There are colonial countries in Africa. colonies in africa

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Who knows whether all the countries of Africa were once colonies or are there those that were not colonized?

Ethiopia and Liberia were never colonies.

Ethiopia is the oldest Christian country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world. Unlike other African countries, it was never colonized (although it survived the military occupation of fascist Italy in 1936-1941).

The history of Liberia as a political entity begins with the arrival of the first black American settlers - Americo-Liberians, as they called themselves, to Africa - on the coast of which they founded a colony of "free men of color" in 1822 under the auspices of the American Colonization Society . The historical roots of true Liberians define their identity, however, over time, various traditions of the indigenous peoples of Africa were borrowed, during the struggle with them for a foothold in Africa, and during the further confrontation for the expansion of territory and the subjugation of peoples.
On July 26, 1847, American settlers declared the independence of the Republic of Liberia. The settlers perceived the continent from which their ancestors were taken into slavery as the "promised land", but did not seek to join the African community. Arriving in Africa, they called themselves Americans and, both the natives and the British colonial authorities of neighboring Sierra Leone, were recognized as Americans.

In the second half of the 19th century, especially after 1885, the process of African colonization acquired such a scale that it was called the "race for Africa"; practically the entire continent (except for the remaining independent Ethiopia and Liberia) by 1900 was divided between a number of European powers: Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Portugal retained and somewhat expanded their old colonies.

The “economic civilization” of most of Africa (with the exception of the “river civilization” of the Nile Valley) took shape over thousands of years and by the time the region was colonized in the second half of the 19th century. changed very little. The basis of the economy was still slash-and-burn agriculture with hoe tillage.

Recall that this is the earliest type of farming, followed by plow farming (which, by the way, is not very widespread even at the end of the 20th century, which is hindered by the reasonable desire of local peasants to preserve a thin fertile layer of soil; a plow plowing to a fairly large depth will do more harm than good).

Farming more high level(outside the Nile Valley) was distributed only in Northeast Africa (on the territory of modern Ethiopia), in West Africa and Madagascar.

Animal husbandry (mainly cattle breeding) was auxiliary to the economy African peoples, and it became the main one only in certain areas of the mainland - south of the Zambezi River, among the nomadic peoples of North Africa.

Africa has long been known to Europeans, but it was not of great interest to them.

Reserves of precious metals were not discovered here, and it was difficult to penetrate deep into the mainland. Until the end of the XVIII century. Europeans knew only the outlines of the banks and mouths of the rivers, where trading strongholds were created and from where slaves were taken to America. The role of Africa was reflected in the geographical names that the whites gave to individual sections of the African coast: the Ivory Coast, the Gold Coast, the Slave Coast.

Until the 80s. 19th century more than 3/4 of the territory of Africa was occupied by various political entities, including

h. there were even large and strong states (Mali, Zimbabwe, etc.). European colonies were only on the coast.

And suddenly, within only two decades, all of Africa was divided among the European powers. This happened at a time when almost all of America had already achieved political independence. Why did Europe suddenly have an interest in the African continent?

The main reasons are the following

1. By this time, the mainland had already been quite well explored by various expeditions and Christian missionaries.

American war correspondent G. Stanley in the mid-70s. 19th century crossed the African continent with the expedition from east to west, leaving behind destroyed settlements. Addressing the British, G. Stanley wrote: “South of the mouth of the Congo River, forty million naked people are waiting to be dressed by the weaving factories of Manchester and equipped with tools by the workshops of Birmingham.”

By the end of the XIX century. quinine was discovered as a remedy for malaria. Europeans were able to penetrate into the depths of malarial territories.

In Europe, by this time, industry began to develop rapidly, the economy was on the rise, European countries stood on their feet. It was a period of relative political calm in Europe - there were no major wars. The colonial powers showed amazing "solidarity", and at the Berlin Conference in the mid-80s. England, France, Portugal, Belgium and Germany divided the territory of Africa among themselves. The borders in Africa were "cut" without taking into account the geographical and ethnic characteristics of the territory.

At present, 2/5 of African state borders run along parallels and meridians, 1/3 - along other straight lines and arcs, and only 1/4 - along natural boundaries, approximately coinciding with ethnic boundaries.

