Imperialism in Africa and India
Egypt and northern Africa
Mohammed Ali
Suez Canal
Ferdinand de Lesseps
British protectorate
British expand up the Nile
Bantus, Boers, & British in South
Africa
Ethnic majority
Boers – farming/ranching
The Boer War, 1899-1902
‘Apartheid’
Cecil Rhodes and Rhodesia
“from the Cape to Cairo”
Gold and Diamond mines
The machine gun
Maxim – 650 rounds p. min
‘Battle of Omdurman’
28 v. 11,000
Indirect v. Direct rule
 British tended to use indirect
 Relatively little investment, use local elites and political
systems to run the daily affairs
 Mother country had top-level administrator, and military, to
tell colony what to do for mom’s benefit (taxes, products)
 African rules for Africans, European rules for Europeans
 French tended to use direct
 French administrator (governor) and many bureaucrats
down to local commissioners to deal with local officials
 French tried to assimilate natives into French culture
Legacies of Imperialism
 European need for boundaries and
maps

Berlin Conference of 1886

Ignored tribal rivalries
 African nationalism

‘new class’ of elites, sometimes
educated at Western schools,
confused by hypocrisy of rulers

“White Man’s Burden” – racism

Ceiling for how far an African
could advance in colonial system
India – British East India Co.
Sepoy Mutiny - 1857
Power transferred to Crown
 Benefits of British rule

Order and stability

Education

Railroads, telegraph, mail

End to brutal traditions
 Costs of British rule

Economic – most money
went to British, few Indians

Decline of native crops,
increase in cotton production,
become dependent on Britain