English Colonialism in Africa

European colonialism in general started in the outgoing 15th century, when portugese and spanish soldiers  searched for a way to bypass italian and arabic middlesmen in the trade with India. The Spanish went westwards, whereas the Portugese aimed to surround the black continent, the least known continent of the Old World. That was successfully attained by Bartolomé Diaz, who discovered the most southern point of Africa, the "Cape of Good Hope" in 1487.

There were no english ambitions in Africa until the end of the 18th century, when the British annexed  Sierra Leone and, in 1795, the Cape Colony. Hitherto british presence, and european in general, was limited to some Slave Trade and the import of such goods as Ivory, Timber, Gold or Pepper, and that trade led to the todays names of westafrican coasts, and did not interfere with local power balances.

That situation changed, when the Anti-Slavery-Movement won decisively over the supporters of the system, and so european governments were forced to prohibit the slave trade. The movement was headed by the British who imposed very high penalties on caught slave-traders in 1807.

The first eight decades of the 19th century in Africa were marked by missionary and scientific activities, such as those of of Dr. Livingstone, who crossed as a missionary the whole continent, causing an 
immense public interest in Britain. In his last years, Dr. Livingstone vanished without a trace in the Abessinian plateau, where he wanted to solve the mystery of the Nile sources, so a british newspaper 
sent an american journalist, H.M. Stanley to find him, what he did, but whereas he expected an ill man happy about the support, Livingstone stayed cool and was only hoping to get money for his next 
expedition on which he died, without having achieved the aim of finding the Moon Mountains, which were supposed to be the source of the Nile. But until the eighties of that century, most parts of Africa still 
were not touched by the Europeans, vast areas have been totally unknown. In 1882 the British invaded Egypt, because a revolt there against the bey, the egyptian suzerain, had caused the break-down of 
british financial control. The British established thereby the first colony, laying the Cape Colony apart, though they did not rule the country "de jure" but only "de facto".

 The next year, Africans stroke back. In the Sudan, hitherto under Anglo-Egyptian rule, emerged the Mahdi-Empire, an islamistic state, whose leader considered himself as enlightened from Allah. He was a clever politician and within few months, almost every tribe south of Dongola and north of Lado along the Nile followed him. In 1885 the Mahdi took the sudanic capital Khartum after a 2 years siege.

He expelled the British for 14 years, by defeating 10000 well equiped british soldiers near the oasis of "el Obei". The Mahdi tried tointermediate between Islam and Christianity and was seeking recognition 
of european powers, what he never achieved.

But in 1898, the British returned under general Kitchener and defeated the army of the Khalifa, the successor of the Mahdi in the battle of Obdurman.

Kitchener did not have any mercy with the defeated, executed thousands, robbed the Gold from 
the grave of the Mahdi and sent his skull to queen Victoria (he wanted her to make a pocale out of the skull...).

The real run of the european powers for Africa was iniciated in 1884 at the Berlin conference, because every nation feared that teir rivals would annex vast territories of high economic interests.

France advanced from northwestern Africatowards southeast, dreaming of an empire linking the Atlantic  Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, whereas british interest merely  was concentrated in the east, although Britain possessed as well such economically important colonies as the Gold Coast, today's Ghana, or Nigeria.

The british premier Salisbury wanted a territory from the Cape of Good Hope to Egypt, not because of economic reasons, but to secure the flank in the british back of their control over India, which was  threatened by the Germans in German East Africa and France.

In 1898, after the british occupation in the Sudan, it came to a clash between british and french forces at Fashoda, causing a crisis in the motherlands, which almost led to war, but finally both powers agreed to  divide disptuted territory. This agreement improved the relationship and can be counted as the  basis for the anglo-french alliance in World War I.

In the conclusion of the Berlin Conference it was also passed the resolution that for a rightful claim it was necessary to guarantee the supply for european settlersand military protection, so there was an immense scramble for Africa to seize every tiny territory not yet claimed by another power.

  Despite all those theoretical partitions colonialization until the thirities of our century was reduced to 
some military power and, to a certain extend, collecting taxes. To be able to keep their colonies, the 
British had to play one tribe off against the other and grant local suzerains many liberties, or their 
colonies would have been blown away immediately.

The most important aim of Britain was, laying of course the trade aside, was to establish auto-sufficient  colonies, what means able to support themselves, and to develop functionating economies being able to 
  pay for expenditures in the wars in Africa, which were necessary to overcome the local suzerains, who opposed the new british rule, for the House of Common was not willing to spend too much money on Africa.

