Chapter 21 Chapter 17 Africa

European influence on sub-Saharan Africa was much later than on Eurasia.Before expanding into sub-Saharan Africa, European powers had imposed their dominion over India, the East Indies, and much of North Africa.France took Algeria in 1830 and Tunisia in 1881; Britain took Egypt in 1882 (see Chapter 14, Section 3).Europeans were generally late in invading south for a variety of reasons, including harsh weather, prevalence of disease, geographical barriers, and Africans' superior organization and Vigorous resistance (see Chapter 5, Section 1).Also, unlike Mexico and Peru, which had gold and silver, there was no wealth available to lure Europeans into the interior.Thus, before the end of the nineteenth century, sub-Saharan Africa remained largely untouched by Europe, except for certain coastal areas.However, in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the European powers made up for lost time, effectively carve up the entire African continent and plunder its human and material resources.By 1914 the peoples of Africa had been influenced in many ways by the Europeans even more than by the Asians. However, many villagers in the interior still lived largely untouched by the European invaders. Life.

For Europeans, for centuries the most valuable resource in Africa was slaves, available at coastal ports without going inland.Although slave trading posts were confined to coastal areas, the slave trade had a profound impact on many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.The trade began in 1442 when two captains of Prince Henry the Navigator brought 12 African slaves to Lisbon.Indeed, slavery was by this time a fixed and widespread institution in Africa.Prisoners of war were forced into slavery, as were debtors or persons guilty of serious crimes.These slaves, however, were usually treated as part of the family; they had clearly defined rights, and their status was not necessarily hereditary.But in Europe, slavery was a completely different institution with a completely different history.It was primarily economic in nature from the beginning, so, in classical times, slaves were forced to work in the mines until their death.This impersonality was reinforced by racism when Europeans became involved in the slave trade in Africa on a large scale.Perhaps as a subconscious disguise, they came to despise the Negroes as inherently inferior savages destined to serve their white masters.Subconscious camouflage may also be reflected in Europeans' use of religion to justify the slave trade.Slavery, they argued, ensured the conversion of African pagans not only to civilization but to true faith.At that time, an observer said that slavery in Portugal was better than freedom in Africa in the following passage, which is quite representative.

It was with this complacency that the Portuguese shipped thousands of African slaves home.The large number of slaves and the freedom of intermarriage had greatly affected the ethnic composition of some parts of Portugal.But this was only a small prelude to a new major phase of the slave trade; the phase that began in 1510 with the first shipment of African slaves to the New World.The venture was very successful because North and South America, especially the sugar plantations, were in dire need of labor.The slave market was virtually unlimited, and several other countries were involved in this slave trade in order to share in the huge profits.Controlling the slave trade was Portugal in the 16th century, the Netherlands for most of the 17th century, and England in the 18th century.Some 40 European fortresses were dotted along the coast of West Africa; they were used to defend against hostile trading nations and to hold slaves waiting to be shipped across the Atlantic.

The most typical route for a slave trader is a triangular one.The first leg of the voyage saw ships sailing from their home ports to Africa with a full load of goods: salt, cloth, firearms, hardware, rosary beads, and rum.These goods were then exchanged for slaves transported from the interior to the coast by African natives.These hapless victims were then loaded into the poor condition of the cabin and transported across the Atlantic along the so-called "central sea route".In the destination New World.These slaves were either sold all at once or chained up for retail sale.The last leg of the voyage was for the ships to return home loaded with plantation products such as sugar, molasses, tobacco, rice, etc.

Due to the prevailing trade winds, sailings on the "central route" are usually fast and short.However, the average death rate for slaves on this voyage ranged from 10% to 55%, depending on the length of the journey, the number of epidemics that occurred, and the favorable conditions in which the slaves were treated.Slaves were treated much the same: unbearable crowding, suffocating heat, and meager food.The standard diet was corn and water every 24 hours.If the slaves went on hunger strike, they were whipped; if the whipping failed, they were forced to eat with a red-hot branding iron.Because slaves were usually kept in dirty conditions, when epidemics broke out, sick slaves were thrown into the sea and drowned to prevent the spread of the disease.It happened frequently that slaves jumped into the sea unwilling to bear the pain.Indeed, such things were so common in those days that netting had to be fitted around the deck to prevent suicide.This shows that in order to prevent the death of slaves and slave riots on board, slave ships have taken safety measures.

