How did Africa move from multi-cultural independence to colonialism? This question isn’t simply answered by the desire to have more land. The fact is that there were a number of things which led up to what is now called the “Scramble for Africa”.

One of the things which led to the idea of colonizing the whole of Africa was the fact that due to the industrial revolution which occurred in the 19th century, Europe was in need of raw materials. Considering Africa’s abundance in natural resources, it was natural for Europe to look south in order to expand its industrial growth.

Additionally, whatever opposition there might have been to the idea of colonizing Africa was weakened thanks to scientists such as Charles Darwin who were writing literature concerning the “savageness” of the African people; where they were most often compared to lowly-evolved relatives of the monkey. Once Darwin even said: “At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the savage races throughout the world'.

Considering the number of Darwinists which were describing Africans as peoples who were simply closer to the monkey than to the human; it is more understandable that the abuse of Africans, (slavery, colonization, genocide, etc…), would be accepted more or less. The idea of “survival of the fittest” was even applied to women. If we accept the beliefs of the period, only the European male had managed to become most fully evolved. So his desire to conquer all “lesser evolved” beings was completely natural.

The colonial period of Africa also coincides with the Christian missionary expansion. So it is very clear as to how the European peoples (Christian for the most-part) were able to move through Africa forcibly taking lands from Africans, putting them in camps, or simply killing them to take their resources and power. After all, it simplified the job of missionaries. Until this period, Christianity was for the most part isolated in the Horn of Africa (Egypt and Ethiopia had Christian populations very early on).

In the eyes of the colonists, Europe was either bringing pagans to Christianity to save their souls; or they were doing their duty as more highly evolved humans and continuing to build a stronger civilization. It boiled down to survival of the fittest or salvation from hedonism.

How did colonialism come to be in Africa? One major event changed the face of Africa forever; the Berlin Treaty of 1885.

Although Europeans had control of some small areas of the African continent; the vast majority of Africa (80%) was still under local control at the time that the Berlin Conference was held in 1884. Before the ambassadors of 14 different European countries sat around a table and divided Africa into parcels which they would rule, there were over a thousand different ethnic groups who had already evolved their own forms of government, culture and structures. (To learn more about ancient Africa, read Mama’s article "Ancient Africa")

All of that changed forever on November 15, 1884 when the Berlin Conference was organized by German chancellor Otto von Bismarck at the request of the European nation of Portugal. The conference was intended to settle some of the questions and disputes over expansion and control of territory on the African continent by various European powers. In an attempt to increase their strength and power, European countries were moving further and further out of their boundaries to conquer new lands. Africa’s proximity to Europe made it a common-sense solution to many. Other issues that were addressed at the conference were: suppressing the internal slave trade and ensuring a European monopoly of the gun trade by outlawing the importation of firearms into Africa.

The following countries met and created a map haphazardly of Africa with absolutely NO consideration for, or input from, the native peoples they would force to live the consequences. The countries present were: Austria-Hungry, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway (who were unified from 1814 to 1905), Turkey and the United States of America. Since they already controlled most of the territories which were under European control, France, Germany, Great Britain and Portugal had the most power at the conference.

The conference lasted 3 months, when the Treaty of Berlin was signed. It spelled out that the Congo River and Niger River would remain neutral territory and they bickered over which boundaries would be used to split the continent up into sections which they could divide among themselves. There was no attention paid to the natural boundaries formed by language, religion or ethnicity of the African people.

But the Berlin Conference was certainly not the final word on the shape and fate of Africa. In the years that followed, (the major European powers continued to dispute the territories until in 1914), they had cut Africa up into 50 “states” which they divided among themselves. Additionally, despite the fact that they had previously agreed that the Congo River would remain neutral territory; Belgium’s King Leopold decided to make much of the Congo River Basin his personal playground. Unfortunately though, while converting the region into his personal empire, over 50% of the population died in the region as well! And by 1900, over 90% of Africa was under colonial control!

Next week, we’ll be looking more at the different types of colonial rule as well as the specific effects of colonialism on African women, in Part Two of this article...

See you then!