The Scramble for Africa (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
The Scramble for Africa
Context and European rivalry
From the 1870s onwards, and with particular intensity during the 1880s, Britain became embroiled in competitive territorial acquisition across Africa. Between 1884 and 1886, Otto von Bismarck, the German chancellor who had previously shown limited enthusiasm for colonialism, underwent a dramatic conversion to imperialism.
Germany's rapid imperial expansion under Bismarck marked a turning point in European competition for African territory. In just two years, Germany acquired four major territories: South-West Africa, the Cameroons, Togoland and Tanganyika.
Bismarck also played a role in facilitating Belgium's King Leopold as proprietor of the Congo. Gladstone claimed not to oppose this development, even suggesting Bismarck might act as a partner in 'civilising' Africa. However, British anxieties mounted over potential exclusion from African markets through German tariffs. Simultaneously, threats emerged from France in west Africa and from the Boers in southern Africa, creating a multi-directional challenge to British interests.
Southern Africa
Confederation hopes and Boer relations
Drawing on the apparently successful confederation model implemented in Canada, British officials hoped to replicate this approach in southern Africa. Their objective was to unite Cape Colony and Natal with the Boer republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. In 1877, Transvaal, nearly bankrupt and facing military pressure from Zulu King Cetewayo, accepted British rule. This appeared to set the stage for a South African federation.
The Anglo-Zulu War (1878-79)
Britain's subsequent action aimed to eliminate the Zulu threat. In 1878, Cetewayo received an ultimatum demanding he disband his army. No Zulu monarch could have accepted such humiliation and retained authority over his people. Cetewayo therefore had limited choice but armed resistance.
In 1879, approximately 20,000 Zulu warriors invaded British-held territory, inflicting a devastating defeat at Isandhlwana. The battle resulted in roughly 700 European deaths and 500 African auxiliary casualties, with at least 1,500 Zulu fatalities. This represented one of Britain's worst colonial defeats.
The Zulu triumph proved short-lived. A smaller British force defended Rorke's Drift against overwhelming numbers. In June 1879, Britain defeated the Zulus at Ulundi, deposed Cetewayo, and annexed additional Zulu territory.
The First Boer War (1880-82)
Britain's victory over the Zulus failed to secure Boer cooperation. With the Zulu threat removed, the Transvaal Boers sought renewed independence. During 1880-81 they mounted a rebellion, defeating a small British force at Majuba. Gladstone, sympathetic towards the Boers, declined military escalation.
Consequently, in 1882, Britain recognised Transvaal and the Orange Free State as self-governing nations. Two years afterwards, the Boer states received near-complete home rule, though Britain still claimed suzerainty (supreme power over someone), although the practical meaning of this remained unclear.
Britain's aspiration to unify southern Africa had collapsed. This failure would have significant consequences for future Anglo-Boer relations and British strategy in the region.
Bechuanaland (1884-85)
In 1884, Germany established a protectorate over South-West Africa, potentially providing the Transvaal with access to the sea through Bechuanaland.
Britain's annexation of Bechuanaland in 1885 served a crucial strategic purpose: preventing the Transvaal from gaining access to the sea, which would have made it independent of British-controlled ports and strengthened Boer power considerably.
The Transvaal threat (1886)
In 1886, enormous gold deposits were discovered in Transvaal, threatening to make it the wealthiest nation in southern Africa. Transvaal's gold threatened to shift the power balance between Britons and Boers in favour of the Boers. Given that thousands of Boers lived in Cape Colony and Natal, the possibility existed that Transvaal might attempt to take control of the whole of southern Africa.
Britain's response: territorial expansion
Britain's response to these developments involved further territorial expansion:
-
Between 1885 and 1887, Britain took control of Zululand and the remaining coastal areas between Natal and Mozambique to prevent Transvaal reaching the sea.
-
In the late 1880s, diamond millionaire Cecil Rhodes formed a commercial company to occupy Matabeleland and Mashonaland, hoping to discover additional gold. He received a charter in 1889 which entitled his company, the British South Africa Company, to administer the territory north of the Limpopo River.
