History 1401 Final Exam

Cecil Rhodes

-"De Beers Company" Diamond Industry -South Africa Rhodes University -Rhodes Scholarship -Northern and Southern Rhodesia -His desire was for Britain to control from the Cape to Cairo -Monopoly of diamonds in Africa Significance: In the context of what has been called the Scramble for Africa, Rhodes was one of the most significant and influential promoters of Britain's imperial interests. Rhodes was responsible, among myriad accomplishments over the course of his life, for conceiving the Cape to Cairo Railway. He thought the British were destined to rule other peoples, for whose rights he had little concern. Africans and many others, however, have benefited from the Rhodes Scholarship which he founded, despite an originally racist assumption. He believed that British power could make war an impossibility, since Britain would police the world.

Dependency

-Dependency (Theory) - Grunder Franks -Dependency theory is the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former -The economic structures that were developed during european contact was one that African societies were meant to be the producers of raw materials --> made it much more difficult for africans to produce their own products -They can not process their own goods and sell it other places because of trade barriers (tariffs) -export of raw materials -"How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" - Walter Rodney, described an Africa that had been consciously exploited by European imperialists, leading directly to the modern underdevelopment of most of the continent. Significance: The rich were getting richer and the poor, poorer. The theory came as a critical reaction to the conventional approaches to economic development that emerged in the aftermath of World War II

Assimilation

-French policy of assimilation = Intended to make West Africans into Black French people -Portuguese assimilation = very exploitative / between 1930 ad 1960 the white settler population rose from 30,000 to 250,000 / exploited and oppressed the Africans / introduced new laws /Leopold in the Congo administered the territory as his personal possession / forced labor Significance: Some (the French) tried to assimilate Africans into their own culture and make them educated French people while others (Portuguese) took advantage of the Africans and passed laws in their own favor.

Atlantic Slave Trade

-Largest forced migration in History -Late 15th through the 19th centuries -Globalization by trade -Pushed by economics -Triangular trade (Americas->Europe->Africa) -Notion of humans as property - Associated with capitalism -Middle Passage --> transport of people from Africa to N & S Americas (15 million made it alive) -Pushed by single commodity - SUGAR Significance: -Slavery changed from war criminals or people in debt that were still incorporated into the community and would eventually lose "slave status" to owning people as eternal property -Walter Rodney wrote "How the Slave Trade Underdeveloped Africa"

Micronationalism

-Late 19th century as Europeans settle the scramble (1914) -After the Berlin Conference when europeans started establishing themselves in Africa - Africans started rebelling -Early form of nationalism -in Asante -->small scale forms of resistance to Europeans -Often referred to as traditional nationalism, it was led by the pre-twentieth-century African traditional political elite, who sought to prevent the penetration of European powers into their territories. -The resistance movements of this period were expressed both violently and non-violently or diplomatically Significance:The leaders of these movements challenged the European conquest and sought to prevent the colonization of their societies. In this manner, Africans were expressing a strong sense of nationalism—loyalty to their nations, nation-states, and, sometimes, ethnicities. However, some Africans accepted the Europeans for pragmatic reasons.

Battle of Andowa

-March 1, 1896 -Stunning victory for Ethiopia but a disaster for Italy -Ethiopian forces under leadership of Emperor Menelik II -The success of Ethiopia's forces assured that Ethiopia would be the only African country successfully to resist European colonization before 1914 Significance: Only African nation to keep their independence while the scramble was going on = beacon throughout African Diaspora. Sealed the unification of Ethiopia and solidified Menelik's title of Emperor.

Legitimate Trade

-Slave trade --> Legitimate commerce -Slave trafficking became outlawed (abolition of the slave trade) -Replaced trade after the Atlantic Slave trade -Legitimate = non slave Significance: It was legally accepted both by africans and europeans and it was beneficial to both sides.

Scramble for Africa

1875 - Onward - Following the Berlin Conference on Africa (1884-1885), European powers (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain) began occupying and restructuring the African continent -The period coincided with the abolition of the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the development of commodity trade now required for Europe's expanding industries -By the end of the nineteenth century, the European powers had divided Africa, and most African nations had lost their sovereignty Significance: Broke up Africa and created the states we see today. Also a source of rivalry between the european powers