Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Detours around Africa: The Connection between Developing Colonies and Integrating Europe

  • Chapter
Materializing Europe

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to trace the transformation of the notion of ‘Eurafrica’ from the time of European imperialism up to the era of decolonization and the start of European integration. The idea that Europe and Africa should naturally be linked via expanding infrastructures was an important part of many imperial and infrastructural visions in the nineteenth century. The end of European colonial rule in Africa since the 1950s only appeared at first to be ‘abandoning’ the Europe-Africa connections. In fact, a belief that Europeans could offer superior technology to ‘underdeveloped’ countries lingered on. An almost religious belief in the ability to ‘modernize’ backward countries focused primarily on ‘infrastructure’, a term that was introduced into the political vocabulary precisely at that point in time. The term circumscribed the implementation of ‘basic works’ and comprised everything that was regarded as essential for ‘opening up’ territories and developing economies and societies alike; usually it was conceived as a public enterprise.1

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. Dirk van Laak, ‘Infra-Strukturgeschichte’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 27(3) (2001), pp. 367–93; ‘Wirtschaftliche Erschliessungsprojekte als europaeische Gemeinschaftsaufgabe? Entwicklung der Infrastruktur in Europa und Uebersee’, Wirtschaftsdienst 35(2) (1955), pp. 63–72; 3 (1955), pp. 127–32.

    Google Scholar 

  2. See John G. Gunnel, ‘The Technocratic Image and the Theory of Technocracy’, Technology and Culture, 23 (1982), pp. 392–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Stefan Willeke, Die Technokratiebewegung in Nordamerika und Deutschland zwischen den Weltkriegen. Eine vergleichende Analyse (Frankfurt/Main u.a.: Peter Lang 1995), p. 82.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Alfred Frisch, Grossmacht Technokratie. Die Zukunft der Gesellschaft (Frankfurt/Main: Agenor 1955). Here, the role of Josef Caillaux, Erik Labonne, Raoul Dautry, Louis Armand, Jean Monnet, Ernest Bevin, Stafford Cripps and Johannes Semler, among others, for transferring colonial knowledge back to Europe still remains to be specified. It is striking, though, that many ‘founding fathers’ of an integrated Europe had spent some time of their lives in colonies or had been dealing with colonial affairs prior to their European engagement. This applies to Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer (who served as one of the vice presidents of the ‘Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft’ in the 1920s), Sicco Mansholt and Winston Churchill, among many others.

    Google Scholar 

  5. James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State. How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Daniel Headrick, The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Michael Adas, Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance (Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1989)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Michael Adas (ed.), Technology and European Overseas Enterprise: Diffusion, Adaptation and Adoption (Aldershot: Variorum 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Robert Seeley, The Expansion of England (Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press 1971), p. 61.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Dirk van Laak, ‘“Auf den Hochstrassen des Weltwirtschaftsverkehrs”. Zur europaeischen Ideologie der „Erschliessung” im ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert’, Comparativ. Zeitschrift fuer Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung (forthcoming in 2010).

    Google Scholar 

  11. David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology. The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention (New York: Penguin 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Max Liniger-Goumaz, L’Eurafrique. Utopie ou réalité? Les Metamorphoses d’une Idée (Yaoundé 1972).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost. A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (Boston/New York: Houghton and Mifflin 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Jan Henning Boettger, “Bienvenue dans la capitale de l’Empire!” Die Tagung des “Institut Colonial International” in Berlin (1897) in Ulrich van der Heyden/Joachim Zeller (eds) „Macht und Anteil an der Weltherrschaft.” Berlin und der deutsche Kolonialismus (Muenster: Unrast-Verlag 2005), pp. 109–15

