Imperialism in Africa
Europe had a long-standing relationship with Africa because of the slave trade. Although most European countries had declared the importation of Africans as slave labor illegal by the early 1800s, Europeans continued to export guns, alcohol, and other manufactured goods to Africa and import African natural resources, such as palm oil, gold, and ivory. England desired palm oil in particular because it kept the machinery in its textile factories from becoming rusty. In the last part of the 19th century, European tastes for African diamonds and ivory kept European empires thriving throughout the African continent. (Connect: Write a paragraph connecting late 19th century imperialism with the African slave trade. See Topic 4.4.)
Expanding Beyond Trading Posts For most of the 1800s, European presence in Africa was restricted to trading posts, with a few exceptions. The French seized Algeria in 1830, declaring they wanted to prevent pirate attacks. Dutch immigrants had lived in South Africa since the 1600s and British colonists became more numerous starting in the early 1800s. In the second half of the 1800s, European nations expanded their presence in Africa with the help of better military technology. For example, the discovery of quinine, a medicine that treats the tropical disease malaria, reduced the danger of living in warm, humid regions. The steamship assisted the early trips of individual explorers and business owners.
British Control of Egypt Europeans had long dreamed of dramatically shortening the water route to Asia by building a canal connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea. A 100-mile-long canal could save a trip around the entire continent of Africa. This feat was finally accomplished in 1869 when the Suez Canal was completed. A French company managed the project, but most of the labor was performed by as many as 1.5 million Egyptians. Many of them were corvée laborers, unpaid workers who were forced to work on the project as a form of taxation. Thousands died in the course of ten years. When unrest in the region threatened British commercial interests and the operation of the canal in 1882, Britain seized control of Egypt away from the Ottoman Empire.
British West Africa Great Britain established several colonies in West Africa before the mid-19th century. In these colonies, Britain spread Western education, the English language, and Christianity:
• Sierra Leone was established in 1787. It was a home for freed people from throughout the British Empire who had been enslaved.
• Gambia was established in 1816. It, and Sierra Leone, were used as bases to try to stop the export of enslaved people from the region.
• Lagos became a crown colony in 1861 and served as a base for the annexation of much of the rest of what is now Nigeria.
• Britain acquired parts of what is now Ghana in stages. For example, the Gold Coast became a crown colony in 1874, but the Asante Empire to the north did not come under British control until 1901.
Britain used both diplomacy and warfare to expand its empire. For example, in 1873, Britain signed a treaty with King Jaja of Opobo in present- day Nigeria—an area rich in palm oil—recognizing him as ruler and agreeing to trade terms favorable to both sides. Other African rulers agreed to similar diplomatic treaties with foreign powers, believing they were protecting their sovereignty and trade rights. However, as European competition increased for control of African lands, the treaties came to be meaningless and warfare was the inevitable result as Africans resisted takeover but met with overpowering military strength.
The French in Africa France drove the Ottomans out of Algeria in 1830. By 1870 Algeria had become a settler colony, attracting Spanish, Italian, and Maltese as well as French immigrants. In the 1870s the French also established trading posts in Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and Niger to compete with British West African colonies.