North Africa
At the beginning of the XIX century. most of the North African states belonged to the Ottoman Empire. But the collapse of this empire was already beginning and the place of the Turkish authorities was gradually taken by European ones. Thus, France subjugated Algeria, followed by Tunisia and Morocco. Shown here is an episode of an African tribe living in the desert attacking a French fort defended by the famous Foreign Legion. The ruler was in need of money and therefore sold his share of the Suez Canal to Great Britain, which in this way could influence the internal affairs of Egypt and completely subordinate it to its power. Egypt, in turn, ruled over the Sudan. In 1883 muslim preacher there he led an uprising against Egyptian rule. British troops were sent to suppress it, but they were defeated at Khartoum.
Trade with Europeans in West Africa
These gold items were made by Ashanti craftsmen, a people who lived in western Africa. The Ashanti state grew rich by selling gold and slaves to Europeans. For several years the Ashanti fought with Britain, which sought to conquer them, and in 1901 they were defeated and their state ceased to exist.
Zimbabwe
This was the name of the capital of a wealthy state in southeast Africa. It was destroyed in a war with rival tribes. Remaining ruins, such as the remains of a temple depicted here, indicate that the city was once built by very skilled craftsmen.
South Africa
In 1652 in South Africa the first Dutch settlers appeared. The settlement they founded on the Cape of Good Hope was called the Cape Colony. Most of them started farming, and the colonists got the name Borah (from the Dutch word “boer” - farmer). Under an international treaty in 1814, the Cape Colony became a British possession. In 1835-1837, many Boers, who did not like living under British rule, abandoned their homes and farms and, loading their property in wagons, moved north of the Cape to find a new settlement free from British rule. This episode went down in South African history as the Great Boer Migration.
Cecil Rhodes made himself a huge fortune mining gold and diamonds and founded the British South African Company, one of the goals of which was the construction railroadlinking British possessions in the south with diamond mines north of the new Boer settlements. In 1895 the whole territory was named Rhodesia.
The Boers began to have armed clashes with the Zulus - the most warlike tribe of those that lived in the neighborhood of the new settlements of the Boers. British troops, having entered the war on the side of the Boers, helped to finally defeat the Zulu in 1879. Britain gradually increased its influence in those areas where the Boers lived. In 1886, gold was found in one of them, which caused a new influx of British people who decided to settle in these places.
Partition of Africa by Europeans
In 1880, most of Africa was still independent of any European country. But in the period from 1880 to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the European powers somehow divided up almost the entire African continent among themselves.
In 1889, war broke out between the Boers and the British. At first, the advantage was on the side of the Boers, who rode on fine playful horses, knew how to track down the enemy and knew the area where the battles were going. British troops destroyed the Boer farms and destroyed their livestock, and the Boers themselves, whom they managed to capture, including women and children, were placed in special camps for prisoners. As a result, in 1902 the war ended with the surrender of the Boers.
The history of Africa is counted in millennia, from where, according to the scientific world, humanity originated. And here many peoples returned, it is true, already in order to establish their rule.
The proximity of the north to Europe led to the fact that Europeans in the 15-16th century actively penetrated the continent. Also the African west, at the end of the 15th century it was controlled by the Portuguese, they began to actively sell slaves from the local population.
For the Spaniards and the Portuguese, other states were drawn to the "black continent" Western Europe: France, Denmark, England, Spain, Holland and Germany.
As a result, East and North Africa fell under European oppression, in total more than 10% of African lands were under their rule in the middle of the 19th century. However, by the end of this century, colonization had reached more than 90% of the mainland.
What attracted the colonialists? First of all, natural resources:
- wild trees of valuable species in large quantities;
- growing a variety of crops (coffee, cocoa, cotton, sugarcane);
- precious stones (diamonds) and metals (gold).
The slave trade was also gaining momentum.
Egypt has long been drawn into the capitalist economy at the world level. After the Suez Canal was opened, England began to actively compete over who would be the first to establish their dominance in these lands.
The British government took advantage of the difficult situation in the country, prompting the creation of an international committee to manage the Egyptian budget. As a result, an Englishman became finance minister, and a Frenchman was in charge of public works. Then difficult times began for the population, which was exhausted from numerous taxes.
The Egyptians tried in various ways to prevent the creation of a foreign colony in Africa, but over time, England sent troops there to take over the country. The British were able to occupy Egypt by force and cunning, making it their colony.
France began the colonization of Africa from Algeria, in which for twenty years it proved its right to rule by war. Also, with prolonged bloodshed, the French conquered Tunisia.
