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- Social Studies for ECLPE Y2 SB File Uploaded 2/11/21, 14:01
UNIT 13 ROLE OF THE AGENTS OF THE COLONIAL CONQUEST, EUROPEAN DOMINATION AND THE EXPLOITATION OF AFRICA IN THE19TH CENTURY
Key Unit competence: The student-teacher should be able to discuss the
role of agents of colonial conquest and to analyze the
European domination, exploitation in Africa and itsconsequences in the 19th century.
13.1.1. Colonial agents
Colonization is a practice in which a powerful country rules a weaker one
and establishes its own trade and culture over it. Colonial agent refers to a
person who acts on behalf of another. It can also mean a person who obtains
and provides information for the government in a certain area in secret. In the
history of African colonization, colonial agents refer to the various groups of
Europeans who came into Africa from 1884 in order to pave way for colonization
of Africa. Colonial agents in Africa included missionaries, Explorers and
traders (Chartered Companies).
Most of these agents were sent to Africa by various organizations:
-- the Royal Geographical Society (RGs) sent explorers
-- the London Missionary Society and Church Missionary Society (CMS) sent
missionaries to various parts of Africa
-- the Royal Niger Company (RNC), German East Africa Company (GEAC),
British South African Company (BSAC), the Imperial British East African
Company (BEAC) and among others operated as Chartered Companies
representing their home governments in different African countries.
13.1.2 The role of colonial agents in colonization of Africa
These agents were always received with open hands by African chiefs they met
but later they led activities to collapse Africa’s political independence.
i. The role of explorers in colonization of Africa
The verb to explore means to discover, to move far with a purpose of discovery.
Therefore, explorers were people who came from Europe to discover more
about man and universe in which man lived. Moreover, Exploration is the act
of searching or travelling around terrain (including space) for discovering
resources or information.
Explorers played a very important role towards the colonization process
and perhaps without their colonial powers would have faced more serious
problems than the ones faced in Africa. They provided important geographical
information about the African continent. For example, John Speke discovered
the source of River Nile, Krapf reached mountain Kenya. Such information
greatly helped the later groups which came in Africa.
Explorers mapped out the African interior and located on them areas with rich
economic potentials, hospitable tribes as well as those which were hostile. For
example, while in East Africa, Doctor David Livingstone sent several maps to
London showing locations of caravan routes, Lakes and major rivers of Southern
Tanganyika. The maps provided greatly helped future European agents.
Explores established initial good working relations with African communities
they came into contact with. This greatly simplified the work of other colonial
agents like Christian missionaries and Chartered Companies. For example,
through H.M. Stanley, the Kabaka Mutesa of Buganda called upon Christian
missionaries and Chartered companies.
Explorers also provided relevant information about the rich economic potentials
of Africa which inspired Europeans colonialists to come and colonize Africa.
ii. The role of missionaries in the colonization of Africa
Missionaries refer to a group of people who leaved their home country
and move elsewhere to preach their religious belief to other people. The
missionaries that came in Africa included: Church missionary society, Roman
Catholic missionaries, Lutherans, Universities mission to central Africa (UMCA),
Orthodox missionaries, Holy ghosts from Zanzibar, The White Fathers etc.
Missionaries always invited their home governments for assistance in case of
any resistance from local African communities. This was always looked at as
only way of being assured of safety. However, in the end such societies were
colonized.
Each colonial power sent missionaries in areas where she had great economic
interests. In such circumstances, missionary groups worked for betterment
of their home countries and in this way were indirectly paving way for the
colonization process in Africa.
Missionaries always softened the hearts of their Christian converts to the
extent that they could hardly resist colonial rule. The wonderful preaching
and teachings from the bible as well as the use of threads sometimes turned
the young converts into good collaborating agents of colonial powers thus
missionaries cannot escape blame for having laid the foundation of colonial
rule in Africa.
In some cases, Missionaries also worked side by side with African chiefs as
secretaries and advisors. In such special circumstances, missionaries would
later ill-advised African chiefs to sing treaties whose details they could not
understand and in order for them to remain protected, they always called fortheir home governments.
Missionaries also promoted legitimate trade in order to protect their economic
interest of their governments that sent them. This greatly strengthened and
promoted the colonization of Africa.
In some areas missionaries also contributed to internal divisions and weakening
of some African societies, for example Buganda people were divided along
religious lives that caused religious wars between Catholics and Protestants to
finish off the war and colonize Uganda.
More to this, in Uganda missionaries financed other colonial agents most
especially the Imperial British East African Company to continue operating for
more years because they were promoting the interests of Britain as a colonial
power.
iii. The role of Chartered Companies in the colonization of Africa
Chartered companies were trading companies that were sent by European
countries to come and trade in Africa. They started signing treaties, occupying
areas of influence, laying down the initial infrastructure that facilitated colonial
administrative policies; they abolished slave trade, identified economic viable
areas for economic exploitation, from their home government that led to
European colonization.
