HSY2602
Assignment 3 Semester 1 2025
Unique #:
Due Date: 22 April 2025
Detailed solutions, explanations, workings
and references.
+27 81 278 3372
, Study Unit 4: The scramble for Africa
'The bringing of "civilization", religion and infrastructure were key factors
that motivated the Scramble for Africa. As a result, European imperialism
can be seen as being largely beneficial for the African continent'. Do you
agree with this statement? Substantiate your examples drawn from the
various territories in Africa that came under the European rule. HSY2602
Study Guide, Pages: 253-294; 298-320
RETHINKING THE LEGACY OF EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA:
CIVILISATION, RELIGION, AND INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF
THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA
1 INTRODUCTION
Between 1884 and 1914 European powers partitioned almost the entire African
continent in what contemporaries dubbed the ―Scramble for
Africa‖. Pro-imperialist writers argued—and some still maintain—that the
conquest brought civilisation, Christianity and modern infrastructure, and was
therefore broadly beneficial to Africans. This essay contests that view. While
civilising rhetoric framed many official pronouncements, the underlying drivers of
the Scramble were overwhelmingly strategic and economic. Where roads,
railways and missionary schools were introduced, they served imperial extraction
first and African welfare only incidentally. Using examples from French West
Africa, the Congo Free State, Egypt, Nigeria and German East Africa, the
discussion shows that the costs of conquest—violent dispossession, forced
labour, ecological damage and the destruction of pre-colonial polities—far
outweighed any limited gains.
2 STATED MOTIVES VERSUS STRUCTURAL DRIVERS
2.1 The Language of “Civilisation” and Christianity
European politicians and missionaries frequently justified expansion by invoking a
moral duty to ―uplift‖ supposedly backward peoples
(Curtin 1964:287). Lord Lugard‘s celebrated Dual Mandate insisted that Britain
Varsity Cube 2025 +27 81 278 3372
, was in Africa ―for the mutual benefit of her own industrial classes and of the native
races‖ (Lugard 1971:308). Mission societies framed evangelisation as liberation
from slavery and superstition, and anti-slavery conferences in Brussels (1889–90)
clothed Leopold II‘s designs on the Congo in humanitarian garb.
2.2 Economic and Strategic Imperatives
Behind idealistic language lay hard calculus. European industry, buffeted by the
―Great Depression‖ of 1873-1896, sought new markets for manufactured goods
and a dependable supply of rubber, cotton, palm oil and copper
(Hopkins 1973:157-161). Chartered companies such as the Royal Niger
Company or the British South Africa Company aimed to secure monopolies, not
philanthropic partnerships. Strategic considerations were equally salient: Britain
occupied Egypt in 1882 primarily to safeguard the Suez Canal and its route to
India (Hopkins 1986:368). Military advances—steam transport, the
breech-loading rifle and, after 1884, the Maxim gun—lowered the cost of
conquest and tipped the balance decisively in Europe‘s favour
(Chamberlain 1973:22).
3 CASE STUDIES: PROMISED BENEFITS AND LIVED REALITIES
3.1 French West Africa: Railways for Commerce, Not African Mobility
Governor Brière de l‘Isle‘s forward policy on the Senegal River (1876-81)
championed rail links from Dakar to the Niger as a ―civilising‖ artery. Yet the
Dakar–Saint-Louis line was financed by metropolitan chambers of commerce to
speed peanut exports, while forced labour regimes (the corvée) supplied track
workers until 1946 (Crowder 1968:211). African farmers paid hut taxes to service
railway debts but rarely gained affordable transport or political voice.
3.2 Congo Free State: Humanitarian Veneer and Rubber Terror
Leopold II‘s Congo Free State exemplifies the chasm between rhetoric and
reality. His 1885 charter pledged to suppress slavery and guarantee ―free
trade‖. Instead, concession companies carved out private fiefdoms, compelling
villagers to collect wild rubber under threat of mutilation or death—atrocities
Varsity Cube 2025 +27 81 278 3372
Assignment 3 Semester 1 2025
Unique #:
Due Date: 22 April 2025
Detailed solutions, explanations, workings
and references.
