Question

Explain the process of colonization in Africa.

Answer 1

• South Africa

1. In South Africa, the British possessed Natal, Cape Colony, while the Dutch (locally known as the Boers) held the states of the Transvaal and Orange Free State.
2. In 1890, Cecil Rhodes, the Prime Minister of Cape colony encouraged British expansion to the north of the Transvaal.
3. Finally, the Boer War took place between 1899-1902, worsening the situation of the Boers. Finally the four states decide to form a union and South Africa as a state was bom in 1909.
4. The Zulu tribe represented by renowned warriors like Shaka Zulu built the largest Zulu nation in south – eastern Africa.

• Rhodesia

1. The British South Africa Company conducted an expedition. During the next ten years African opposition was crushed. White immigrants were provided with farm lands and railways, and a telegraph system developed.
2. The colony came to be known as Rhodesia under Cecil Rhodes.

• West Africa

1. The coastal states of Gold of Gold Coast became a British colony in 1854. Nigeria was used for slave trading posts on the coast.
2. Senegal became the French base in west Africa.
3. Leopold II of Belgium conquered Congo which was taken over by Belgian government in 1908.

• East Africa

1.  In 1886, the possessions of the Sultan of Zanzibar were divided into British and German spheres of influence.
2. In 1895 the British government assumed authority and formed the East African Protectorate, which included Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar.
3. The German East Africa was economically exploited and the most serious rebellion was the Maji-Maji rebellion (1905-1907).

• Portuguese Angola and Mozambique

1. Portuguese occupied these two colonies on the west and east coasts of Southern Africa.
2. The Africans were kept in conditions of slavery.

• African Rule in Liberia and Ethiopia

1. Only two countries managed to evade European colonialism – Liberia and Ethiopia.
2. Liberia was formed with early 19th Century as a home for African Blacks repatriated from America.
3. Ethiopia was ruled by the Emperor Menelik who modernised his country with the introduction of railways and electricity.