The New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa
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The New Imperialism and the “White Man’s Burden”
Read SNT, Chapter 21, ―Africa, the Middle East, and Imperialism, 1750-1914,‖ 574-582, on The
Colonization and Reshaping of Sub-Saharan Africa, and respond to the following questions.
1. What was the new imperialism? How did it differ from classical European imperialism? What
technological advantages allowed gave European powers great advantages in its relations with African,
Asian and Middle Eastern nations?
2. What were the political motives for new imperialism? What were the cultural motives? What were
the economic motives?
3. How does Kipling portray non-white peoples in his poem? What images does he use? What do
you think of this portrait? By contrast, how does he describe the ―white man?‖
4. Do you think the fact the Kipling used the term ―white man’s burden‖ rather than empire made the
poem more appealing to Americans? Explain your reasoning. Do you find at all convincing Kipling’s claim
that new imperialism was undertaken for the benefit of non-white peoples?
5. Even though the Kipling poem was written in the nineteenth century, do you see any sentiments or
phrases in this poem that might help explain events in the twenty-first century?
6. What arguments could have been made on behalf of the new imperialism of the late 19th century?
Do you find any of these arguments persuasive?
7. How did the new imperialism transform its colonies in Africa, Asia and the Middle East?
Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man's Burden"
In November 1898 Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) finally finished writing "The White Man's Burden," a
poem he had been working on for quite some time. Although Kipling wrote the poem in England, once he
finished it he immediately saw its significance for the United States, which was at war with Spain and was
determined to liberate Cuba and the Philippines from Spanish rule. Immediately upon finishing the poem,
Kipling sent a copy of "The White Man's Burden" to Theodore Roosevelt, Vice President of the United States,
who, in turn, passed the poem on to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. Roosevelt advised Lodge that he considered
the verse "rather poor poetry, but good sense from the expansionist standpoint."
Take up the White Man's burden –
Send forth the best ye breed –
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild –
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden –
The savage wars of peace –
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man's burden –
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man's burden –
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper –
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
The New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa
And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Man's burden –
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard –
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light: –
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
Take up the White Man's burden –
Ye dare not stoop to less –
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
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The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.
Take up the White Man's burden –
Have done with childish days –
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers
The New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa
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Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa
Read SNT, Chapter 21, ―Africa, the Middle East, and Imperialism, 1750-1914,‖ 582-592, on The
Colonization and Reshaping of Sub-Saharan Africa, and respond to the following questions.
1. What set off the ―Scramble for Africa?‖ Why did the British send their army into Egypt? How
were the French seeking to expand their territories in Africa? What role did Belgium’s King Leopold play?
How did the 1884-85 Berlin Conference institutionalize this ―scramble?‖
2. What different strategies did Africans use to respond to the ―scramble?‖ What explains the
differences in response? Why did the Germans kill two-thirds of the Herero people in southwest Africa
[modern day Namibia]? Why among all of the Africans, only the Ethiopians successfully resisted European
imperialism?
3. How did the European colonizers benefit economically from their colonies in West Africa? What
cash crops did Africans produce for their imperial powers? Given the relative lack of profitable cash crops in
central African Congo, what did King Leopold do to secure economic profits? Why did King Leopold’s rule
result in the death of one-half of the African population in the Congo over ten years?
4. What drove British imperialism and colonization in southern Africa? What led Britain into conflict
with the African Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele and Shona peoples, and then with the Boer European settlers that had
preceded them in the region? Why did the British create the Union of South Africa? Why did European
peoples gain the upper hand in this new union? How did this dominant position create the conditions for the
eventual emergence of apartheid?
5. Why were the British colonial states in Kenya, Rhodesia [modern day Zimbabwe and Zambia] and
South Africa and the French colonial state in Algeria different than those in the rest of Africa? Do you see a
connection here between this feature and the fact that they were the last nations turned over to majority
African rule?
6. What role did missionaries play in European imperialism and colonization of Africa? What was
the connection between missionaries and the idea of a ―white man’s burden?‖
The Scramble for Africa
C.W.Newbury, British Policy Towards West Africa, II, pp.94 - 5, 298-99
British Royal Niger Company, Standard Treaty
During the Partition of Africa, African chieftains signed hundreds of treaties that effectively gave
European states or trading companies control of African lands and resources. The following document, used in
the late 1880s, is one such treaty. Representatives concluded 373 treaties, creating the basis for the British
colony of Nigeria.
Questions for analysis:
1.
What are the chieftains giving up in accepting this treaty?
2.
What benefits were the Africans to receive
3.
What does the use of the standard treaty tell us about English attitudes toward and
knowledge of the Africans?
4.
What does the treaty indicate about the motives of the British in Africa?
