence.

Shaka Zulu helped build a powerful empire northeast of the Orange River. They displaced many original inhabitants.

In the 1850’s the Boers set up the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, in Zululand. The Boers and Zulus fought for decades.

By 1902 the Brits had beat the Dutch in the Boer War.

In 1910, they created the Union of South Africa, and granted it self-government. Only white men

could vote. The Boers gained control.

Europeans exploited mineral wealth for factories. White settlers set up plantations to grow cash

crops (cocoa, cotton, peanuts, coffee).

Europeans displaced the barter economy with a money economy and required Africans to pay

taxes.

Material Improvements- colonial rule brought new roads, railroads and telegraphs. Africans were

forced to build these for low wages.

Europeans set up schools where Africans learned European culture and

history.

• A few attended secondary schools, and formed an educated elite in the colonies.