Before that, on the march from the interior to the coast, the death rate of slaves was even higher.Commandos loot villages and tear families apart in search of strong young men and women.The captives were forced to travel from morning to night in sweltering heat and rain; they crossed dense jungles or dry plains, suffering from disturbing insect bites.If they were exhausted and staggered, they were beaten, and if they couldn't walk, they were killed with a knife or a club.Survivors who reached the coast were herded into markets naked like cattle.They were then branded with the company or buyer's name and herded into fortresses to await shipment across the Atlantic.It is not surprising, then, that while about 10 million slaves were supplied to American plantations, Africa lost an estimated 35 to 40 million people (see Chapter 9, Section 3, for a discussion of the full impact on Africa. part).

Europeans ignored these appalling practices and continued to trade Africans for four centuries.Because of the enormous profits that could be gained by doing so, major vested interests strongly opposed any proposal to control or abolish the slave trade.First, all the African chiefs objected, because they could get twenty or thirty pounds for a strong slave.When people asked a chief to stop this trade, he said: "What! Can a cat stop catching mice? What cat would not die with a mouse in its mouth? I will die with a slave in its mouth." African brokers once Gaining huge profits from this trade, they also vehemently oppose all constructions that abolish it.But whatever the movement to abolish the slave trade, there were riots against Europeans on the African soil.

Likewise, planters in North and South Africa, especially in Barbados, which had a significant bloc in the British Parliament in the 18th century, also supported the slave trade.In addition, various vested interest groups in Europe, whether it is weavers or various domestic wine merchants and product manufacturers, all support this slave trade.It is estimated that the UK ships products worth £1m a year to Africa, while the rest of Europe sends an equal amount for the same purpose.The profits from this outlay were so large that cities like Liverpool and Bristol prospered largely on this transaction in the eighteenth century.Many wineries were built to provide alcohol for slave ships.British woolen goods, and later cotton, were also shipped in large quantities to Africa.The metallurgical industry provided shackles, locks, bars, and guns of all kinds.Shipyards were also busy with the slave trade, with more than 200 ships in Britain alone engaged in this trade at the end of the 18th century.The famous abolitionist leader William Wilberforce rightly remarked: "Profit can cast a thick film over the eyes, even if they are blind."

Advocates of the slave trade used military arguments as well as economic ones to support their position.The many ships involved in this trade not only supported the shipyards but also provided jobs for thousands of sailors.Hence the insistence that any nation that took the lead in abolishing slavery would weaken itself enough to become a naval power.Some, such as James Boswell, the famous Scottish biographer of Samuel Johnson, also made various covers and justifications for slavery.He wrote: "The abolition of a condition which has been recognized by God throughout the ages and which has been continued by many is not only a plunder to countless of our save some of them from carnage, and lead them into a happier life."

Despite these formidable obstacles, a small group of reformers vigorously pursued the abolitionist movement. In 1787 they formed the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in England.The progress of the Industrial Revolution aided these abolitionists; it was making slavery obsolete.Because the ever-advancing technology requires overseas markets rather than the supply of cheap labor.In fact, abolitionists argued that the slave trade was invalid and insisted that a more lucrative "legal" trade could develop in Africa. An statute passed in 1807 marked the first success of the abolitionists; it prohibited British ships from engaging in the slave trade and prohibited the transport of slaves to the British colonies. In 1833, Parliament finally passed a decree that completely abolished slavery in Britain and provided 20 million pounds in compensation to slaveholders.The British government then persuaded other European countries to follow its example and allow British warships to capture slave ships flying the flags of other countries.At one point, Britain used a quarter of its navy, 56 ships and 9,000 sailors, to patrol the coasts of Africa, Cuba and Brazil. For 20 years, these patrol boats captured 1,000 slave traders and freed their slaves.Needless to say, many slave traders continued to slip past the blockade, lured by the riches that awaited them in North and South America.Until countries in the New World gradually abolished slavery - Haiti, the United States and Brazil abolished slavery in 1803, 1863 and 1888 respectively, and Cuba also abolished slavery in about 1888, and then some other countries abolished slavery one after another — Only such a blockade can be completely successful.