Egypt and the Sudan
The purchase of the Khedive's shares (1875)
Egypt, nominally under Ottoman Empire control, operated essentially as an independent state from 1863 under Ismail Pasha's rule. During the 1860s, Pasha supported construction of the Suez Canal. Completed in 1869, the Canal reduced the maritime distance between London and India by half: British steamers could now complete the journey in four weeks.
The Suez Canal's strategic importance to Britain cannot be overstated: three-quarters of shipping using the Canal was British. This made control over the Canal a vital British interest.
Although the Canal represented a potential revenue source, Ismail's government (the Khedive) borrowed unwisely and by the mid-1870s faced debt to French and British creditors. In 1875, Disraeli purchased the Egyptian government's shares (nearly half the total) in the Suez Canal Company to check the spread of French influence in Egypt.
The occupation of Egypt (1876-85)
Despite the shares' sale, Egypt went bankrupt in 1876. Egypt's British and French creditors assumed control of running the country. Harsh financial measures, including Egyptian army reductions, provoked a nationalist uprising in 1881, threatening the Suez Canal's security.
Initially, the French took the lead in claiming that the debt commissioners' authority must be recognised, and Egypt brought under control, while Gladstone showed some sympathy for the rebels' demand of 'Egypt for the Egyptians'. However, in June 1882, riots in Alexandria resulted in 50 European deaths. Egypt appeared to be sliding into anarchy.
Britain now intervened decisively: the Royal Navy bombarded Alexandria, and British troops led by Sir Garnet Wolseley defeated the Egyptians at Tel-el-Kebir and occupied Cairo after a brilliant campaign.
Gladstone's government announced that the British occupation would be temporary. However, this "temporary" occupation would last for decades, fundamentally reshaping Anglo-French relations and British involvement in the region.
The British confined themselves to giving the Egyptian government advice through a consul-general (who, legally, was equal to the diplomatic representative of any other nation). As none of the other diplomats had an army on the spot, British advice came to be seen as a command. In 1883, Sir Evelyn Baring was appointed consul-general, with the task of restoring stable and honest government. By 1885, Britain, through Baring's influence, had assumed control over Egypt – provoking French anger. For the next two decades Anglo-French relations were damaged by Britain's occupation of Egypt.
The Sudan crisis (1883-85)
By occupying Egypt, Britain became involved in the Sudan. Egypt had claimed the Sudan as Egyptian territory for half a century, without substantial success. In 1881, an extremist religious leader, Mohammed Ahmed, known as the Mahdi, led a rising against Egyptian occupation. In 1883, the Mahdi's forces annihilated an Egyptian army, but Egyptian garrisons continued to hold out in Khartoum and several other Sudanese towns.
Rather than becoming embroiled in a war to defeat the Mahdi, Gladstone decided to evacuate the Egyptian forces. The man chosen for this task was Major-General Gordon, a fervent imperialist.
Gordon reached Khartoum in February 1884 and soon convinced himself that abandoning the Sudan to the Mahdi was neither humane nor necessary. Instead, he began organising Khartoum's defence.
After considerable dithering, Gladstone (who believed that Gordon was forcing Britain to annex the Sudan) decided to send a relief force to save Gordon. Two days before it arrived, Gordon was killed in January 1885 when Khartoum was overrun by the Mahdi's forces.
Gordon became a hero figure among the imperialists. Many Britons blamed his death on Gladstone's indecision, but Gladstone adhered to his policy of staying out of Sudan – to the disgust of Queen Victoria and many ordinary Britons.
Key figure: Charles Gordon (1833-85)
Gordon served in the Crimean War and in China, where he suppressed a major rebellion in 1864. In 1874, he was employed by the Khedive of Egypt and from 1877 to 1880 was British governor of the Sudan. In 1884, he was sent back to the Sudan to evacuate Europeans and Egyptians, following the Mahdi's revolt. He was besieged for ten months in Khartoum, which fell two days before a relief force arrived. Gordon, who was killed, became a British hero.
West Africa
Although Britain had been the leading trading force in the region for many years, it took minimal action as France and Germany seized territory in west Africa during the 1880s. The one exception occurred on the River Niger, where British commercial interests (buying palm oil in exchange for guns and liquor) were greatest, and where an agency existed to carry the burden of administration – Sir George Goldie's Royal Niger Company.