But even at that time Africa was ruled mostly by Africans, there were native courts and until the 1920's many Africans did not even have to pay taxes.

After Word War I, Britain gained German East Africa, finally linking Egypt with the south, although the  former Cape Colony had become the independant "Union of South Africa".

During the war, revenues gained from the colonies outgrewthe needs of law and order, so schools were  built and, in british colonies as well universities, creating a new generation of young educated Africans, able to develop own political ideas.

In 1930 the idea of the Commonwealth was formulated in the Statue of Westminster, although at that 
time, Britain did not want to include african colonies in it - but nevertheless the process of 
decolonialization began.

Between the wars, Britain started to build railways in Africa for easier and faster supply, so that the  railway map of 1930 is almost identical with today's and around 1930, they also constructed deep-water  harbours, capable of keeping pace with the trade.

During World War II, economy in the british colonies exploded, for example in Northern Rhodesia,  exports were ninefolded and revenue even twentyfolded, turning Africa's Cinderella into one of the 
richest territories.

After the war it became possible for the richer colonies to embark on ambitious development schemes 
from which they knew they could, to some extend, finance from their own ressources, such as employing doctors and welfare workers, constructing better water supplies and above all many more and better  schools.

But to be able to realize that, they had to employ european specialists, who were only willing to go to  Africa, when they got high salaries, houses, generous travel allowances and so on, so african money  disappeared into european pockets.

Nevertheles, although the african colonies could employ these large amounts of specialists, they were 
still very poor for european standarts or even asian standarts and too dependant on british economy, so  Britain invested billions of pounds to enable a more self-sufficient economy there.

From 1950 onwards, British colonies could not be detained to get independant, a goal that, laying again South Africa apart, only Egypt could achieve before World War II.

After the war, natives began rioting one one after the other colony fell of. Sudan in 1956, followed by  Nigeria in 1960 and all the other colonies between 1960 and 1968.

Achieving independence often was not very helpful to the colonies. The economy still was dependent on Britain and old rivalries between the tribes began to break up again, covering the continent under bloody  civil wars, which continue until now.

South Africa

The Cape Colony originally was founded in 1602 by the Dutch as an outpost to ensure the safety of the Indiamen on their way to Indonesia.

During the eighteenth century more and more settlers began to move inlands, living there on hunting or 
as cattle-farmers - these farmer were called the Trekboers or Afrikaners.

In 1795 the Cape Colony passed to Britain for the Netherlands had been occupied by Napoleon. For the Boers, british rule did not mean a significant change until 1825, when the british Parliament passed a law 
to protect the interests of the native peoples, whose rights had been hitherto ignored, elements of  democracy were introduced. That alone did not have major impact on the Boers but in 1836 it was 
decided to return the frontiersland to the Bantu people, taking away land of Boer farmers, so the Boers organized own communities on Afrikaner principles. In 1839 the Boers proclaimed the republic of Natal, which was retaken by british troops in 1845.

Only few years later the Boers proclaimed Transvaal and the Orange Free State, whose independence 
was recognized by Britain in 1852, 1854 respectively. But both states lacked a viable economy, whereas the Cape Colony's wealth was rapidly increasing as a consequence of diamond mining and in 1872 Britain granted the Colony internal self-government.

In 1886 vast gold deposits were found at the border between Transvaal and the Cape Colony and a 
conflict arose between Paul Kruger, who aimed the creation of a white South Africa under Boer 
leadership and Cecil Rhodes , who envisaged a federation of South Africa with Boer Briton and even Bantu people living in closer harmony.

Rhodes annexed Botswana and Rhodesia to surround the Boers and to cut them off supplies, but with all the gold, Kruger could build a railway to the portugese colony of Moçambique, so military conflict was inevitable.

In 1896 Rhodes inicited the Jameson Raid in Transvaal, an attempt to overthrow Kruger. But it failed 
and Rhodes was politicallyruined and replaced by Sir Alfred Milner, who had to leed the bloody Boer 
wars from 1899 to 1902 in which the British erected the first real concentration camps in history. In 1902, the Boers sought peace, South Africa was reunited again.

In 1906, when Britain got a liberal government, autonomy was granted to the ex-Boer Republics but in 
the constitutions of Transvaal and the Orange Free State enfranchised only white men.

In 1910, the Cape Colony, Transvaal and the Orange Free State formed the Union of South Africa, a "de facto" independent statewho had the status of a "Dominion" and soon the Union was dominated by Boer  principles and the rest of South Africa's history should be commonly known.