Agriculture was developed in these lands, so the conquerors organized their own huge estates with vast lands, on which the Arab peasants were forced to work. Local peoples were summoned to build facilities for the needs of the occupiers (roads and ports).
And although Morocco was a very important object for many European countries, it remained free for a long time due to the rivalry of its enemies. Only after the strengthening of power in Tunisia and Algeria did France begin to subjugate Morocco.
In addition to these countries in the north, Europeans began to develop and South Africa. There, the British easily pushed the local tribes (San, Koikoin) to uninhabited territories. Only the Bantu peoples did not submit for a long time. 
As a result, in the 70s of the 19th century, the English colonies occupied the southern coast, without penetrating deep into the mainland.
The influx of people into this region is timed to coincide with the discovery in the valley of the river. Orange diamonds. The mines became the centers of settlements, cities were created. Formed joint stock companies have always used the cheap power of the local population.
The British had to fight for Zululand, which was included in Natal. The Transvaal was not completely conquered, but the London Convention implied certain restrictions on local government.
Germany also began to occupy these territories - from the mouth of the Orange River to Angola, the Germans declared their protectorate (southwest Africa).
If England sought to extend its power in the south, and then France directed its efforts inland in order to colonize a continuous strip between the Atlantic and Indian oceans. As a result, the territory between Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Guinea.
The British also owned some West African countries - mainly the coastal territories of the Gambia, Niger and Volta rivers, as well as the Sahara.
Germany in the west was able to conquer only Cameroon and Togo.
Belgium sent forces to the center of the African mainland, so the Congo became its colony.
Italy got some lands in northeastern Africa - huge Somalia and Eritrea. And fot Ethiopia was able to repel the attack of the Italians, as a result, this power was practically the only one that retained its independence from the influence of the Europeans.
Only two did not become European colonies:
- Ethiopia;
- Eastern Sudan.
Former colonies in Africa
Naturally, foreign ownership almost the entire continent could not last long, the local population sought to gain freedom, since their living conditions were usually deplorable. Therefore, since 1960, the colonies quickly began to liberate.
This year, 17 African countries became independent again, most of them are the former colonies in Africa of France and those that were under UN control. They also lost their colonies:
- Great Britain - Nigeria;
- Belgium - Congo.
Somalia, divided between Britain and Italy, has merged into the Somali Democratic Republic.
Although mainly Africans became independent as a result of mass desire, strikes and negotiations, in some countries wars were still fought to gain freedom:
- Angola;
- Zimbabwe;
- Kenya;
- Namibia;
- Mozambique.
The rapid liberation of Africa from the colonists led to the fact that in many created states, the geographical boundaries do not correspond to the ethnic and cultural composition of the population, and this becomes the reason for disagreement and civil wars.
And the new rulers do not always comply with democratic principles, which leads to massive dissatisfaction and a worsening of the situation in many African countries.
Even now, Africa has such territories that are controlled by European states:
- Spain - Canary Islands, Melilla and Ceuta (in Morocco);
- Great Britain - Chagos Archipelago, Ascension Islands, St. Helena, Tristan da Cunha;
- France - Reunion, Mayotte and Eparse islands;
- Portugal - Madeira.
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Contrary to popular belief, Europeans did not at all from the first second of their stay on the African coast begin to conquer it in the same way as they did in America. Africa greeted the first colonists with dangerous diseases, centralized states, and numerous, albeit weakly armed, armies. The first attempts at aggression against the African kingdoms showed that it would not be possible to conquer them with a detachment of 120 people, as Pizarro did with the Inca empire. As a result, for almost four centuries after the appearance in Africa of the first Portuguese fort of Elmina (1482), the European powers had practically no opportunity to control the inland regions of the mainland, being content only with colonies on the coast and at the estuaries.
Many European countries took part in the colonization of the Black Continent. As the first "masters" of Africa, which was bestowed upon them by a special bull of the Pope, the Portuguese extremely quickly, literally during the lifetime of one generation, managed to capture or establish strongholds in West, South and East Africa. IN early XVI in. Ottoman Empire North Africa was captured. Only a century later, in the 17th century, these two empires were followed by young colonial lions - England, the Netherlands, France. Their colonies in Africa in the 17th century. Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Brandenburg and even Courland had a small Baltic duchy, which for some time owned an island and a fortress at the mouth of the Gambia River, where landless Latvian peasants were settled by colonists.