By the beginning of the XX century. all of Africa was divided among the European metropolises.

The struggle of the African peoples against the invaders was complicated by internal tribal conflicts, in addition, it was difficult to resist Europeans armed with perfect rifled weapons with spears and arrows. firearms invented by that time.

The period of active colonization of Africa began.

Unlike America or Australia, there was no massive European immigration here. Throughout the African continent in the XVIII century. there was only one compact group of immigrants - the Dutch (Boers), numbering only 16 thousand people.

chel ("Boers" from the Dutch and German word "bauer", which means "peasant"). And even now, at the end of the 20th century, in Africa, the descendants of Europeans and children from mixed marriages make up only 1% of the population (This includes 3 million Boers, the same number of mulattos in South Africa and one and a half million immigrants from Great Britain).

Africa has the lowest level of socio-economic development compared to other regions of the world.

For all major indicators of economic development and social sphere the region occupies the position of a world outsider.

The most pressing problems of humanity are most relevant for Africa. Not all of Africa scores so low, but a few more fortunate countries are only "islands of relative prosperity" in the midst of poverty and acute problems.

Maybe Africa's problems are due to complex natural conditions, a long period of colonial rule?

Undoubtedly, these factors played a negative role, but others also acted along with them.

Africa belongs to the developing world, which in the 60s and 70s.

showed high rates of economic, and in some areas and social development. In the 80s and 90s. problems sharply escalated, the rate of economic growth decreased (production began to fall), which gave reason to conclude: "The developing world has stopped developing."

However, there is a point of view that involves the allocation of two close, but at the same time heterogeneous concepts: "development" and "modernization".

Development in this case refers to changes in the socio-economic sphere caused by internal causes that lead to the strengthening of the traditional system without destroying it. Did the process of development proceed in Africa, its traditional economy?

Of course yes.

In contrast to development, modernization is a set of changes in the socio-economic (and political) sphere caused by modern requirements outside world. With regard to Africa, this means expanding external contacts and its inclusion in the world system; t.

e. Africa must learn to "play by the rules of the world." Will not Africa be destroyed by this inclusion in the modern world civilization?

One-sided, traditional development leads to autarky (isolation) and lagging behind the world leaders.

Rapid modernization is accompanied by a painful breaking of the existing socio-economic structure. The optimal combination is a reasonable combination of development and modernization, and most importantly - a gradual, phased transformation, without catastrophic consequences and taking into account local specifics.

Modernization has an objective character, and one cannot do without it.

Colonies in Africa

The history of Africa has 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 mankind.

And it is not surprising that many people were drawn to this continent and returned, sometimes as explorers, missionaries, 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 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: Holland, Belgium, Germany.

The greatest peak of colonialism in Africa came in the 19th century, here interesting fact: at the beginning of the century before last, only 10% of African territories were European colonies, but at its end, 90% (!) African lands were already European colonies. Only two African countries managed to maintain full independence: Ethiopia and Eastern Sudan.

All the other countries were under someone'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 was also not opposed to 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 right up to Moscow.

Although further military defeats by Napoleon reduced the influence of France in North Africa, Egypt did, in the end, go to the British.

The Portuguese, thanks to their brave sailors and cartographers, were the first to reach West Africa, where they entered into numerous contacts with the local population and founded their colonies, Angola, a huge African country, whose area is several times larger than the area of ​​small Portugal, became the largest Portuguese colony in West Africa. .

The British also did not catch crows, and in addition to Egypt, they founded many colonies, both in West and East and South Africa.

Subsequently, representatives of other European states: the Germans managed to capture 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).

Windhoek, Namibia

The Belgians, since by the time they appeared the African coast was already occupied by other Europeans, decided to move deep into the African continent, where they founded 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. Further, the slaves were taken to the New World for hard work on local sugar plantations.

In general, the slave trade is one of the darkest pages of African history, about which there will be a separate article on our website.

Returning to colonialism, in addition to its clearly negative consequences, there were some positive aspects.