While the slave trade on the west coast of Africa was being outlawed, in Central and East Africa the Arabs continued it.The Arabs were engaged in this trade long before the Europeans, and they continued it throughout the nineteenth century and even well into the twentieth century.The captured slaves were either forced to cross the Sahara Desert to reach the North African market, or were taken to ports along the coast of East Africa, and then shipped to Zanzibar, Madagascar, the Arabian Peninsula, Turkey, Persia and even India.This trade is more difficult to prohibit than that along the coast of West Africa.This trade continued until and after World War I, despite British naval patrols in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.Even today, slavery may still exist in remote parts of Ethiopia; the slave trade is also present, especially in some countries of the Arabian Peninsula. The abolitionist movement directly contributed to the exploration and development of this "Dark Continent".Abolitionists wanted access to the interior where many slaves were captured, abolished the slave trade, and tried to develop a "legal" or regular trade to replace the slave trade.At the same time, with a growing scientific interest in geography, Europeans were desperate to learn about unexplored regions.All of these factors combined to bring many extraordinary and high-profile explorers to Africa in the 19th century. Systematic exploration of the African continent began in 1788 with the founding of the "African Society".This association is headed by the famous British scientist Joseph Banks. Its purpose is to "promote the cause of science and human beings, detect mysterious geographical environments, identify resources, and improve the conditions of this unfortunate continent." The association first paid attention to focus on the Niger River issue.Until then, the river was just a name.Even before the European slave trade began, rumors circulated that some fabled cities lay on the banks of a great river called the Niger.No one knows where the river originated and where it went.In order to solve this mystery, in 1795, the Society sent Scottish doctor Zhi Ge Parker to explore.After enduring heat, disease, captivity, and starvation, he managed to reach the Niger River, but illness forced him back to the coast, failing to make it down the river to the mouth of the river. In 1805, Parker led a sizable expedition again. Expedition to the Niger River, however, most of his companions died en route before even reaching the Niger River.The spirit of the explorers of this period is reflected in a letter Parker wrote home: Parker did die on the Niger River, as did his 18-year-old son who came out looking for his father.Many others tried to unravel the mysteries of the Niger until finally Richard Land traveled down the Niger to its mouth in 1830.At this time, Rand demonstrated that the so-called "Palm River," long considered by Europeans to be the birthplace of palm oil and slavery, was formed by the Niger River Delta. In the 1850s, the most comprehensive expedition to West Africa was further undertaken by the doctor Heinrich Barthes, the extraordinary Germanic who visited the most important cities in western Sudan, then crossed the Sahara Desert, returning to England in 1855.Barthes' trip was the most successful in the history of African travel.His descriptions of his travels are just as good, as he gives a comprehensive account of the geography, history and peoples of the countries he visits. A disastrous commercial expedition to the upper Niger proved that commercial opportunities were lacking there, and interest turned to East Africa.The source of the Nile is a major issue in East Africa.Hostile natives, vast swamps, and numerous rapids thwarted all attempts to cross the Nile up to its source. In 1856, two Englishmen, John Speke and Richard Burry, set out from the east coast of Africa to the interior.They discovered Lake Tanganyika; after Burry fell ill, Speke pushed forward another 20 miles and discovered Lake Victoria.On a second trip (186O-1863), Speke saw the White Nile pouring down from Ripon Falls in Lake Victoria, then traveled down the great river to Khartoum and on through Egypt into the Mediterranean. The image of the great David Livingstone stands above all other explorers.Initially, he was studying to be a medical missionary in China, but the outbreak of the Opium Wars turned him to Africa, and he went north after landing in Cape Town. In 1849, Livingstone crossed the Kalahari River and saw a good place for missionary work ahead.He discovered Lake Ngami; there he heard that the densely populated and well-watered country ahead was