    Google Scholar 

  15. Jannyde Jong, ‘Kolonialisme op een koopje. Het Internationale Koloniale Instituut, 1894–1914’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 109(1) (1996), pp. 45–72.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Maria-Theresia Schwarz, „Je weniger Afrika, desto besser”. Die deutsche Kolonialkritik am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt/Main u.a. Peter Lang 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Campaigns like Mahatma Gandhi’s to boycott European technology and economy, however, rather validate its suggestive and almost irresistible power. See also David J. Arnold, ‘Europe, Technology, and Colonialism in the 20th Century’, History and Technology 21(1) (2005), pp. 85–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Thoralf Klein/Frank Schumacher (eds), Kolonialkriege. Militaerische Gewalt im Zeichen des Imperialismus (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  19. János Riesz, Lépold Sédar Senghor und der afrikanische Aufbruch im 20. Jahrhundert (Wuppertal: Peter Hammer 2006); Sebastian Conrad/Arif Dirlik/Andreas Eckert (eds), ‘Beyond Hegemony? Europe and the Politics of Non-Western Elites, 1900–1930’, Journal of Modern European Studies 4(2) (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Clarence B. Davis/Kenneth E. Wilburn with Ronald E. Robinson (eds), Railway Imperialism (New York/Westport, Conn./London: Greenwood Press 1991), p. 3.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Leo Weinthal (ed.), The Story of the Cape to Cairo Railway and River Route, from 1887 to 1922. 5 vols (London 1923).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Dirk van Laak, Imperiale Infrastruktur. Deutsche Planungen fuer eine Erschliessung Afrikas, 1880 bis 1960 (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag 2004).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Christian Koller, „Von Wilden aller Rassen niedergemetzelt”. Die Diskussion um die Verwendung von Kolonialtruppen in Europa zwischen Rassismus, Kolonial- und Militaerpolitik (1914–1930) (Stuttgart: Steiner 2001). In 1928, Arthur Dix also hinted at the fact that, at the same time that coloured soldiers exerted control on Germany, German members of the Foreign Legion did the same for the French in Morocco (Schluss mit Europa! Ein Wegweiser durch Weltgeschichte und Weltpolitik, Berlin 1928, p. 10).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Katiana Orluc, ‘Decline or Renaissance: The Transformation of European Consciousness after the First World War’ in Bo Stråth (ed.) Europe and the Other and Europe as the Other (Brussels: Peter Lang 2000), pp. 123–58.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Herward Sieberg, Colonial Development. Die Grundlegungmoderner Entwicklungspolitik durch Grossbritannien, 1919–1949 (Stuttgart: Steiner 1985).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Dietmar Rothermund, Delhi, 15. August 1947. Das Ende kolonialer Herrschaft (Muenchen: DTV 1998), p. 215

    Google Scholar 

  27. Juergen Osterhammel, Kolonialismus. Geschichte, Formen, Folgen (Muenchen: Beck 1995), p. 117.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, Paneuropa (Wien/Leipzig 1923).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Herman Soergel, Atlantropa (Muenchen/Zuerich 1932).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Herman Soergel/Bruno Siegwart, ‘Erschliessung Afrikas durch Binnenmeere. Saharabewaesserung durch Mittelmeerabsenkung’, Beilage zum Baumeister 33(3) (1935), p. 39.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Alexander Gall, ‘Atlantropa: A Technological Vision of a United Europe’ in Erik van der Vleuten/Arne Kaijser (eds) Networking Europe. Transnational Infrastructures and the Shaping of Europe, 1850–2000 (Sagamore Beach: Science History Publications 2006), pp. 99–128.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Oskar Karstedt, Internationale Bekaempfung der Arbeitslosigkeit durch Erschliessung ueberseeischer Gebiete. Zugleich ein Beitrag zum Problem der Vergroesserung des Welthandelsvolumens (Berlin 1931)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Claude-Robert Ageron, ‘L’idée d’Eurafrique et le dèbat colonial franco-allemand de l’entre-deux-guerres’, Revue d’Histoire moderne et contemporaine 22 (1975), pp. 446–75

    Google Scholar 

  34. Etienne Deschamps, ‘Quelle Afrique pour une Europe unie? L’idée d’Eurafrique à l’aube des années trentes’ in Michel Dumoulin (ed.) Penser l’Europe à l’aube des années trentes (Louvain-laneuve/Bruessel: UCL 1995), pp. 95–150

    Google Scholar 

  35. Thomas Moser, Europaeische Integration, Dekolonisation, Eurafrika. Eine historische Analyse ueber die Entstehungsbedingungen der Eurafrikanischen Gemeinschaft von der Weltwirtschaftskrise bis zum Jaunde-Vertrag, 1929–1963 (Baden-Baden: Nomos 2000), pp. 95–146.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Wilhelm Guerge/Wilhelm Grotkopp (eds), Grossraumwirtschaft. Der Weg zur europaeischen Einheit. Ein Grundriss (Berlin 1931).