The various Chartered Companies that operated in Africa included:
-- Imperial British East African Company (IBEACO),
-- The Germany East African Company (GEACO),
-- The British South African Company (BSACO),
-- The Royal Niger Company (RNCO), etc.
Trading companies played a significant role towards the colonization process
in the following ways:
-- They financed the administration of the countries in which they operated
on behalf of their countries in which they operated on behalf of their home
governments and by doing so, they saved such government the burden of
unnecessary financial expenditure.
-- Chartered companies also provided the skilled manpower for the
administration of colonies as reluctant to take over direct responsibility.
-- The companies used their authority to help in the effective abolition of
slave trade. For example, the IBEACO destroyed the Coastal Arab Slave
trade centers and much as the Arabs tried to put up a resistance theywere defeated thus promotion of legitimate trade.
-- Chartered companies also developed several infrastructures on behalf
of European colonial governments, for example, they financed the
construction of medical centers and administrative posts. In Uganda the
IBEACO financed the surveying of the main route of the Uganda railway.
-- Chartered Companies also signed treaties of friendship with the local
leaders of the areas in which they operated on behalf of their colonial
governments they represented. Such treaties were used by colonial
powers to claim for the rightful ownership and or occupation.
-- More to that chartered Companies created security organs on behalf of
their home governments. For example, in Kenya and Uganda, the Imperial
British Company had its private army that comprised of Sudanese, Arabs,
and Swahili and Ganda soldiers. This same force was used by the British
to maintain internal stability.
-- They collaborated with the Missionaries to defeat African resistance wars.
-- They encouraged their home governments to carry out effectiveoccupation of the colonies.
Colonial Methods of African Exploitation also known as Colonial economic
policies were mechanisms introduced by European colonial masters in Africa
order to ensure effective exploitation of Africa’s natural resources for their
economic gains.
i. Taxation
It was the main method of generating revenue for supporting colonial
administration. The commonest were the hut and gun taxes. The method of
collection was brutal and harsh, and often caused resistance wars. For instance,
the Hut Tax War of 1898 in Sierra Leone.
Taxation was also important to force Africans either to grow cash crops or to
work on European farms. This was because in order to get money for paying
taxes these were the only possible alternatives. In some areas like the Congo
Free State and Angola, taxes were paid in form of natural products and animals.
Failure to pay taxes in these areas would lead to confiscation of property and
sometimes mutilation.
ii. Forced cash crop growing
To meet the primary demand for colonisation of Africa, cash crop growing had
to be boosted. Some crops like rubber were grown traditionally; some were
grown such as pyrethrum by Europeans while others like coffee and cotton
were grown by Africans under the supervision of Europeans. These cash crops
were needed to supply raw material to industries in Europe.
Europeans did not encourage the production of food. Forced labour undermined
the production of food crops. This led to famine in African societies which
had been traditionally self-sufficient in food. The African economies were
developed as producers of raw materials in form of cash crops and minerals,
and as consumers of European manufactured goods.
iii. Forced labour
Africans were forced to work on European farms, mines and construction sites
of colonial offices and roads. Their labour was either paid cheaply or not paid at
all. In the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique there was a unique
form of forced labour called contract labour. Africans were rounded up and
taken to Principle and Sao Tome to work in sugar cane plantations.
Due to this forced labor, African societies experienced famine. A lot of time was
spent on work for Europeans.
iv. Land alienation
This was the most evil form of exploitation of natural resources. Africans in
settler colonies were hit hardest by this practice, for example in Kenya, South
Africa, Rhodesia, Algeria, Angola and Mozambique. In some areas of Africa,
Africans were forced to settle in reserve camps leaving fertile and mineralized
plots of lands to Europeans. This policy caused resistance in many areas of
Africa.
In Rwanda, the church alienated huge chunks of land to build churches, schools
and people were forced out of their land.
v. Development of legitimate trade.
After realizing the benefits of slave trade and its abolition, they introduced
legitimate trade. This form of trade is said to have brought peace and stability
as it eliminated the raids and suffering caused by slave trade.
Legitimate trade was monopolized by Europeans who transferred all the profits
to their countries. They paid low prices for African products and highly priced
their exports to Africa. Worse still, the legitimate trade involved the exchange of
high valued African products like gold, copper, diamonds, cotton, coffee, rubber,
and palm oil among others. Exports to Africa included beads, used clothes,
bangles, spices and glassware.
In Rwanda, the European trader named Borgraved’Altena purchased cows at
very low prices so as to supply beef to the colonialists.
vi. Discouraged industrialization
To control the monopoly for trade in raw materials and market for their
manufactured goods in Africa, Europeans extremely discouraged manufacturing
industries. In Egypt, Lord Cromer established processing plants for cotton lint
while cotton cloth production was done in Britain.
In Senegal, the French never set up any industries to the extent that even
groundnuts were exported in the shells. Only primary processing industries
were set up to reduce the volume of raw materials. The prices for raw materials
were very low while the manufactured goods from Europe were sold at high
prices. Thiswas a clear indication of colonial exploitation.
vii. Development of road and railway transport
To support legitimate trade, road and railway transport networks were
established. These networks connected the interior of African colonies to the
coast.
Roads were mainly established in areas rich in resources where colonialists
had direct gains. The main purpose was to facilitate the effective exploitationof raw materials.
In Togo, Germany constructed railway lines and named them according to the
produce they were meant to carry such as Cotton line, Palm oil line and Iron
line.
In Rwanda, the railway project planned by the Germans from Dares-Salaam via
Tabora to Rusumo stopped because of the first World war.
viii. Education system
The colonial education system was controlled by Christian missionaries. In
the colonial schools, Africans were trained to serve as lower cadres, known as
“colonial auxiliaries”. The main products of these schools best suited the posts
of houseboys, house girls and clerks. They could not make engineers, doctors
and other professional careers. The colonial education system produced people
who liked European ways of life. As a result, they exploited fellow Africans.
In Rwanda, education was exclusively given to the sons of chiefs. In French,
Portuguese and Italian colonies education was used for assimilation purposes.
Liberal subjects such as, political science, literature and history were neglected
in order to keep Africans away from forming revolutionary movements against
colonialists. To colonialists, the best subjects fit for Africans were bible study,reading and writing of languages.
European domination and exploitation has caused different socio-economic
and political impacts on Africa. Both positive and negative effects are described
below.
13.3.1. Economic impact/effects
i. Positive effects
-- The colonial government improved the colony infrastructure: roads,
bridges, ports, etc.,
-- They introduced cash crops: tea, coffee, and sisal, cocoa, Cotton, etc.,
-- Colonization increased the value of land, because it could be sold at a high
rate,
-- Colonization increased Legitimate trade,
-- Colonization introduced money that facilitated the exchange (cash
economy),
-- Colonization introduced modern technology where people started using
machines.
ii. Negative effects
-- Roads built helped colonialists to exploit African resources not to develop
Africa,
-- Regions that had no resources were ignored,
-- To avoid competition, colonialists discouraged the development of
industries in Africa,
-- African artisans stopped pottery, basketry etc.,
-- Colonial rule neglected food crops and emphasized on cash crops which
caused famine in some part of Africa,
-- The commercialization of land led to illegal sell of communal lands which
led to poverty and social conflict,
-- Colonialists monopolized external trade,
-- Economic exploitation of Africa: minerals (gold, diamond, etc.), land and
labor,
-- The death of many people working in mining and plantations of Europeans
in Africa.
13.3.2. Social effects
i. Positive effects
-- Urbanization was accelerated across all African countries,
-- Introduction of modern medicine to fight tropical diseases: malaria,
typhoid, etc.,
-- Introduction of hospitals, clinics, sanitary equipment, etc.,
-- The spread of Christianity and western education in Africa. They trained
the first African elite,
-- They introduced new languages: French, English, Latin, Portuguese etc.,
-- Abolition of slave trade and introduction of legitimate trade,
-- Introduction of western culture: cloths, buildings, houses, etc.
ii. Negative effects
-- Rural-urban migration and associated problems like prostitution.
-- Hostility between Africans and Europeans because these foreigners had
occupied fertile lands of the natives.
-- Africans identity and civilization disappeared with colonization.
-- Division of Africans due to divide and rule policy.
-- Uneven distribution of social services: they were established only for
white minority.
-- In education, the curricula did not meet the need of Africans.
-- Neglect women social status: women were excluded in some jobs like
mining.
-- Racial discrimination promoted by the white settlers.
-- Land alienation: fertile land was occupied by European settlers.
-- Colonization created a new class of intellectual which conflicted with
illiterate people.
-- Many people were killed during the war of conquest.
13.3.3. Political impacts
i. Positive impact
-- The colonialism created peace and stability in some areas because
expansionist wars ended.
-- It created independent states in Africa: there are more than 50 states in
Africa.
-- Colonialism introduced new institutions like high courts in judiciary
system.
-- Europeans introduced new administrative structure. E.g. province,
district, sector, cell.
-- Colonialism gave birth to African nationalism and Pan Africanism.
ii. Negative impacts.
-- Colonization was oppressive, discriminative and exploitative.
-- Colonialists divided Africa without considering tribal boundaries. For
example, the Bakongo scattered in Angola, DRC, Gabon.
-- It weakened indigenous system of government where Europeans replaced
African chiefs.
-- The colonization created the idea that public property belongs to the
colonialists not the people and that idea is still there.
-- The Europeans created a permanent army that caused insecurity after
decolonization of Africa.
-- Loss of independence; Africa lost the sovereignty and freedom. They lostcontrol of their own affairs.