+27 81 278 3372
, Study Unit 4: The scramble for Africa
'The bringing of "civilization", religion and infrastructure were key factors
that motivated the Scramble for Africa. As a result, European imperialism
can be seen as being largely beneficial for the African continent'. Do you
agree with this statement? Substantiate your examples drawn from the
various territories in Africa that came under the European rule. HSY2602
Study Guide, Pages: 253-294; 298-320
RETHINKING THE LEGACY OF EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA:
CIVILISATION, RELIGION, AND INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF
THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA
1 INTRODUCTION
Between 1884 and 1914 European powers partitioned almost the entire African
continent in what contemporaries dubbed the ―Scramble for
Africa‖. Pro-imperialist writers argued—and some still maintain—that the
conquest brought civilisation, Christianity and modern infrastructure, and was
therefore broadly beneficial to Africans. This essay contests that view. While
civilising rhetoric framed many official pronouncements, the underlying drivers of
the Scramble were overwhelmingly strategic and economic. Where roads,
railways and missionary schools were introduced, they served imperial extraction
first and African welfare only incidentally. Using examples from French West
Africa, the Congo Free State, Egypt, Nigeria and German East Africa, the
discussion shows that the costs of conquest—violent dispossession, forced
labour, ecological damage and the destruction of pre-colonial polities—far
outweighed any limited gains.
2 STATED MOTIVES VERSUS STRUCTURAL DRIVERS
2.1 The Language of “Civilisation” and Christianity
European politicians and missionaries frequently justified expansion by invoking a
moral duty to ―uplift‖ supposedly backward peoples
(Curtin 1964:287). Lord Lugard‘s celebrated Dual Mandate insisted that Britain
Varsity Cube 2025 +27 81 278 3372
, was in Africa ―for the mutual benefit of her own industrial classes and of the native
races‖ (Lugard 1971:308). Mission societies framed evangelisation as liberation
from slavery and superstition, and anti-slavery conferences in Brussels (1889–90)
clothed Leopold II‘s designs on the Congo in humanitarian garb.
2.2 Economic and Strategic Imperatives
Behind idealistic language lay hard calculus. European industry, buffeted by the
―Great Depression‖ of 1873-1896, sought new markets for manufactured goods
and a dependable supply of rubber, cotton, palm oil and copper
(Hopkins 1973:157-161). Chartered companies such as the Royal Niger
Company or the British South Africa Company aimed to secure monopolies, not
philanthropic partnerships. Strategic considerations were equally salient: Britain
occupied Egypt in 1882 primarily to safeguard the Suez Canal and its route to
India (Hopkins 1986:368). Military advances—steam transport, the
breech-loading rifle and, after 1884, the Maxim gun—lowered the cost of
conquest and tipped the balance decisively in Europe‘s favour
(Chamberlain 1973:22).
3 CASE STUDIES: PROMISED BENEFITS AND LIVED REALITIES
3.1 French West Africa: Railways for Commerce, Not African Mobility
Governor Brière de l‘Isle‘s forward policy on the Senegal River (1876-81)
championed rail links from Dakar to the Niger as a ―civilising‖ artery. Yet the
Dakar–Saint-Louis line was financed by metropolitan chambers of commerce to
speed peanut exports, while forced labour regimes (the corvée) supplied track
workers until 1946 (Crowder 1968:211). African farmers paid hut taxes to service
railway debts but rarely gained affordable transport or political voice.
3.2 Congo Free State: Humanitarian Veneer and Rubber Terror
Leopold II‘s Congo Free State exemplifies the chasm between rhetoric and
reality. His 1885 charter pledged to suppress slavery and guarantee ―free
trade‖. Instead, concession companies carved out private fiefdoms, compelling
villagers to collect wild rubber under threat of mutilation or death—atrocities
Varsity Cube 2025 +27 81 278 3372