    Google Scholar 

  37. Juergen Elvert, Mitteleuropa! Deutsche Plaene zur europaeischen Neuordnung (1918–1945) (Stuttgart: Steiner 1999)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Birgit Kletzin, Europa aus Rasse und Raum. Die nationalsozialistische Idee der Neuen Ordnung (Muenster: LIT Verlag 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  39. For lingering fears of a German predominance in recent Europe see John Laughland, The Tainted Source. The Undemocratic Origins of the European Idea (London: Little, Brown 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  40. Cited in: Juergen Bergmann, Die assoziierten afrikanischen Gebiete in der Europaeischen Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft unter besonderer Beruecksichtigung ihrer Entwicklungsproblematik (Cologne 1958), p. 15ff.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Marie-Thérèse Bitsch, ‘Introduction’ in Marie-Thérèse Bitsch and Gérard Bossuat (eds) L’Europe Unie et l Afrique. De l’Idee d’Eurafrique à la Convention de Lomé. Actes du Colloque International de Paris, 1er et 2 Avril 2004 (Bruxelles/Paris/Baden-Baden: Bruylant/LGDJ/Nomos 2005), p. 3ff.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Cit. in Ludoif Herbst, Option für den Westen. Vom Marshallplan bis zum deutschfranzösischen Vertrag (Muenchen: DTV 1989), p. 211.

    Google Scholar 

  43. See alsofranz Obermeier, Die Bedeutung von Franzoesisch-Afrika im Rahmen einer deutsch-franzoesischen Integration (Muenchen 1951).

    Google Scholar 

  44. Moser, Europaeische Integration (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Enzo R. Grilli, The European Community and the Developing Countries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1993).

    Google Scholar 

  46. Jasmine Aimaq, For Europe or Empire? French Colonial Ambitions and the European Army Plan (Lund: Lund Univ. 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  47. Robert Falkner, Auslandshilfe und Containment. Anfaenge amerikanischer Auslandshilfepolitik in der Dritten Welt, 1945–1952 (Muenster/Hamburg: LIT 1994)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Gerhard Th. Mollin, Die USA und der Kolonialismus. Amerika als Partner und Nachfolger der belgischen Macht in Afrika 1939–1965 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag 1996).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  49. Walt W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth. A Non-Communist Manifesto, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1960). Corinna R. Unger, ‘Modernization à la Mode: West German and American Development Plans for the Third World’, in: German Historical Institute (Washington), Bulletin No. 40 (Spring 2007), p. 143– 159. Point Four in 1952 was accompanied by the Mutual Security Act, binding any aid to military assistance.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Michael E. Latham, Modernization as Ideology: American Social Science and ‘Nation Building’ in the Kennedy Era (Chapel Hill: UNC Press 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  51. Boris Barth/Juergen Osterhammel (eds), Zivilisierungsmissionen. Imperiale Weltverbesserung seit dem 18. Jahrhundert (Konstanz: Uvk 2005)

    Google Scholar 

  52. Michael Adas, Dominance by Design. Technological Imperatives and America’s Civilizing Mission (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2006).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  53. For example, Anton Zischka, Afrika, Europas Gemeinschaftsaufgabe Nr. 1 (Oldenburg 1951)

    Google Scholar 

  54. Karl Krueger, Afrika (Berlin 1952)

    Google Scholar 

  55. Gustav-Adolf Gedat, Europas Zukunft liegt in Afrika (Stuttgart 1954).

    Google Scholar 

  56. John Iliffe, A Modern History of Tanganyika (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1979), pp. 439–42.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  57. Andreas Wilkens, ‘Vom Rhein bis zum Kongo. Franzoesisch-deutsche Wirtschaftsprojekte und Politik in Afrika, 1950–1959’ in Revue dAllemagne 31 (1999), pp. 481–96.

    Google Scholar 

  58. Gustav-Adolf Gedat, Europas Zukunft liegt in Afrika (Stuttgart 1954), p. 51.

    Google Scholar 

  59. Alfred Frisch, ‘Zukunftshoffnungen fuer das Saharagebiet’, Wirtschaftsdienst 34(3) (1954), pp. 156–60.

    Google Scholar 

  60. For longer traditions dating back tofrench technocrat Henri de Saint-Simon see Michael J. Heffernan, ‘Bringing the Desert to Bloom: French Ambitions in the Sahara Desert During the Late Nineteenth Century — the Strange Case of “la mer intérieure”’ in Denis Cosgrove and Geoff Petts (eds) Water, Engineering and Landscape. Water Control and Landscape Transformation in the Modern Period (London/New York: Bellhaven Press 1990), pp. 94–114.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Johannes Semler, ‘Die deutsche Wirtschaft und die Erschliessung Afrikas’. Vortrag, gehalten in Duesseldorf am 27.11.1953 im Hause des Bankvereins Westdeutschland AG, Kiel 1953, p. 22.