quite different from the desert he had just crossed. In 1852, Livingstone embarked on a long voyage; he first reached the Atlantic Ocean, then returned across the African continent, reaching the Indian Ocean in 1856.He then returned to England to deliver the historic lecture at Cambridge University that brought the attention of the entire Western world to Africa. From 1857 to 1863, Livingstone led an expedition to investigate the Zambezi area; in 1866, he set out to solve various problems about the source of the Nile.After he disappeared in the African jungle, he did not send any news to the outside world for five years.Finally, the "New York Herald" sent the famous foreign reporter Henry M. Stanley to find Livingstone. In 1871, Stanley found him on Lake Tanganyika; an unforgettable scene in the history of African exploration.Although Livingstone was now weak and emaciated, with "a handful of bones left," in his own words, he refused to return home with Stanley.Instead, he continued to explore until May 1, 1873, when his entourage found him dead in a prayer position next to his cabin. Stanley was so moved by Livingstone's character and life that he returned to Africa to solve some problems left by "the good doctor".He found that the Lualaba River, which Livingstone believed flowed into the Nile, was actually the source of the Congo River, which flowed westward into the Atlantic Ocean. On November 26, 1877, exactly 999 days after leaving Zanzibar, Stanley arrived at Boma on the west coast.In this way, the last of the four great rivers in Africa has finally been explored from source to outlet. Two years later, in 1879, Stanley was again on the banks of the Congo, but this time he came as an agent of King Leopold of Belgium rather than as an explorer.At this time, the era of African exploration has given way to the era of partitioning Africa. Before 1870, the European powers held only insignificant areas in Africa.They were chiefly seaports, fortified trading posts, and a few adjacent areas acquired as dependencies for trade rather than as bases for territorial expansion.With the end of the European slave trade, most coastal strongholds were effectively abandoned because legal trade was not sufficient to sustain them.Only the two extremes of the African continent, French Algeria and British South Africa, are generally significant exceptions, and colonization of these two areas has actually been underway.But even in these two regions, activities are haphazard, with no clear plans for expansion and annexation.European statesmen at the beginning of the era repeatedly stated their opposition to the acquisition of colonies.Bismarck, for example, declared himself "not a colonialist" and compared the German colonies to the soft sable coat worn over the waistcoat of a Polish nobleman without a shirt underneath.Similarly, in Britain in 1865, the House of Commons, tasked with considering West African affairs, agreed that "all further expansion of territory or usurpation of dominion, namely the conclusion of new treaties affording any protection to native tribes, is unwise." After 1870, a combination of factors (see Chapter 11, Section 7) completely changed this anti-colonial attitude.At this time, the colonies were regarded as the property of the mother country, and the unoccupied and defenseless African continent became the center of imperialists' eager competition.The French economist Paul Leroy-Beauru typified this neo-colonialism when he wrote in 1874: "Colonization is a matter of life and death for France: France must either become a great African Great Power, or for a century or two will remain no more than a second-rate European power; its place in the world will be almost as important as that of Greece and Rumania in Europe." King Leopold of Belgium was the leader of the imperialist scramble for Africa.A cunning sovereign, he sensed the opportunities offered by the great interior plateaus being exploited by explorers. In 1870, Leopold convened a conference in Brussels under the guise of helping introduce civilization to Africa.In his opening speech, he declared: "One of the goals that unites us here today is to possess as much as possible of what is useful to mankind. I dare say that the development of the only region in the world that has not been penetrated by civilization, breaking through the The darkness of the entire population is a crusade befitting our century of progress!" The Brussels Conference resulted in the creation of the "International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central Africa".Although the association was nominally composed of several national blocs, the executive committee was controlled