Africa (6)MTRA. MARCELA ALVAREZ PÉREZ

Colonization: general characteristics and effects

• Colonial Period: 1885-1960

• 19th century: administration dependent on a European metropolis– Portuguese: miscegenation– German: disciplined administration– British: commercial basis– Belgian: exploitation– French: interventional

• Racial/racist component• Pax Colonial

– "White man's burden"– "Mission Civilitrice"

• Trade missionaries military administrators• Two main types of administration:

– Direct Administration (FR, AT, PO, BE)– Indirect Administration (GB)

• Consequences of European presence: complex, sometimes contradictory effects

• Contrasting management systems between the two dominant colonial powers– Different notions of the role of the West in the colonized world

• France: assimilation (accommodation)- Europeans bringing the universal benefits of illustration to an uncivilized world

• GB: Englishmen helping an inferior people acquire a better standard of living through a benevolent, but paternalistic, sponsorship

• Common notion of African inferiority (racist)– FR: cultural inferiority Direct Administration– GB: genetic inferiority Indirect Administration

• Independent African states:– Nonexistent without colonial period– There was no national states: notion of unity, homogeneity and

territorial delimitation– Territorial property– Consequences: aspiration to independence

• Population Movements Migration, exchanges, rearrangements: new centers of attention, roads...

• Colonization: limits– Linguistic phenomena / demographic Phenomena– monetary economies

• End of slavery, colonial pacification:– Boosting black population (still low population density)

• Louis XIII and Richelieu:– 1633company monopoly to carry trade between

Senegal and Gambia.– 1638-pier at mouth of Senegal R. ;– 1659 Saint Louis, first French city

• Louis XIV and Colbert: new impetus to colonialism• triangular Trade

– Payments to African princes, competition between companies, European wars: decay and bankruptcy of French companies

• France: Extends territories more due to exploration than by trade

• End of first phase: few/poor economic results

Colonialism: France

• Colbert’s French colonial Doctrine: "colonial pact"

– FR creates and maintains the colonies and they only trade with FR

• France in Africa: political appropriation

– Richelieu: colonization= extension of national domain

– Colbert: colonization encourages the colonized to a community of life with the French

• French Revolution (1789-1799)

– Revocation of trading privileges: free trade

– Abolition: Colonial Philanthropic Society (1817) takes 200 colonists to Senegal but fails

• The Senegalese (1819): successful extraction of peanut oil– 1833: civil and political rights of citizenship to every freeman or freedman

of the colonies

• 1848: Second Republic abolishes slavery and proclaims representation in the National Assembly

• Second Empire new phase of French colonization

– 1854: colonies ruled by decree of the Emperor

• Contradictions in the application of the law: Civil Code not applied to all regime with three categories

– Originary people of the Senegalese communes: citizens with different personal status

– French citizens

– Protected /French subjects: Citizenship access by accepting the Civil Code

• Authoritarian Hierarchy

– Governor General governors village chiefs

– No separation of powers

– until WWII

• General Faidherbe (1854-1865): responsible for the creation of a French colonial empire

• Colonization: military implantation of a form of civilization, peace and administration

• Pacification = Prosperity– Geographic orientation: West to East, Senegal

Niger Chad– Policy of Napoleon III and France in Algeria (Arab

kingdom)– Keep occupation of the coast and the interior from

North to South• Organization of the Senegal colony

– Administrative cadre later used throughout French colonization in Africa

– Suspension of the expansion: Faidherbe leaves, fall of Napoleon III

• 1880: Third Republic impetus for expansion– French Sudan (1892) one year after reaching

Tombuctu– Tuaregs expelled until 1898

• Communication is established between the Sudan and the coast: junction between Senegal, Ivory Coast trade, Guinea and Dahomey

• 1895: Foundation of the General Government of French West Africa in Dakar-civil authority– Senegal, Sudan, Guinea and Ivory Coast– Dahomey (1899) Upper Volta (1919) Mauritania (1920)– Agreed with the British territorial delimitation– By 1922 eight territories with the Niger Colony

• Equatorial Africa: mission of St. Mary of Gabon (1844)– Libreville 1849– Exploration of the Congo before Stanley