In 1886, Goldie's company was allowed to levy taxes, enabling him to eliminate competition. The company was also given powers of government in the River Niger basin, north of the coastal region. Goldie and his administrators competed successfully with France in inducing African chiefs to sign treaties which provided legal validity to expansion. With Conservative leader Salisbury's backing, Goldie ensured that the Niger Company's claims to large areas of what became Nigeria were accepted, preventing France from annexing the region.
East Africa
During 1884-5, Germany claimed much of east Africa. Rather than quarrelling, Britain reached an agreement with Bismarck at the Berlin Conference whereby much of east Africa was divided into spheres of influence.
In 1888, Salisbury, fearing that Germany was about to seize more territory, supported William Mackinnon's British East Africa Company. The company's charter allowed it to hold and rule the section of east Africa that lay between German East Africa and Italian claims in Somaliland. Mackinnon sent an expedition to Uganda, establishing the company's authority over the area.
Bismarck, who had no wish to quarrel with Britain, was keen to reach a settlement. In 1890, Salisbury gave up the North Sea island of Heligoland in exchange for:
- German acceptance of the British annexation of Zanzibar
- Recognition of Britain's occupation of Egypt
- Recognition of Britain's interests in east Africa
This diplomatic agreement, known as the Heligoland settlement, demonstrated how European powers were resolving African territorial disputes through negotiation rather than conflict.
Methods of imperial expansion
The chartered companies
Most African colonies, initially unprofitable, depended on subsidies from their respective governments. The British government proved rather less willing to provide subsidies than most of its European competitors. Instead, it relied on chartered trading companies absorbing administrative, police and transport costs from their trading profits. This ensured that British taxpayers did not have to bear these costs.
However, disadvantages existed in giving commercial companies licence to rule colonial territories:
-
They discouraged free competition.
-
Their exploitative functions were rarely compatible with their subjects' welfare.
-
None of the charters granted in the 1880s gave the companies monopoly of the British market. Accordingly, profits were in most cases not large enough for the companies to maintain an administration and an army.
The 'men on the spot'
The British government was by no means in control over 'men on the spot' who often drove imperial expansion:
The concept of 'men on the spot' reveals how imperial expansion was often driven by individuals acting with considerable autonomy, rather than through centralized government planning. These actors fell into several categories:
Missionaries: The government did not exert much control over missionaries who went to Africa to convert people to Christ rather than to act as cultural assistants of British power.
Commercial entrepreneurs: It did not necessarily control the actions of men such as Goldie and Rhodes, who did their best to encourage British government involvement in Africa. Such men worked with local power brokers to realise their grandiose schemes. Once the schemes were launched, they sought the support of the British government to complete the process.
Colonial officials: The government did not necessarily have much control over its own officials. Technology meant that many parts of the world were scarcely in contact with London. Thus, governors of particular colonies wielded considerable power.
Assessment of British success by 1890
Britain acquired large parts of Africa during the 1880s. Political annexation was not undertaken lightly – usually only to safeguard established British interests. It was regarded as a last resort. The difference between the 1860s-1870s and the 1880s was that in the latter period, the last resort had to be resorted to more often.
By 1890, treaty-making had run ahead of map-making as Britain, France and Germany worked out partition frontiers without having much idea of the nature of the land they were acquiring. But at least diplomacy had ensured there was no risk of immediate conflict between the European powers arising from the situation in Africa.
Key Points to Remember:
-
The Scramble for Africa intensified during the 1880s due to German and French territorial ambitions, forcing Britain to respond defensively to protect established interests.
-
Britain's attempts at southern African confederation failed due to military setbacks (First Boer War) and the discovery of gold in Transvaal, which shifted regional power dynamics.
-
Britain's occupation of Egypt in 1882 was initially presented as temporary but became long-term, damaging Anglo-French relations and drawing Britain into the Sudan crisis.
-
Chartered companies (Royal Niger Company, British South Africa Company, British East Africa Company) absorbed administrative costs but often prioritised profits over colonial subjects' welfare.
-
By 1890, diplomatic agreements had partitioned much of Africa on paper, though European powers had limited knowledge of the territories they were claiming.