by Leopold. At first, Leopold was primarily interested in East Africa.But after Stanley visited the Congo Basin in 1876-1877, he immediately saw the potential of this vast central region.In fact, Stanley himself saw this opportunity, but he failed to get the support of Britain.So, in 1878, Stanley began working for Leopold, returning to the Congo the following year. Between 1879 and 1880, Stanley signed many treaties with the chiefs, transferring at least 900,000 square miles of land to the "International Congo Society"; organize.Little did these chiefs know that signing these treaties and accepting symbolic payments meant losing their tribal lands forever.Traditionally, African chiefs were entrusted with the lands of their people.He sold the land as the mayor sold "his" town hall.However, this was standard practice across the continent, with repercussions that continue to this day. The immediate aftermath of Leopold's machinations was to spur other European leaders into action.By this time the French had sent the famous explorer, Count Brazzaville, to the lower Congo, who had acquired for his country the lands north of the Congo.The Germans also entered the contest, acquiring South West Africa, Togoland and Cameroon in 1884.The Portuguese were also now involved in the competition; not least because they had for some time been claiming rights to the west coast as far north as latitude 5° 12' south, on both sides of the Congo estuary, and to the unlimited interior.Britain had never been willing to recognize these Portuguese demands, but now, in order to restrain the belligerent Belgians and French, it changed its mind. On February 26, 1884, Britain and Portugal signed the "Anglo-Portugal Agreement"; the agreement recognized the Portuguese's sovereignty over the mouth of the Congo River and stipulated that Britain and Portugal jointly controlled navigation on the river. This agreement was strongly condemned by the other powers, so, in 1884-1885, an international conference was held in Berlin, and a number of provisions were made for the further partition of African territories.It was agreed that any country wishing to annex land or establish a protectorate should first notify other countries of its intention; recognition of territorial claims must depend on effective occupation; and disputes should be resolved through arbitration.The meeting also recognized the rights of Leopolds' "International Congo Association" to most of the Congo Basin, known as the "Congo Free State".In the end, the meeting produced a powerful manifesto on the advancement of natives, the evangelization, and the eradication of slavery.All this is remarkable because it does not exist in the so-called "free state". The entire continent of Africa was carved up in less than 20 years as the conference agreed on international regulations for territorial expansion.In the Congo, Leopold bought up all non-Belgian properties in 1887 in order to eliminate possible criticism of his cause.He then compensated himself for the loss by reserving the richest rubber producing area ten times the size of Belgium as a royal domain.Here, as in other parts of the Congo, a special monopoly on the exploitation of natural products, including the right to use indigenous labor, was invested in the trading companies, and Leopold was the majority shareholder in most of them.His profits, therefore, came both from the periodic stipends paid to the state by the franchisees and from the dividends they earned in their highly successful operations.In short, the wealth gained in the Congo was extracted through the ruthless exploitation of the local peoples.Thus, various methods of forced labor were so incredibly brutal that the Congolese population fell by half (from 20 million to 10 million) between 1885 and 1908 under Leopold. If Africans did not produce the required quantities of rubber and ivory, they were mutilated or shot.Amputation is the amputation of a hand or a foot, or both.The foremen handed over baskets full of hands to their superiors to prove that they were doing their job well.Due to the hot and humid climate, these hands are sometimes preserved by smoking.A traveler in the "Congo Free State" gave the following account of what he saw: "The inhabitants are gone. Their homes are burned; Among them are great heaps of ashes brutally flogged, slaughtered, pillaged, and abducted. . . . People either fled into the wilderness, or sought protection in French or Portuguese dominions." Word of these atrocities gradually leaked out, and Leopold had to hand over his Congolese possessions to the Belgian government in 1908.Territories that had been private property in the past became Belgian