• Agreements with local chiefs

• Right bank of Congo R. to France: 1886 French Congo and Gabon 1888

• Explorations north toward Lake Chad

– Rabah’s Dominance: last great African adventurer about to found an African federation

– French Project: send three columns from Algeria, Sudan and the Congo

• French colonial empire unity manifested

• April 22, 1900: elimination of Rabah

• September 1900: Chad military territory – Djibouti (1892)– Menelik of Ethiopia: treaty in 1897 for an exit port for

Ethiopian trade– Railway Djibouti-Addis Ababa-Chad: gateway to the

Nile• Cptn. Marchand (1896) mission that faces him against

Ahmed el Mahdi in 1898– British aid to Egypt: Marchand retreats to avoid war

between FR and GB

• Effects of the French colonization:– Little contact with French administration– Small French presence: only one strong center– Commercial establishments not numerous:

Most merchants Lebanese or Syrian– Essentially administrative, military and

temporary presence– Few requirements: only problem with forced

labor• Construction of roads, railways: not for

private use

• Series of resistances peace and security in the region– Dissemination of ethnic groups over the wastelands,

extension and development of crops– Internal Colonization: benefits for the disinherited and

anonymous mass– Damaged some who saw their prestige, power and

luxury diminished.• Assimilation and direct rule:

– Civilizing mission of European powers: replace African cultures with their own

– Assumption of European superiority: conquest due to superior culture: ability for technological and social development

• Faidherbe: concept of assimilation on two levels– Colonial Territories assimilated to existing

administrative systems, part of a Greater France (Algeria)

– Subjects would become French citizens, with no cultural differences with the metropolis

• Principle of illustration (18th and 19th centuries): any person, if he/she received proper education, was rational and had the potential of being responsible for their own actions

• Sovereignty-right to make decisions-in the individual, not the ruler or elite (heritage of French Revolution)

– Distrust in aristocratic / religious authority African political systems

– Take them on the road to a more secular and egalitarian society

• Ideal for inclusion: four communes of Senegal

– Citizenship, representation in the House of Representatives, French local administration, city councils, standardized access to public education

– Évolués: culturally evolved

– Indigenes: subjects, excluded from political participation and especially legal code for punishments, fines, etc…

• Barriers: unclear criteria for the status, more difficult to obtain over time

– share power and prestige

• Many Africans did not totally abandon their practices

• There was no general agreement as to the objectives of assimilation– Many argued that Africans were intellectually incapable

of appreciating / applying the complexities of European culture (scientific racism)

• Reconsideration of assimilation:– Association (1910): respect for the ways, customs and

religion of the natives– More like the British Model– Association and effort to use existing African

administrative systems effectively applied in Morocco• Little effect on the rest of the colonies: very firm notions

about the superiority of French culture– French: administrative and education language

• Continue subordinating and marginalizing the African authorities and cultures

• More commercial: 4 guiding principles

1) Tradition of the British Royal Navy: occupation from the coast– subsidized and methodical private explorations

2) justification for the colonization: commercially sound and profitable operation– Occupation only for commercial movement: less

direct administration (self-government) = less financial burdens

3) accountability for the natives in their area of influence

-- dignity and freedom

4) Obsession with the route to India: Egypt, France and Suez Canal

British Colonization

• 1880: only 4 points installed on the coast without significant penetration: Gambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast and Niger Delta– Consulate in Zanzibar

• Monarchical continuity vs. French Revolution– More complex system, little control and coordination– Trading ports: isolated scattered enclaves,

problematic.• Sierra Leone: no profitable trade, problems between

freedmen and indigenous peoples.– English authority on short radio: in 1808 Freetown

was the colony and the rest a protectorate– missions of evangelization and education

• Gold Coast:– Control of territory: treaties with the coastal

people of the Fanties– Ashantis: slave trade with the interior, seeking

to eliminate the Fanties and initiate war with GB from 1806-1815

• Colonial Office: 1816 decides to take over British stores to ensure peacekeeping and antislavery politics– War resumes in 1825 and GB decides to stay

to protect their allies

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• 1874: declared the coast a Royal Colony to protect its allies