We, the undersigned Chiefs of _____ with the view of bettering the condition of our country and
people, do this day cede to the Royal Niger Company (Chartered and Limited), for ever, the hole of our territory
extending from _____.
We also give to the said Royal Niger Company (Chartered and Limited) full power to settle all
native disputes arising from any cause whatever, and we pledge ourselves not to enter into any war with other
tribes without the sanction of the said Royal Niger Company (Chartered and Limited).
The New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa
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We understand that the said Royal Niger Company (Chartered and Limited) have full
power to mine, farm, and build in any portion of our country.
We bind ourselves not to have any intercourse [i.e., transactions or communications] with
any strangers or foreigners except through the said Royal Niger Company (Chartered and Limited).
In consideration of the foregoing, the said Royal Niger Company (Chartered and Limited) bind
themselves not to interfere with any of the native laws or customs of the country, consistently with the
maintenance of order and good government
The said Royal Niger Company (Chartered and Limited) agree to pay native owners of land a
reasonable amount for any portion they may require.
The said Royal Niger Company (Chartered and Limited) bind themselves to protect the said
Chiefs from the attacks of any neighbouring aggressive tribes.
The said Royal Niger Company (Chartered and Limited) also agree to pay the said Chiefs _____
measures native value.
We, the undersigned witnesses, do hereby solemnly declare that the _____ Chiefs whose names
are placed opposite their respective crosses have in our presence affixed their crosses of their own free will and
consent, and that the said _____ has in our presence affixed his signature. Done in triplicate at _____ this _____
day of ______, 188_ . Declaration by Interpreter. I, _____ of _____, do hereby solemnly declare that I am well acquainted
with the language of the _____ country, and that of the _____ day of _____ , 188_ , I truly and faithfully
explained the above Agreement to all the Chiefs present, and that they understood its meaning.
Petition of the Chiefs of Brass Regarding Trade on the Niger, 1877
The shift to trade in palm oil from slavery was a mixed blessing for Africans. Producing palm oil was
arduous, labor-intensive work, involving harvesting, sorting, and boiling palm nuts, skimming off the oil, and
pouring the finished product into 36 pound tins transported by canoe to the coasts. The following document
reveals some of the problems and frustrations faced by African palm oil merchants in dealing with the British.
Sent by chiefs of Brass, a city-state on the Niger delta long involved in trade with British firms, they supplied
valued palm oil which they collected in the hinterland.
Questions for Analysis:
1.
What economic changes did the merchants of Brass experience as a result of their
dealings with the British in the nineteenth century?
2.
What specific grievances do the Brass chiefs have in their dealings with the British?
What changes in policy do they seek?
3.
How do the Brass traders perceive themselves relative to the British?
We the undersigned Kings and Chiefs of Brass, West Coast of Africa, beg and pray that you will take
our case into consideration.
Many years ago we used to make our living by selling slaves to Europeans which was stopped by your
Government and a Treaty made between you and our country that we discontinue doing go, and that we should
enter into a legitimate trade and that if we did so an allowance . . . should be paid us by the traders on all
produce bought. This we did and our trade gradually increased. We shipped ... about 4,500 to 5,000 tons of
palm oil per annum.
To do all this we had to open up place[s] on the Niger, trading Stations or markets as we call them up as
far as a place called Onitsha on the Niger. Some years ago the White men began trading on the Niger with the
The New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa
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intention of opening up this River; this did us no harm as they went up a long way farther than we could go in
their Steamers and also bought a different kind of produce to what we were buying, but lately within the last six
years they have begun putting trading Stations at our places and consequently they have stopped our trade
completely as well as of those in the Lower part of the River Niger, . . . and formerly when we sent nearly 5,000
tons of [palm] oil away we do not [now] send 1,500 per annum. This means starvation to my people as well as
Natives of the Niger under my rule. I have about 8,ooo people and there are another 8,ooo in the lower part of
the Niger suffering with me.
It is very hard this on us; in all the other rivers in the Bight . . . the markets are
secured to them and why should a difference be made for this my river. We have no land where we can grow
plantains or yams and if we cannot trade we must starve, and we earnestly beg and pray that you will take our
case into consideration. We do not want anything that is not fair, we only want the markets that we and our
money have made to be secured to us and that the white men who have had nothing to do with opening up the
Palm Oil trade shall not come and reap all our benefits.
One of the steamers has just been up the Niger and the people over whom I have no rule and who are
starving have fought with her and the white men now accuse me and my people of having done it although I
assure them I have nothing to do with it. I have asked the consul out here two or three times to write home and
lay our case before your Lordship and he has promised to do so but I have never received an answer. I can truly
say that I have never myself nor have I ever allowed my people to break the treaty we have with England nor
will I allow them to do so again [sic]. I beg that you will look into this affair for me and my people. What we
want is that the markets we have made between the river and Onitsha should be left to ourselves . . .