Europeans preferred to buy or lease land from local rulers rather than fight for it. In Africa, they were not interested in the land, but primarily in goods: slaves, gold, ivory, ebony - and these goods could be bought relatively inexpensively or taken as a tribute. In addition, in Europe at that time, the belief that in the interior of the continent the climate was unbearable for the white man prevailed, and this was pure truth: malaria, schistosomiasis and sleeping sickness significantly reduced the life of a European in Africa. The Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique and the Dutch colonists in South Africa advanced more inland than others, but in general, the map of European possessions on the continent in 1850 differed little from 1600.
In the 1720s. Peter I decided to equip an expedition for the development of Russia on the island of Madagascar. It was not destined to take place, but the archives preserved a letter from the emperor of all Russia to a certain non-existent "king of Madagascar", where Peter calls himself his "friend": "By God's grace we, Peter I, the emperor and autocrat of all Russia, etc., etc., and so on, to the highly esteemed king And the ruler of the glorious island of Madagascar, our congratulations.Ponezh, for some business, we decided to send our Vice-Admiral Wilster with several officers to you: for that for your sake, we ask that in order for them the fact that they will offer you in our name will give you a complete And perfect faith, and with such an inclined answer they will let them go to us, which we hope from you, and we will be your friend. ”Given in St. Petersburg on November 9th 1723 of the year".
As for the map of the hinterland of Africa before the European conquest, it is usually presented as a solid blank spot. It is easy to be convinced that this is not so: in the middle of the XIX century. on the continent, there were at least two dozen fairly developed states, with which the Europeans for the time being maintained very close and relatively friendly relations.
Everything changed literally in an instant in the last quarter of the 19th century, and there were several reasons for this. Europe learned the properties of quinine, produced from the bark of the South American cinchona tree and capable of treating malaria, which was no longer so terrible for European settlers. Europe developed the technology of rifled weapons, which had enormous advantages over the smooth-bore musket, which was equipped with the most advanced African armies. Europe has accumulated enough information about inner Africa thanks to a whole cohort of glorious travelers who successfully passed through the jungle, swamps, deserts and proved that the sun there does not burn a person alive, as the ancient authors believed. Finally, Europe experienced the industrial revolution and was in dire need of new sales markets for manufactured goods, which were produced at an unprecedented rate and in large volumes. To start the colonial race, it was only necessary to fire the first shot. It was destined not to be made by the great powers, but by small Belgium.
The shot rang out in 1876 in Brussels, when King Leopold II of Belgium announced the creation of an African International Association to promote scientific and humanitarian projects in the Congo Basin. Across Europe, this move was perceived as the beginning of the Belgian conquest of Central Africa, and indeed it was. Having landed at the mouth of the Congo, the Belgian soldiers and armed black militia headed deep into the continent, forcing the local leaders to sign onerous agreements with King Leopold on the "alliance", in fact, giving land for a pittance into the hands of Europeans. Many leaders simply did not understand what they put their signature or fingerprint under. Dissenters were killed or imprisoned, and uprisings were suppressed with unprecedented brutality. Western journalists were aware of cases when the militiamen hired by the king not only killed, but also ate their victims among the civilian population, primarily children. In its cruelty, the exploitation of the local population on rubber plantations, mines, and road construction organized by the Belgians has never known anything like it in the history of Africa. People died in tens of thousands, and at the same time repression and robbery remained uncontrolled, because the "Free State of the Congo", as this was called with terrible cynicism huge territory, was not ruled by the Belgian state, but was the personal property of Leopold. This unique lawlessness continued until 1908.
Belgium was immediately followed by England, France, Portugal and Spain, a little later the young great powers Germany and Italy, who also dreamed of their own colonial empires, joined the division of the African pie that had suddenly become so fashionable.
The race has acquired a hurricane speed. Everywhere in Africa, where it was possible to negotiate with the tribal leaders or break the resistance of the local principalities, the European flag was immediately hoisted, and the territory was considered annexed to the empire. At the Berlin Conference of 1885, where the division of Africa was legalized, the great powers called on each other for correct, civilized behavior, but, as always happens with division, clashes were difficult to avoid. One of the most famous "incidents" occurred near the Sudanese town of Fashoda in 1898, when Marchand's French detachment heading from West Africa collided head-to-head with Kitchener's British expedition, which was also planting flags. It took intensive negotiations and numerous concessions to avoid war: the French withdrew to the south, and Sudan fell into the British sphere of influence.
It cannot be said that this lightning-fast division of the continent cost the colonialists no losses. The British had to go through several bloody battles to capture the Ashanti Confederation in Ghana and the Zulu state in South Africa, while the French overcame desperate resistance from the Fulbe emirates and the Tuaregs of Mali. Within two years, German troops had to suppress the Herero uprising in Namibia, which ended in a large-scale genocide of Africans.