– Ashanti people remain independent

• 1895: French proximity moves them to proclaim the northern territories a British protectorate

• Ashanti monarchy exterminated due to fear of proximity from the French (Ivory Coast) and the German (Togo)

– Ashanti territory annexed and becomes a colony with direct administration in 1902

• Nigeria : palm oil• National African Co.: starts to move down the river

– 1884 : agreements with local powers Berlin Conference

• Oil Rivers Protectorate 1885: theoretical rule of the company.– Monopoly privileges, defense and agreements: Royal

Niger Co.– private army exercise authority on behalf of British

interests• 1900 : Protectorate of Northern Nigeria: end the slave

trade and to stop French advances• Unification of territories in the Federation of Nigeria, 1914• Emirs and Coranic schools North, Christian missions South

• Central and Eastern Africa• 1860-1870: GB became interested in East-African coast

route to India– 1870 Suez Canal changes operating conditions and route:

shortest route, faster and cheaper for steamships– GB: buys shares (1875), protectorate in Egypt (1882), creates

coal port in Aden

• 1884 British Somaliland, 1899 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan• East African Explorations: an end to the slave trade and

scientific curiosity– Discover sources of the Nile (Burton and Speke)– They also find Arab slave trade and black kingdom of Buganda

• African Lakes Company (1871): missionary, consular and commercial efforts on Nyassa region clashes with the Portuguese and Arabs

• British government supports the company: From 1888 its agents assume pacification and colonization of the territory– Protectorate treaties: limiting the Portuguese and King

Leopold II

• British Central Africa Protectorate: slow pacification until recognition of all the tribes Nyasaland 1907

• Kingdom of Buganda: 1893 British protectorate proclaimed

• 1895: takes control of the rest of the territory to build Uganda Railways joining the coast

• Importing Indian labor

• Convention of 1900: reform the land tenure system association of British authority and indigenous authority to establish stable structures

• European notion: elites as property managers / owners of large domains rather than temporary custodians administrative function. (similar to feudalism)– Peasants turned into simple settlers

• GB: political and social progress, develop new oligarchy of African landowners and elite with a sense of responsibility and power linked to the British

• King Leopold II: individual, no support from capitalists/institutions

• Fierce imperialism and exploitation• Informal occupation of Congo territories between

1880-1884

• Berlin Conference:

– Free state, independent, neutral, free trade zone, open to navigation and commerce

– Bismark: considered him to be a philanthropist that would open Africa to the rest of colonizers

– Company: the king could not accept a concession in person

The Belgian Congo

• Free State of Congo established in 1885

• Non-existent model of colonization to exploit vast and unexplored regions without military force

• Territory larger than its resources: simple government

• Most of his imperialist and expansionist efforts were fruitless financial ruin when he’s no longer able to invest in the company

• Evades legal obligations state monopoly system

– Private companies get concessions for the railways and territories

– 50% of the stocks were owned by Leopold

– Decree: rubber and ivory state-owned free commerce but no other products to buy/sell

• More expenses than revenue: loans• Rubber exports forced labor, over exploitation, no long

term development– Chiefdoms seen as sources of opposition replaced

by Africans that would serve the white men– Aborigines’ Protection Society (GB): campaign against

Leopold’s administration• October 18 1908: Belgian parliament takes over the

Congo– No colonial experience or doctrines– No budget to control such a large territory– Companies privileges reduced or under Belgian

control– Infrastructure development African peoples just as

laborers– Official doctrine: prosperity would eventually benefit all

• Germany: occupy territories before Berlin Conference but no intention to begin a colonial policy right away– Protectorates private companies, no public funding– Future options and diplomacy

• Companies forces not enough for organization and control– Indigenous police forces since 1891– Clashes with some tribes due to commerce monopoly war– Plantations forced labor only choice

• Military Administration: Germany forced to take control after companies bankruptcy civil government with direct administration in 1903

• German Occupation: efficient, quick, general interest as main objective– Education to augment productivity and qualification of the

laborers mandatory education since 1910– Colonial agronomy institutes – Colonial administrators in office for long time to get acquainted

with the situation