The Fate of the Ndebele
Pastoralists from southeastern Africa, they fled from the Zulu chieftain Shaka and were later forced off
their land by Boer trekkers. They moved yet further north, but came under pressure from the British. In 1888,
the Ndebele chieftain, Lobengula, signed an agreement with Rhodes that gave the South Africa Company
mining rights in exchange for 1,000 rifles and a monthly stipend of 100 pounds, and a promise to protect
Ndebele land from white settlement. Friction grew when European settlers began establishing farmsteads
around 1890, and war broke out in 1893. The Ndebele were defeated, and they were defeated again when they
rose up against the British in 1897. The Ndebele then made one last journey to a vast but arid reservation their
new masters provided. In this excerpt, Ndansi Kumalo, an Ndebele man, describes the rebellion of 1897.
Questions for Analysis
1.
Who was to blame for the outbreak of hostilities between the Ndebele and the British in
1893?
2.
How did conditions following the war lead to the 1897 rebellion?
3.
The condition of the Ndebele rapidly deteriorated after the suppression of the rebellion.
Why?
4.
Aside from raising revenue, what might the British have hoped to achieve by imposing,
then raising, taxes on the Ndebele?
5.
What economic changes did the Ndebele experience as a result of their subjection to the
Europeans?
6.
Do you agree with Ndansi Kumalo that the arrival of Europeans was a mixed blessing?
Why?
So we surrendered to the white people and were told to go back to our homes and live our usual lives
and attend to our crops. But the white men sent native police who did abominable things; they were cruel and
assaulted a lot of our people and helped themselves to our cattle and goats. These policemen were not our own
people; anybody was made a policeman. We were treated like slaves. They came and were overbearing and we
were ordered to carry their clothes and bundles. They interfered with our wives and our daughters and molested
The New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa
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them. In fact, the treatment we received was intolerable. We thought it best to fight and die rather than bear it.
How the rebellion started I do not know; there was no organization, it was like a fire that suddenly flames up.
We had been flogged by native police and then they rubbed salt water in the wounds. There was much bitterness
because so many of our cattle were branded and taken away from us; we had no property, nothing we could call
our own. We said, "It is no good living under such conditions; death would be better — let us fight." Our King
gone, we had submitted to the white people and they ill-treated us until we became desperate and tried to make
an end of it all. We knew that we had very little chance because their weapons were so much superior to ours.
But we meant to fight to the last, feeling that even if we could not beat them we might at least kill a few of them
and so have some sort of revenge.
I fought in the rebellion. We used to look out for valleys where the white men were likely to approach.
We took cover behind rocks and trees and tried to ambush them. We were forced by the nature of our weapons
not to expose ourselves. I had a gun, a breech-loader. They — the white men — fought us with big guns and
Maxims1 and rifles.
I remember a fight in the Matoppos when we charged the white men. There were some hundreds of us;
the white men also were as many. We charged them at close quarters: we thought we had a good chance to kill
them but the Maxims were too much for us. We drove them off at the first charge, but they returned and formed
up again. We made a second charge, but they were too strong for us. I cannot say how many white people were
killed, but we think it was quite a lot. . . . Many of our people were killed in this fight: I saw four of my cousins
shot. One was shot in the jaw and the whole of his face was blown away — like this — and he died. One was
hit between the eyes; another here, in the shoulder; another had part of his ear shot off. We made many charges
but each time we were beaten off, until at last the white men packed up and retreated. But for the Maxims, it
would have been different. . . .
So peace was made. Many of our people had been killed, and now we began to die of starvation; and
then came the rinderpest2 and the cattle that were still left to us perished. We could not help thinking that all
these dreadful things were brought by the white people. We struggled, and the Government helped us with
grain; and by degrees we managed to get crops and pulled through. Our cattle were practically wiped out, but a
few were left and from them we slowly bred up our herds again. We were offered work in the mines and farms
to earn money and so were able to buy back some cattle. At first, of course, we were not used to going out to
work, but advice was given that the chief should advise the young people to go out to work, and gradually they
went. At first we received a good price for our cattle and sheep and goats. Then the tax came. It was 10s.3 a
year. Soon the Government said, "That is too little, you must contribute more; you must pay £1."4 We did so.
Then those who took more than one wife were taxed; 10s. for each additional wife. The tax is heavy, but that is
not all. We are also taxed for our dogs; 5s. for a dog. Then we were told we were living on private land; the
owners wanted rent in addition to the Government tax; some 10s. some £1, some £2 a year. . ..
1
Invented by the American-born engineer Hiram S. Maxim, the Maxim gun was an early machine gun.
An acute infectious disease of cattle.
3
s. = shilling, one-twentieth of a pound.
4
£ = a pound.
2