European colonization of Africa and its consequences

So the Europeans brought a certain civilization, culture to Africa, built cities, roads, Christian missionaries went along with the soldiers 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 ​​​​(primarily English, but also French, Spanish, Portuguese, German) and other sciences.

THE DECLINE OF COLONIALISM

Everything comes to an end sooner or later, and the end came to colonialism in Africa, the decline of which began in the 60s of the last century.

It was at this time that active socio-political movements for the declaration of independence began in various African countries. Somewhere it is possible to gain independence peacefully, but somewhere it was not without armed struggle, as, for example, in Angola, where a real war of independence against Portuguese rule took place, which, however, after that turned into a civil war between Angolans who were carried away by communist ideas (the 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 impact of colonialism after its collapse was the fact that some newly created African countries contained a heterogeneous cultural and even hostile population.

Sometimes this led to real civil wars, as we say it was in Nigeria, a former English colony, where, after the declaration of independence, the Ibo and Yoruba tribes were hostile to each other in one country. But again, that's another story...

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The history of Africa is calculated for thousands of years, it is from here, according to the scientific world, that mankind originated. And here, too, many peoples returned, however, already in order to establish their dominance.

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, it was controlled by the Portuguese at the end of the 15th century, they began to actively sell slaves from the local population.

The Spaniards and Portuguese were followed by the "dark continent" and other states from Western Europe: France, Denmark, England, Spain, Holland and Germany.

As a result of this, East and North Africa came 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, the size of colonization reached more than 90% of the mainland.

What attracted the colonists? First of all, natural resources:

• wild trees of valuable species in in large numbers;
• growing a variety of crops (coffee, cocoa, cotton, sugar cane);
• gems(diamonds) and metals (gold).

The slave trade also grew.

Egypt has long been drawn into the capitalist economy on a world level. After the Suez Canal was opened, England began to actively compete, who would be the first to establish his 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 Minister of Finance, 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 establishment 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 dominate 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 Arab peasants were forced to work. Local peoples were convened 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 thanks to the rivalry of its enemies. Only after the strengthening of power in Tunisia and Algeria did France begin to subdue Morocco.

In addition to these countries in the north, Europeans began to explore South Africa. There, the British easily pushed back the local tribes (San, Koikoin) to deserted 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 to this region is timed to coincide with the discovery in the valley of the river. Orange diamond. Mines became the centers of settlements, cities were created. The 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 fully conquered, but the London Convention provided for 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, then France directed its efforts inland in order to colonize the continuous strip between the Atlantic and Indian oceans. As a result, under French rule was 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 continent, so the Congo became its colony.

Italy got some lands in northeast Africa - huge Somalia and Eritrea. And fot Ethiopia was able to repel the attack of the Italians, as a result, it was this power that was practically the only one that retained its independence from the influence of Europeans.

Only two did not become European colonies:

• Ethiopia;
• Eastern Sudan.

Former colonies in Africa

Naturally, foreign possession of 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 be liberated.

This year, 17 African countries became independent again, most of them - the former colonies in Africa of France and those that were under the control of the UN. Lost colonies in addition to this and:

• UK - Nigeria;
• Belgium - Congo.

Somalia, divided between Britain and Italy, united to form the Somali Democratic Republic.

While most Africans became independent as a result of mass desire, strikes and negotiations, wars were still waged in some countries to gain freedom:

• Angola;
• Zimbabwe;
• Kenya;
• Namibia;
• Mozambique.

The rapid liberation of Africa from the colonists has led to the fact that in many established states, geographical boundaries do not correspond to the ethnic and cultural composition of the population, and this becomes a reason for disagreements and civil wars.

And the new rulers do not always comply with democratic principles, which leads to massive dissatisfaction and the deterioration of the situation in many African countries.

Even now in Africa there are 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, the islands of Mayotte and Eparse;
• Portugal - Madeira.

Contrary to popular belief, the Europeans did not begin to conquer it from the first second of their stay on the African coast in the same way as they did in America. Africa met the first colonists with dangerous diseases, centralized states and numerous, albeit poorly 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 of the first Portuguese fort of Elmina in Africa (1482), European powers had practically no opportunity to control the deep regions of the mainland, content only with colonies on the coast and in estuaries.