Although by 1900 the African continent had turned into a kind of patchwork shawl painted over with the colors of European empires, Tanganyika (the territory of present-day Tanzania) was subordinated to Germany only in 1907, and France did not secure control of West Africa until 1913. Libyan tribes' liberation struggle against the Italians continued until 1922, and the Spaniards managed to pacify the militant Berbers of Morocco only in 1926.
Only one state created by Africans managed to maintain independence - Ethiopia. At the end of the XIX century. Ethiopian Negus Menelik II even managed to take part in the division of Africa, more than doubling the borders of his state at the expense of various tribes in the south, west and east.
It counts for many millennia, and according to some scientific hypotheses, it was in Africa that the first people appeared, who subsequently multiplied and populated all other lands of our planet (well, except for Antarctica). So, according to these hypotheses, Africa is the cradle of humanity. And it is not surprising that many people were drawn to this continent, and they returned, sometimes as explorers, and sometimes as conquerors, such is our human nature.
The first European colonies in Africa began to appear at the beginning of the 15-16th century. The British and French showed a genuine interest in North Africa, and especially in one of the cradles of human civilizations - Egypt with its majestic pyramids and the mysterious Sphinx. The Portuguese were the first to penetrate West Africa, creating their colonies there. Subsequently, representatives of other European countries joined them: Holland, Belgium, Germany.
The greatest peak of colonialism in Africa came in the 19th century, here interesting fact: at the beginning of the 19th century, only 10% of African territories were European colonies, but at its end 90% (!) of African lands were already European colonies. Only two African countries managed to maintain full independence: and East Sudan. All the rest of the countries were under somebody's heel, so many countries of North Africa belonged to France: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, in each of them French domination was established by force. For some other countries, such as, say, the already mentioned Egypt, there was even a desperate military struggle between France and England. The latter, too, did not mind taking possession of this tidbit, but in Egypt the British had to meet with a strong and talented enemy, the famous General Napoleon Bonaparte, who would soon become the French emperor, conquer all of Europe and reach all the way to Moscow. Although further military defeats of Napoleon reduced the influence of France in North Africa, and Egypt, in the end, went to the British.
The Portuguese, thanks to their brave navigators and cartographers, were the first to reach West Africa, where they entered into numerous contacts with the local population and founded their colonies, Angola became the largest Portuguese colony in West Africa, a huge African country, whose area is several times larger than the area of \u200b\u200bsmall Portugal ...
The British also did not catch crows and, in addition to Egypt, founded many colonies, both in West and in East and South Africa. Subsequently, representatives of other European states came to Africa: the Germans managed to seize part of the territory of West Africa: Cameroon, Togo and Namibia (the latter country still strongly resembles Germany with its cozy cities, built by the Germans themselves).
The Belgians, since at the time of their appearance the African coast was already occupied by other Europeans, decided to move deeper into the African continent, where they established their colony in the country of Congo (Central Africa). The Italians received land in eastern Africa: the countries of Somalia and Eritrea became their colonies.
What attracted Europeans to Africa? First of all, numerous natural resources, as well as human resources - that is, slaves, into which the Europeans actively turned the local population. Then the slaves were taken to New World for hard labor in local sugar plantations. In general, the slave trade is one of the darkest pages of African history, about which there will still be a separate article on our site.
Returning to colonialism, in addition to its clearly negative consequences, there were some positive moments. So the Europeans brought a certain civilization, culture to Africa, built cities, roads, along with the soldiers went Christian missionaries who wanted to convert the local population to Christianity (whether it be Protestantism or Catholicism), they did a lot to educate Africans, built schools, taught African natives European languages \u200b\u200b(primarily English, but also French, Spanish, Portuguese, German) and other sciences.
THE DECLINE OF COLONIALISM
Sooner or later, everything comes to an end, and colonialism in Africa, the decline of which began in the 60s of the last century, has come to an end. It was at this time that active social and political movements for the proclamation of independence began in various African countries. Somewhere it is possible to gain independence peacefully, and somewhere it was not without an armed struggle, as, say, in the same Angola, where a real war of independence took place against Portuguese rule, which, however, after that turned into a civil war between Angolans, carried away by communist ideas (MPLA party) and those who wanted to build communism in Angola and the Angolans, who did not like it, but that's another story.
Also, the negative influence of colonialism after its collapse was the fact that some newly created African countries contained a heterogeneous cultural and even hostile population to each other. Sometimes it led to real civil warsas it was in Nigeria, a former English colony, where after the proclamation of independence in one country there were tribes hostile to each other for and the Yoruba. But again, that's another story ...