colonies.The government has taken steps to end the atrocities, but disguised forms of forced labor persist.Leopold, the most mercenary founder, induced the Belgian Parliament to generously compensate him for his "sacrifice" in the Congo. In the rest of West Africa, the French are most active.They conceived a huge plan, trying to start from the past trading posts in Ivory Coast, Dahomey and the north bank of the Congo River, and push inland to establish a French West African empire from Algeria to the Congo, from Senegal to the Nile River and even the Red Sea.Since the Germans and Americans also had strongholds on the west coast, the French had to weave around their opponents in the race for the interior.By and large, they were successful.Only the British in Nigeria and the Germans in Cameroon could effectively expand inland.All the rest of West Africa, together with the vast Sahara desert, was now transformed into a huge French dominion ruled by Paris. The French sent Colonel Marchant on a dangerous expedition to extend their dominions eastward across Africa.This expedition took him from the French Congo to Fashoda on the Nile; he arrived in Fashoda in July 1858.A few weeks later, General Kitchener led an expedition up the Nile from Egypt.Kitchener demanded that Marchand withdraw from Fashoda on behalf of the British.Both men then wisely decided to take the dispute to their respective governments.Britain and France remained on the brink of war for the next few months, but in the spring of 1899 France relented and gave Britain possession of the Upper Nile. In North Africa, the Portuguese had occupied Mozambique since the 16th century, and France had various claims over Madagascar.The Germans and the British were the main contenders for the rest of the territory. At the end of 1884, during the Berlin Conference, Dr. Karl Peters, a young German who was keen on colonization, landed secretly in East Africa.Within ten days, he had persuaded local chiefs to sign treaties ceding more than 60,000 square miles of land; nearly a third of his own territory.The following year, the German government declared the area acquired by Karl Peters a protectorate. The activity of the Germans aroused the British, and they began to sign treaties ceding the territory of Kenya to them.The land grab has drawn repeated protests from the sultan of Zanzibar, who has long claimed sovereignty over the East African coast across from his island of Zanzibar.But the British and the Germans ignored his protests and signed two treaties, in 1886 and 1890, to resolve their territorial disputes.The Germans continued to retain the vast area known as the German East African Protectorate, while the British shared the British East African Protectorate and the Uganda Protectorate; the German East African Protectorate was named Tanganyika after 1919, and the British East African Protectorate The protectorate was later known as Colony Kenya.The Sultan of Zanzibar continued to occupy Zanzibar Island, but had to recognize Britain as his suzerain. At the same time, the belated arrival of the Italians also joined the scramble for African territories.They managed to acquire two barren colonies along the Red Sea: Eritrea and Somaliland; then, in 1896, they embarked on an even bigger adventure, sending an army to conquer the Kingdom of Ethiopia.Christian Ethiopians are not a primitive tribal people like most of Africa.Their king Manelik had an army of 80,000 men trained by French officers and equipped with French weapons.He was able to defeat a small Italian army of 10,000 men, so his kingdom remained free of European domination.By 1914, Ethiopia was the only independent country on the entire African continent, with the exception of the small republic of Libya on the west coast.Even Liberia, founded in 1882 as a new colony of freed black Americans (it took its name from the Latin Liber, meaning "freedom"), had by 1911 become a De facto American protectorate. Meanwhile, on the southern tip of the continent, the British acted as the Germans established a protectorate in Southwest Africa and as the Portuguese planned to link Angola on the west coast with Mozambique on the east coast.The British took control of three areas - Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland; all three areas were turned into Aboriginal reservations and brought under the control of the British Commissioner.North of the Limpopo, the English were attracted by the rich goldfields and healthy highlands suitable for white colonization. In 1889, the British government granted the British South African Company a charter, stipulating that the scope of the company's activities was "bounded by the west and