The Scramble for Africa, c. 1870-1914

World – Decolonisation in Africa

In this course, Professor Hakim Adi (University of Chichester) explores Africa’s colonisation by European powers, colonial rule and resistance in Africa, and the process of decolonisation after the Second World War. In the first module, we think about how and when Africa was colonised, focusing particularly on the period in the late-nineteenth century known as the “Scramble for Africa”. The second module looks at the consolidation of colonial rule on the continent after the First World War and the emergence of reformist political opposition up to c. 1930. In the third module, we consider the development of more radical anti-colonial movements from the 1930s, stimulated by global economic decline, the growth of class-based politics in Africa, and the rise of fascism in Europe. The fourth module examines the post-Second World War period in which most African states achieved independence, looking at how the consequences of the War undermined European colonial rule and questioning the framing of this process as “decolonisation”. We conclude with a fifth module on the more violent struggles to rid Africa of its last remaining settler colonial systems in the second half of the twentieth century.

The Scramble for Africa, c. 1870-1914

In this module, we think about the colonisation of much of Africa by European powers, particularly during the period known as “the Scramble for Africa” in the late-nineteenth century. We focus on: (i) industrialisation as the major driver of the Scramble, with colonisation the consequence of Europeans’ desire to access new markets and raw materials; (ii) the earlier penetration of the continent from the fifteenth century, notably by Britain and Portugal, through groups like missionaries and traders; (iii) wider motivations for European colonisation of Africa, such as increased demand for products like palm oil; (iv) the Berlin Conference of 1884-85, which established the bases for the division of the continent between the European powers; (v) African resistance to European conquest and the reasons it generally failed to prevent colonisation, most importantly the European powers’ access to superior military technology.