Slavery to ColonizationAfrica Unit

What does modern day slavery look like?

Boko Haram – Nigeria • http://time.com/87658/boko-haram-nigeria-kidnapped-girls/• http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27048076

Did slavery exist in Africa before the Europeans?

• Yes, but not on the same scale.

• Usually a different ethnic group captures members of another ethnic group.

• Slaves could be integrated into society & treated more like servants

Transatlantic Slave Trade• The Europeans

introduced slavery on a massive scale• Most extensive and

brutal in the history of Africa• 15-20 million Africans were

transported to the Americas

• Millions died on the voyage to America (Middle Passage)

• Between the 16th and 19th Century (1500’s -1800’s)

Reasons for the slave trade?1. Labor shortage • Not enough workers for American plantations• Failed to enslave the Native Americans

2. Racism• Belief that Africans were biologically inferior• Later used to justify enslavement of Africans

3. Christianity• “White Man’s Burden”• Africans would be saved

4. Business• Part of a triangle of trade

Triangle of trade

Three journeys: Europe to Africa: European traders would bring copper, cloth, beads, guns, ammunition, and other manufactured goods to trade for slaves. Africa to the Americas or the Caribbean: Carrying manufactured goods along with African captives to sell and make a profit from. The homeward passage: Carrying raw materials like sugar, tobacco, rum, molasses, hemp, rice, cotton, and other goods back to Europe.

Where were slaves taken from?

Area stretching

from present day Senegal to

Angola

Elmina Castle in Ghana Portuguese Slave Fort

Cape Coast Castle, Inner Courtyard, Ghana, 1986

Cape Coast Castle

West Africa

“Gate of No Return” – Cape Coast Castle, Ghana

Why only the exterior?

• European traders and explorers only interacted with African coastal tribes

• Interior was difficult to navigate.

• Many tropical illnesses (malaria).

The arrival of the Portuguese on the "Gold Coast" (Ghana) in the 1470s tapped into the

beginnings of the Slave Trade

Where did the majority of slaved end up?

Where did the majority of slaved end up?

Slave Auctions

End of the Slave Trade• Abolition movements slowly gained strength for

moral and ethical reasons

• The Industrial Revolution increased the demand for raw materials and finished products, instead of slaves

• 1808: Slave trade outlawed in Britain & the U.S.• 1833: Slavery outlawed in Britain• 1865: Slavery outlawed in the U.S.

Effects of the slave trade1. Disrupted societies in Africa• Encouraged wars between

neighboring people• Resources drained - Young,

healthy men and women had been taken as slaves, which left little or no help for planting or harvesting

2. Slave-trading kingdoms became dependent on European trade goods and technologies

3. Strong new states and rulers emerged• Powerful local rulers, who

had traded slaves for guns, and built large regions of influence

4. Freed Africans returned to Africa• New colonies set up• Ethiopia Resisted Italian

efforts to colonize • Liberia Organized by

free blacks from the U.S.

Effects of the slave trade

The spread of ideas, customs, and beliefs of

Africans to other areas of the world

• Music• Food

• Religion• Art

Why did European Imperialism Begin?

• No longer a need for slaves but many valuable resources remain within Africa!

• Machines have replaced humans as process of labor.

Exploration begins!

• Many groups of people from all over Europe begin to enter into Africa.• Explorers• Missionaries• Humanitarians• Doctors

David Livingstone

David Livingstone

• Minister

• Went to Central Africa (looking for the source of the Nile River)

• Disappeared for 11 years• Henry Morton Stanley found

him

Henry Morton Stanley

Why would Europeans go to such great lengths to acquire

land in Africa?• Belief in European superiority

• Military might• Maxim gun

• Economics• Cash crops

• Modern medicine• Quinine• “White Man’s grave”• Malaria and Yellow Fever

Cecil Rhodes

Wealthy businessman

Believed in racial supremacy

Wanted a British Empire in Africa

Rhodes was named the chairman of De Beers at the company's founding in 1888

Founder of the southern African territory of Rhodesia

King Leopold II and the Congo• Leopold was the founder

and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf.

King Leopold IIThe Congo Free State was a corporate state privately controlled by Leopold II for the

exploitation of resources through forced labor of the local inhabitants.

Harvesting of Rubber

It is blood-curdling to see them (the soldiers) returning with the hands of the slain, and to find the hands of young children amongst the bigger ones evidencing their bravery...The rubber from this district has cost hundreds of lives, and the scenes I have witnessed, while unable to help the oppressed, have been almost enough to make me wish I were dead... This rubber traffic is steeped in blood, and if the natives were to rise and sweep every white person on the Upper Congo into eternity, there would still be left a fearful balance to their credit. -- Belgian Official

5 – 8 Million Victims

Leopold’s Ghost

Scramble for AfricaEuropean leaders begin to fight over control of the best areas of Africa

(Remember Spheres of Influence in China?)

The Berlin Conference, (1884)• In November 1884, Otto von

Bismarck of Germany convened a 14-nation conference.

• Regulated European colonization in Africa

1. No Africans

2. Made and accepted boundaries

3. Sent surveyors to map routes

• for roads and railroads • Except: Liberia & Ethiopia

Major Ethnic Groups and Tribal Regions in Africa in 1884No Africans were represented at the Berlin Conference. Europeans created their own

political boundaries over the existing tribal regions.

In the 1880s, driven by economic, political and cultural motives, Europeans began to compete for additional territory in Africa.

• Africa, huge continent, rugged terrain; travel, control difficult

• 1800s, scientific advances made travel, control in Africa easier

Scientific Advances

• Discovery of drug quinine helped Europeans protect selves against malaria

• Automatic machine gun created strong military advantage

Protection

• Development of telegraphs, railroads, steamships helped Europeans overcome problems of communication, travel

New Developments

European Claims in Africa