Colonialism,Imperialism, and 19th century

Africa

What does it all mean?

Colonialism - the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

Imperialism - A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force.

Colonialism can be thought to be a practice and imperialism as the idea driving the practice.

Metropolis - In the past, metropolis was the designation for a city or state of origin of a colony

Africa, 1813

Africa, 1900

Why was Europe interested in Africa in the first place?

gather scientific knowledge about the unknown.

Europeans felt that there was a definite need to promote and convert Africans to Christianity.

imperialism. a strong desire by European patriots to contribute to their country’s grandeur by laying claim to other countries in distant lands.

economic, social, and political reasons

Scramble for Africa

Economical issues

Europeans believed that Africa was rich in natural resources, and one of reasons for colonialism was the desire to gain control of Africa's rich natural resources.

Need for markets

European colonial powers did not want to spend their own money to establish and maintain their colonies in Africa. Rather, they insisted that each colony (if at all possible) supply the revenues necessary to govern the colony.

Commerce, Christianity, Civilization

Political - Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, and Spain were competing for power within European power politics. One way to demonstrate national preeminence was through the acquisition of territories around the world, including Africa.

Demographics

Demographic impact of colonialism encourages us to examine migration patterns

Metropolis to the colonies

colonies to the metropolis

migration between different colonies within the empire

Hygiene - Formal education and modern medicine were brought to people who had limited understanding or control of their physical environment.

Infrastructure - Apart from their shortage of skills and infrastructure, Africans lacked an appreciation of the total and complex nature of the transformation from simple agrarian society to modern technological civilization

to meet their economic and administrative needs colonial powers built some infrastructure, like railway to carry export commodities, and they educated a few Africans to help them run the colonies.

Education - In most of colonial Africa, schools were staffed and run by missionaries but subsidized in varying degrees by colonial governments, whose interest in missionary education was simply to ensure that enough Africans were educated to meet the limited need for semiskilled workers in colonial bureaucracies.

Their primary concern was the conversion of people to Christianity

Consequently, with limited government support, most African children did not go to school during the colonial era.

Religion - The missionaries had total control over the religious curriculum. Mission schools taught that the European presence in Africa was to benefit the African people and to uplift them from a state of barbarism.

the little education that they got opened their minds and provided them with practical and intellectual skills they never had before

Despite this, colonial education very often alienated young people from their own culture and undermined traditional authority. Gradually, African people began to acquiesce to colonial rule and to surrender the elements of their culture and traditions

Economic