    Google Scholar 

  62. Gustav-Adolf Gedat, ‘Was wird aus diesem Afrika? Wiedersehen mit einem Kontinent nach 15 JahrenStuttgart 1952), p. 49 [my translation, DvL]. At the time of publication the author was a member of the West German parliament.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Andreas Eckert, ‘Exportschlager Wohlfahrtsstaat? Europaeische Sozialstaatlichkeit und Kolonialismus in Afrika nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 32 (2006), pp. 467–88.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Peo Hansen, ‘European Integration, European Identity and the Colonial Connection’, European Journal of Social Theory 5(4) (2002), pp. 491–3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  65. For responses of decolonization for the French society see Kristin Ross, Fast Cars, Clean Bodies. Decolonization and the Reordering of French Culture (Cambridge, Mass: MIT 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  66. Roy F. Holland, European Decolonisation 1918–1981. An Introductory Survey (London: Macmillan 1985), p. 163.

    Google Scholar 

  67. Thomas Oppermann, ‘“Eurafrika” Idee und Wirklichkeit’, Europa-Archiv 23 (1960), p. 700

    Google Scholar 

  68. Robert W. Heywood, ‘West European Community and the Eurafrica concept in the 1950s’, Journal of European Integration 4(2) (1981), pp. 199–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  69. Miles Kahler, Decolonization in Britain and France: The Domestic Consequences of International Relations (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1984), p. 134f

    Google Scholar 

  70. William I. Zartman, ‘Europe and Africa. Decolonization or Dependency?’ Foreign Affairs 54(2) (January 1976), p. 328ff.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  71. John D. Hargreaves, Decolonization in Africa, 2nd edn (London/New York: Longman 1996), p. 187.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Anne Deighton, ‘Ernest Bevin and the Idea of Euro-Africa from the Interwar to the Postwar Period’ in Marie-Thérèse Bitsch and Gérard Bossuat (eds) L’Europe Unie et l’Afrique. De l’Idee d’Eurafrique à la Convention de Lomé. Actes du Colloque International de Paris, 1er et 2 Avril 2004 (Bruxelles/Paris/Baden-Baden: Bruylant/ LGDJ/Nomos 2005), pp. 97–118.

    Google Scholar 

  73. Gerhard Altmann, Abschied vom Empire. Die innere Dekolonisation Grossbritanniens 1945–1985 (Goettingen 2005)

    Google Scholar 

  74. Martin Lynn (ed.), The British Empire in the 1950s. Retreat or Revival? (Basingstoke: Palgrave 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  75. Robert Lemaignen, ‘Die Assoziierung der ueberseeischen Laender mit der Europaeischen Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft’, Bulletin der Europaeischen Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft 8/9 (1960), pp. 5–14.

    Google Scholar 

  76. Werner Ungerer, ‘Die Assoziierung afrikanischer Staaten und Madagaskars mit der EWG im Lichte antieuropaeischer Kritik’ in Europa-Archiv 20(8) (1965), pp. 308–14.

    Google Scholar 

  77. Dirk van Laak, ‘Kolonien als “Laboratorien der Moderne”?’ in Sebastian Conrad and Juergen Osterhammel (eds) Das Kaiserreich transnational. Deutschland in der Welt 1871–1914 (Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2004), pp. 257–79.

    Google Scholar 

  78. See, for instance, Gabrielle Hecht, The Radiance of France. Nuclear Power and National Identity after World War II (Cambridge, Mass./London: MIT 1998), and the ‘Colonialism, Decolonization, and Development’ section of the ‘Tensions of Europe’ programme, www.tensionsofeurope.eu.

    Google Scholar 

  79. See, for instance, Wolfgang Uwe Eckart, Medizin und Kolonialimperialismus. Deutschland 1884–1945 (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schoningh 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  80. Presently, there are even disputes about the causal connection between genocidal wars in Africa and the Holocaust; see, for instance, the conference on ‘Genocide and Colonialism’ held at the University of Sydney, 18–20 July 2003; Juergen Zimmerer, Von Windhuk nach Auschwitz. Beitraege zum Verhaeltnis von Kolonialismus und Holocaust (Muenster: LIT 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  81. Peter Gold, Europe or Africa? A Contemporary Study of the Spanish North African Enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press 2000).

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Dirk van Laak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Utrecht University, The Netherlands

    Alexander Badenoch (Lecturer in Media and Culture Studies) (Lecturer in Media and Culture Studies)

  2. Maastricht University, The Netherlands

    Andreas Fickers (Associate Professor Comparative Media History) (Associate Professor Comparative Media History)

Copyright information

© 2010 Dirk van Laak

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

van Laak, D. (2010). Detours around Africa: The Connection between Developing Colonies and Integrating Europe. In: Badenoch, A., Fickers, A. (eds) Materializing Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230292314_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230292314_2

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-31313-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-230-29231-4

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation