Abstract
Within the last quarter of the nineteenth century the slow process of European political penetration of the African continent gave way to a scramble for colonies that resulted in a partition of all the lands south of the Sahara apart from the Republic of Liberia and Ethiopia. A materialist assessment of imperial conquest will necessarily consider how this process related to the contradictions within capitalist economy and society in Europe as well as events in Africa. For more than sixty years the terrain of discussion has been dominated by one long pamphlet, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, written during World War I by the leading figure of the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
But as for us, our Lord is Allah, our Creator and Possessor. We take what our Prophet Muhammad, (upon him be peace) brought to us.
Abd-al-Rahman, Caliph at Sokoto to the Royal Niger Company, ?1900, in R.A. Adeleye, Power and Diplomacy in Northern Nigeria (Longman, 1971), p. 335.
If I were received by the Queen,… nobody would ever think of attacking me.
Moshoeshoe of Lesotho, in Peter Sanders, Moshoeshoe, Chief of the Sotho (Heinemann, 1975), p. 318.
One thing only has checked the development of these rich regions — native misrule.
A.F. Mockler-Ferryman, ‘British Nigeria’, JAS, II (1902), p. 169.
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For a general view of imperialism by a Marxist contemporary, V.l. Lenin, Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism (International Publishers edn., 1939) remains compelling. On very similar lines, see
Nikolai Bukharin, Imperialism and World Economy (Merlin Press edn., 1971).John Hobson, Imperialism: A Study repays examination. This is also true of the work of other contemporary thinkers, such as Rosa Luxemburg. For recent critical assessments, the most significant used here are the excellent edited collection by Bob Sutcliffe and
Roger Owen, Studies in the Theory of Imperialism (Longman, 1972);
V.G. Kiernan, Marxism and Imperialism, (St Martin’s Press, 1975);
Anthony Brewer, Marxist Theories of Imperialism (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980)
and Bill Warren, Imperialism: Pioneer of Capitalism (New Left Books, 1981).
Important examples of the anti-economic (and anti-Marxist) school of imperialist historians are Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher, with Alice Denny, Africa and the Victorians (St Martin’s Press, 1961)
and David Fieldhouse, Economics and Empire 1830–1914 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973). Weighty collections generally following this Une of thought are to be found in
Prosser Gifford and William Roger Louis, eds, Britain and France in Africa and Britain and Germany in Africa (both Yale University Press, 1967 and 1971) and Lewis Gann and Peter Duignan, eds, Colonialism in Africa, already cited, Vol. I. There is a more balanced interpretation in
George Sanderson, ‘The European Partition of Africa: Coincidence or Conjuncture’, in E.F. Penrose, ed., European Imperialism and the Partition of Africa (Cass, 1975) and a novel and important analysis in A.G. Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa, already cited. For a French equivalent to the anti-Marxist British school,
see Henri Brunschwig, French Colonialism 1871–1914: Myths and Realities (Pall Mall, 1961). The diplomatic history of the scramble is surveyed in a broader context of European power politics in
W.L. Langer, European Alliances and Alignments, 1871 – 90 and The Diplomacy of Imperialism, 1890–1902 (Alfred A. Knopf, 2nd edns., 1950 and 1951).
For the material foundation of British imperialism, see Eric J. Hobsbawm, Industry and Empire (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1968) and P. J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins, The Political Economy of British Expansion Overseas, 1750 – 1914’, EHR, XXXIII, N.S. (1980). The social context is explored in
Bernard Semmel, Imperialism and Social Reform (Harvard University Press, 1960)
and Richard Price, An Imperial War and the British Working Class (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972).
On France see CM. Andrew and A.S. Kanya-Forstner, The French Colonial Party: Its Composition, Aims and Influence’, HJ, XIV (1971) and John Laffey, The Roots of French Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century: The Case of Lyon’, French Historical Studies, VI (1969/70). Colin Newbury has written several pieces on the impact of French protectionism such as The Protectionist Revival in French Colonial Trade: The Case of Senegal’, EHR, N.S. XXI (1968).
There is a large literature on the imperialism of the Second Reich. Major works include Fritz Ferdinand Müller, Deutsch-land-Ostafrika-Zanzibar (Rutten und Loening, East Berlin, 1959);
Manfred Nussbaum, Vom ‘Kolonialemthusiasmus’ zur Kolonialpolitik der Monopole (Akadamieverlag, East Berlin, 1962)
and Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Bismarck und der Imperialismus (Kiepenheuer und Witsch, 1969). Wehler’s ideas are summarised in the Owen and Sutcliffe collection and criticised in Gifford and Louis by Henry Turner.
Neal Ascherson, The King Incorporated (George Allen & Unwin, 1963) tells well the story of Leopold II; there is no general adequate history of his machinations. For the narrative of Portuguese expansion, see
Eric Axelson, Portugal and the Scramble for Africa (Witwatersrand University Press, 1967)
and R.J. Hammond, Portugal and Africa, 1815–1910 (Stanford University Press, 1966), but also the significant revision, W.G. Clarence-Smith, The Myth of Uneconomic Imperialism: The Portuguese in Angola’, JSAS, V, 1979.
Issues relating to medicine and ideology are handled in Philip Curtin, The Image of Africa (University of Wisconsin Press, 1964) and the technological aspect of expansionism
in Daniel Headrick, The Tools of Empire (Oxford University Press, 1981). There are rather flattering biographies of a number of the major African conquistadores such as Margery Perham, Lugard (Collins, 2 vols, 1956–60);
J.E. Flint, Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria (Clarendon Press, 1960)
and Roland Oliver, Sir Henry Johnston and the Scramble for Africa (Chatto & Windus, 1964). On a major business figure within British imperialism
see John S. Galbraith, Mackinnon and East Africa, 1878–95 (Cambridge University Press, 1972).
The conquest of West Africa is considered generally in John D. Hargreaves, Prelude to the Partition of Africa (Macmillan, 1963) and West Africa Partitioned: The Loaded Pause (University of Wisconsin Press, 1974);
Obaro Ikime, The Fall of Nigeria (Heinemann, 1977) and
Michael Crowder, ed., West African Resistance (Hutchinson, 1971). There is a valuable set of volumes collecting primary source material in
C.W. Newbury, British Policy Towards West Africa: Select Documents (Clarendon, 1965–71). The context of conquest in southern Nigeria is considered in: S.A. Akintoye, Revolution and Power Politics in Yorubaland, 1840–1893, cited previously; Bolanle Awe, ‘The End of an Experiment: The Collapse of the Ibadan Empire 1877–93’, JHSN, III (1965);
Walter Ofonagoro, Trade and Imperialism in Southern Nigeria, 1881–1929 (Nok, 1979);
S.J.S. Cookey, King Jaja of the Niger Delta (Nok, 1974) and A.E. Afigbo, ‘Patterns of Igbo Resistance to British Conquest’, Tarikh, IV (1973). A.G. Hopkins, ‘Economic Imperialism in West Africa: Lagos 1880–92’, EHR, N.S., XXI (1968) is of seminal importance. The lands to the west of Lagos, including Dahomey, are the subject of
C.W. Newbury, The Western Slave Coast and its Rulers (Clarendon Press, 1961). For northern Nigeria the main study of the conquest is
Roland Adeleye, Power and Diplomacy in Northern Nigeria, 1804–1906 (Longman, 1971). For the conquest of contemporary Ghana see Adu Boahen, ‘Politics in Ghana, 1800–74’ in Ajayiand Crowder, History of West Africa, II, cited already
and Thomas Lewin, Asante Before the British; the Prempean Years, 1875–1900 (Regents Press of Kansas, 1978). Some of the economic context emerges from Kwame Arhin, ‘Ashanti Rubber Trade in the 1890s’, Africa, XLII (1972) and Raymond Dumett, ‘The Rubber Trade of the Gold Coast and Asante in the Nineteenth Century’, XII (1971).
Considerations of the French intrusion in West Africa are in A.S. Kanya-Forstner, The Conquest of the Western Sudan (Cambridge University Press, 1969);
Martin Klein, Islam and Imperialism in Senegal (Stanford University Press, 1968), Germaine Ganier, ‘Lat Dyor et le chemin de fer arachide’, BIFAN, série B, XXVH (1965) and
Yehoshuah Rash, Les premières années françaises du Damergou; des colonisateurs sans enthousiasme (P. Geuthner, Paris, 1973). There are elements of a materialist approach in
Timothy Weiskel, French Colonial Rule and the Baule Peoples (Clarendon Press, 1980).
The study of imperialism in East Africa is less well developed. David Arnold, ‘External Factors in the Partition of East Africa’ read with A J. Temu, ‘Tanzánián Societies and Colonial Invasion, 1875–1907’in Martin Kaniki, ed., Tanzania under Colonial Rule (Longman, 1980) makes a serviceable introduction. The special circumstances of Buganda are discussed in
D.A. Low, Buganda in Modern History (University of California Press, 1971); C.C. Wrigley, ‘The Christian Revolution in Buganda’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, II (1959) and John Rowe, ‘The Purge of Christians at Mwanga’s Court’, JAH, V (1964). There is a survey of British involvement in Nyasaland in
A.J. Hanna, The Beginnings of Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia 1858–95 (Clarendon Press, 1956).
For north-east Africa, the struggle over Ethiopia is treated in Harold Marcus, The Life and Times of Menelik II: Ethiopia, 1844–1913 (Clarendon Press, 1975)
and Sven Rubenson, ‘Adwa: The Resounding Protest’ in Robert Rotberg and Ali Mazrui, eds, Protest and Power in Black Africa (Oxford University Press New York, 1970). For the Islamic revolution in the Sudan, the reader still depends on
P.M. Holt, The Mahdist State in the Sudan 1881–1898 (Clarendon Press, 1958). The race to the Nile is covered in
G. Sanderson, England, Europe and the Upper Nile, 1882–1899 (Edinburgh University Press, 1965)
and Marc Michel, La mission Marchand (Mouton, 1972). For the English-speaking reader, the best available guide to the conquest of Madagascar is
Phares Mutibwa, The Malagasy and the Europeans; Madagascar’s Foreign Relations, 1861–1895 (Longman, 1974). None of these offers much beyond a narrative history.
On resistance to the European conquest of East Africa, studies include G.H. Mungeam, ‘Masai and Kikuyu Responses to the Establishment of British Administration in the East Africa Protectorate’, JAH, XI (1970); J.M. Lonsdale, ‘The Politics of Conquest: The British in Kenya, 1894–1908’, HJ, XX (1977) and Edward Steinhart, Conflict and Collaboration: Kingdoms of Western Uganda, 1890–1907 (Princeton University Press, 1977).
There is a large and controversial literature on various aspects of the conquest of South Africa. It is surveyed and assessed in Atmore and Marks, cited for the previous chapter and included in the E. Penrose collection on European imperialism. This analysis is extended in Marks and Stanley Trapido, ‘Lord Milner and the South African State’, HWJ, 8 (1979). Some of the process of revision is encapsulated in a series of writings on the Jameson Raid: G.A. Blainey, ‘Lost Causes of the Jameson Raid’, EHR, N.S. XVIII (1965); R.V. Kubicek, ‘The Randlords in 1895: A Reassessment’, JBS, II (1972) and R. Mendelsohn, ‘Blainey and the Jameson Raid: The Debate Renewed’, JSAS, VI (1980).
The growing force of Afrikaner nationalism is discussed in Floris van Jaarsveld, The Awakening o f Afrikaner Nationalism (Human & Rousseau, 1961). A classic study of the politics of confrontation between Britain and the South African Republic is
J.S. Marais, The Fall of Kruger’s Republic (Clarendon Press, 1961). Transvaal society is re-interpreted in Stanley Trapido’s contribution to the Atmore & Marks book cited earlier, ‘Reflections on Land, Office and Wealth in the South African Republic 1850–1900’. Norman Etherington has written a very important consideration of Confederation, ‘Labour Supply and the Genesis of South African Confederation in the 1870s’, JAH, XX (1979). On the Boer War itself,
Peter Warwick, ed., The South African War (Longman, 1980) is the most useful first resource to date.
The intrusion of Rhodes’ chartered company north of the Limpopo and the consequent conflict with Lobengula and the Ndebele state has often been recounted, for example in Philip Mason, The Birth of a Dilemma (Oxford University Press, 1958)
and Stanlake Samkange, The Origins of Rhodesia (Heinemann, 1968). There are new interpretations in J. Cobbing, ‘Lobengula, Jameson and the Occupation of Mashonaland’, RH, IV (1973) and Ian Phimister, ‘Rhodes, Rhodesia and the Rand’, J SAS, I (1974).
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© 1984 Bill Freund
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Freund, B. (1984). The Conquest of Africa. In: The Making of Contemporary Africa. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17332-7_5
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