Many European countries managed to participate in the colonization of the Black Continent. As the first "masters" of Africa, which was granted to 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. At the beginning of the XVI century. Ottoman Empire North Africa was invaded. 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 XVII century. had Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Brandenburg and even Courland, 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 rent land from local rulers rather than fight for it. In Africa, they were not interested in land, but primarily in goods: slaves, gold, Ivory, ebony, - and these goods could be bought relatively inexpensively or taken as tribute. In addition, in Europe at that time the belief prevailed that in the depths of the continent the climate was unbearable for white man, and it was pure truth: malaria, schistosomiasis and sleeping sickness significantly reduced the life of a European in Africa. More than others, the Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique and the Dutch colonists in South Africa advanced deeper into the continent, but on the whole 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 the island of Madagascar by Russia. 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 the grace of God, we, Peter I, are the Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, etc., etc., and so on, to the most venerable king and ruler of the glorious island of Madagascar, our congratulations.Because we deigned to send to you our vice-admiral Wilster with several officers for some business: for your sake, we ask you, in order to admit them to yourself, give free stay, and in that they will offer you in our name to give you full and perfect faith, and with such a inclined answer to let them go to us, we deigned to let you go, which we trust from you, and stay with you, friend. of the year".

As for the map of the interior of Africa before the European conquest, it is usually represented as a solid blank spot. It is easy to see that this is not so: in the middle of the XIX century. there were at least two dozen fairly developed states on the continent, 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 rifled weapons, which had huge advantages over the smoothbore 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 does not burn a person alive there, as the ancient authors believed. Finally, Europe had experienced an industrial revolution and was in dire need of new markets for manufactured goods, which were being produced at hitherto unheard-of speed and in large volumes. To start the colonial race, it was only necessary to fire the first shot. It was not the great powers that were destined to make it, but small Belgium.

This shot was fired in 1876 in Brussels, when the Belgian king Leopold II announced the creation of the African international association to promote scientific and humanitarian projects in the Congo Basin. Throughout Europe, this move was hailed as the beginning of the Belgian conquest Central Africa, and indeed it was. Having landed at the mouth of the Congo, the Belgian soldiers and the black militia armed by them headed deep into the continent, forcing the local leaders by force to sign enslaving agreements with King Leopold on an "alliance", in fact giving the land for nothing into the hands of the Europeans. Many leaders simply did not understand what they put their signature or fingerprint under. Dissenters were killed or imprisoned, uprisings were suppressed with unprecedented cruelty. Western journalists were aware of cases when militiamen hired by the king not only killed, but also ate their victims among the civilian population, especially children. In terms of its cruelty, the exploitation of the local population in the rubber plantations, mines, and road construction organized by the Belgians did not know 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 vast territory was called with terrible cynicism, was not controlled 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, and 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 took on hurricane speed. Everywhere in Africa, where it was possible to negotiate with tribal leaders or break the resistance of 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 urged each other to correct, civilized behavior, but, as always happens with the 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 coming from West Africa collided nose to nose with the English expedition of Kitchener, also busy setting flags. It took intense negotiations and numerous concessions to avoid war: the French withdrew to the south, and the Sudan withdrew into the British sphere of influence.

It cannot be said that this lightning-fast division of the continent cost the colonialists without losses. The British had to go through several bloody battles to capture the Ashanti Confederation in Ghana and the Zulu state in South Africa, and the French overcame the desperate resistance of the Fulbe Emirates and the Tuareg of Mali. For 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 become a patchwork scarf painted over with the colors of European empires, Tanganyika (the territory of present-day Tanzania) was subjugated by Germany only in 1907, and France secured control over West Africa not earlier than 1913. The liberation struggle of the Libyan tribes against the Italians continued until 1922, and the Spaniards managed to pacify the militant Berbers of Morocco only in 1926.

Independence managed to maintain only one state created by Africans - Ethiopia. AT late XIX in. the Ethiopian Negus Menelik II even managed to participate in the division of Africa, more than doubling the boundaries of his state at the expense of various tribes in the south, west and east.