Tag: history

The English had established an outpost in the Cape of Good Hope to help the passing ships to rest and replenish food supplies. Some Dutch farmers had settled in this area to cultivate and sell the produce to the passing ships. They came into conflict with the local African people whom they tried to drive away from their lands. They were called Boers. 

The English had established an outpost in the Cape of Good Hope to help the passing ships to rest and replenish food supplies. 

The British fought two Boer wars to gain control over much of what is today called South Africa. These wars ended in 1902 and the British consolidated all the regions of South Africa into the 'Union of South Africa. 

During the middle of the 19th century, Africa was referred to as the "Dark Continent," because little was known about the mysterious land itself. Africa had dense forests, perennial lakes, and large tracts of deserts. 

King Leopold II presented himself as a philanthropist eager to bring the benefits of Christianity, Western civilisation, and commerce to African natives. It was the world’s only private colony, and Leopold referred to himself as its “proprietor.” Initially, he was most interested in ivory, a material that was greatly valued in the days before plastics. Another thing that attracted Leopold was rubber. One lucrative source of wild rubber was the Landolphia vines in the great Central African rainforest, and no one owned more of that area than Leopold. His private army would march into a village and hold the women hostage, forcing the men to scatter into the rainforest and gather a monthly quota of wild rubber. The effects were devastating. Many of the women hostages starved, and many of the male rubber gatherers were worked to death.

The "Scramble for Africa" was the invasion, occupation, division, colonisation and annexation of African territory by European powers during the period of New Imperialism, between 1881 and 1914. In 1870, only 10 percent of Africa was under European control; by 1914 it had increased to 90 percent of the continent, with only Ethiopia (Abyssinia), the Dervish state (present-day Somalia) and Liberia still being independent.

Ethiopia was able to decisively defeat Italy in a war and thus became the only traditional non-European empire to defeat a European army. 

China was having its own culture with strong tilt towards communism. Though  European powers established parts of coastal cities or trade ports as "concessions," which they occupied and controlled. Some, such as Shanghai, were divided into multiple European concessions. Others, like British-controlled Hong Kong, were fully absorbed into the European empires. This is why China is labelled as partially dominated by Europe.