Scramble For And Partition Of Africa Topic 3: Imperialism And Territorial Division Of The World | History 2:- IMPERIALISM AND TERRITORIAL DIVISION OF THE WORLD, form 6 history 2 – imperialism and territorial division, HISTORY 2: FORM SIX: Topic 3 – IMPERIALISM AND TERRITORIAL DIVISION OF THE WORLD (COLONIZATION OF AFRICA), Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
SCRAMBLE FOR AND PARTITION OF AFRICA
As capitalism developed stage by stage, it pressed different demands on Africa. During competitive industrial capitalism, the capitalist powers advocated for the abolition of slave trade because it was seen as a necessary for the acquisition of raw materials and markets.
When competitive capitalism changed to monopoly capitalism, the capitalist powers were involved in a struggle to acquire colonies, a process called “The scramble for Africa.”
The scramble for Africa refers to the way European powers struggled to acquire colonies in Africa.
Partition of Africa refers to the difference steps taken by the colonial powers to divide Africainto territories and fixing colonial boundaries.
The major powers that were involved in this exercise were Britain, Germany, France and Belgium.
There were two theories that explain the scramble for and partition of Africa namely:-
A: AFRO-CENTRIC THEORY (Marxist theory)
This theory claimed that the factors that led to the scramble for and partition of Africa were economic.
(i) The need for monopoly markets.
The need for monopoly markets came due to increase production of industrial products that lacked enough demands in Europe. To make matters worse, between 1823 and 1896, the world passed through a stand still economic depression where by trade came to stand still, prices were law and profits were small hence the capitalists put a lot of pressure on their government to acquire colonies for selling the manufactured commodities.
(ii) The need for tropical raw material.
The tropical treasure theory, put forward by Nobson and Lenin assert that Africa was partitioned because it was highly endowed with a lot of raw materials for industrial development in Europe hence the European powers rushed to Africa to acquire colonies that would act as sources of raw materials.
(iii) The need for cheap labour.
There was a contradiction between the employers and the workers whereby to maximize profits, the employers had to decrease wages and intensify exploitation.
The workers, however resisted this through trade unions, they demanded higher wages and good working conditions all of which reduced the profit of the employers. The solution to this problem was to look for colonies in Africa where they can get cheap labour.
(iv) The need for investment areas.
Scholars such as Adam Smith claimed that the availability of excess capital for investments in European countries forced Europe to take part in the scramble for Africa.
The capitalists had accumulated a lot of capital that they could not invest in Europe because the markets were saturated, to solve this crisis, they decided to look for colonies where they can invest their capital and obtain high rates of profits.
(v) The need to resettled surplus labour force.
The industrial revolution and the capitalist system produced not only surplus capital but also surplus labour force. As more and more machines came into use, more and more people found themselves out of work, the solution to this problem was found in the acquisition of colonies where surplus labor force could be settled.
B: EUROPEAN THEORY:-
This theory claims that political and social factors caused the scramble for Africa.
(i) Before the Franco – Prussian war 1871, the major European powers were Britain and France was defeated by Germany and she lost her territories of Alsace and Lorraine which were rich in coal and iron.
The emergence of Germany changed the balance of power and this forced her to rush to Africa to acquire colonies. The defeat of France made her to rush to Africa to acquire colonies as a way of compensating for the loss in Europe.
(ii) Rise of European nationalism.
During the mid 19 th century, a tide of nationalism was seeping across Europe, extreme nationalism let to slogans like, “my country right or wrong” During this period, the possession of an Empire was seen as a test of nations strength , hence European powers rushed to Africa to acquire more and more colonies thus causing scramble.
Social factors:-
(i) Need to stop slave trade.
The European powers asserted that, they came to Africa to acquire colonies because of the need of stopping slave trade. They claimed that colonial rule was a necessity if slave trade was to be abolished completely in Africa.
(ii) Need to introduce Western Civilization.
The European powers argued that their civilization had reached the highest possible standards, thus they had a duty to impose it on those people who were not civilized, the Africans were believed to be uncivilized hence they struggled for colonies so as to introduce Western civilization.
Strategic factors
Strategic factors were also one of the factors that led to the scramble for and partition of Africa. Britain controlled Uganda because she wanted to protect the source of river Nile; She controlled Kenya because of the sea route to India.
Britain and France struggled for Egypt because of the Suez Canal which shortened the route to India.