north of the Republic of South Africa and the west of the Portuguese territory".Colonists began to move in; in 1890, the city of Salisbury was established on the plateau with beautiful scenery and pleasant climate between the Limpopo River and the Zambezi River.These British colonies would have been challenged if they hadn't been challenged from both sides - from the local King Robengula, who was still trying to drive out the white invaders, although it was too late, and from the ambitious Neighboring Portuguese—wouldn't take root.Robengula was forced to make concessions to the dominant British power, and the Portuguese signed a treaty in 1891 ceding most of the disputed territory to the British.After World War I, the British South Africa Company relinquished its charter and formed its possessions into the two colonies of Southern Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia. Table 1 The political division of Africa in 1914 The British also encountered difficulties in South Africa, where their feud with the Boer colonists erupted into all-out war in 1899.After the war, the British allowed the Boers self-government in the Åland Free State and the Transvaal; in 1907, these two colonies joined forces with Natal and the Cape Colonies to form the Commonwealth of South Africa. The end result of this unprecedented territorial expansion was that the entire African continent was divided among the European powers.As mentioned earlier, the only exceptions are Libya and Ethiopia, two volatile countries.Table 1 provides a detailed analysis of the African continent in 1914. Since the partition of Africa had obvious economic motives, it is not surprising that the partition was accompanied by dramatic economic changes.Europe was no longer content with shiploads of slaves in coastal ports.The industrialized West no longer needed slaves because technology had provided a great variety of machinery.Instead, the West needs the raw materials found in the African interior because it now has the technological means to extract them. With the discovery of diamonds at the Kimberley (1867) and gold at the Witwatersrand (1884), important first steps were taken in the development of Africa's resources.Equally large mineral riches were found in Rhodesia and the Congo; gold and copper were found in Rhodesia, and gold, copper, and diamonds in the Congo.Many areas of the West Coast are rich in tropical forest products such as palm oil, rubber and ivory.Some European and American companies purchased large plantations in areas such as Congo, Cameroon, and French Equatorial Africa; Firestone Company is an example. In 1926, it leased a 90-year, 100,000-square-meter land in Libya. acres of land. Not only did foreign companies lease large tracts of land, but foreign settlers also took over much of the fertile arable land.Explorers have reported that some plateaus in the interior not only have a pleasant climate, but also fertile soil.As a result, European settlers flocked in droves, especially into Southern Rhodesia and East Africa.Before long, they acquired the most desirable agricultural properties in these areas. To transport the minerals and agricultural products produced at the time, Europeans set about laying a network of railroads across Africa, just as they had earlier done in Asia.These railways were laid to facilitate the export of products, not to promote the overall development of the economy.Therefore, the railway system in West Africa is only from north to south, but there is no direct railway connection between east and west. Incentivized to expand production and build vehicles, trade reached the point where traditional barter gave way to the monetary system.Africans no longer exchanged slaves, gold dust, feathers, and ivory with Europeans for salt, feeders, cloth, rum, and gin.By the end of the 19th century, British silver coins, Austrian dollars and US dollars were in common use here. All of these economic developments have naturally had a profound impact on indigenous peoples.Residents of the temperate Highlands were most affected by the encroachment of their land by white settlers.In some cases, entire areas were used exclusively by whites, and Africans could not cultivate the land there, even though the fields were sometimes fallow.因而，非洲人不得不在白人的种植园里劳动，领取工资；有些人甚至就“定居”在白人农场主的土地上，为他们劳动，以取得为自己耕种一小块土地的特权。在其他地区，非洲人发现必须离开他们的家园，到矿山上去干活。如果非洲人拒绝提供种植园和矿山所需要的劳力，那么，白人就会采用各种强迫劳动的方法。最通常的方法是征收人头税，迫使非洲人为了挣钱交税而去干活。由于上述种种发展，非洲人传统的经济上自给自足的程度降低了。他们不再仅仅为养活自己及家庭而工作，而愈益被卷入货币经济中，并受到世界经济条件的影响。例如：工业化国家中的经济萧条直接影响了铜矿的开采，而世界棕榈油价格的暴跌立即减少了西非许多个体生产者的收入。由此可以看出，欧洲经济影响的结果是双重的：一是使非洲人卷入世界范围的货币经济中；二是直接或间接池使他们从属于在任何地方都是“老板”的白人。 同商人、投资者、移民一起从欧洲来的还有欧洲的传教士。他们对非洲文化有深远的影响，因为他们是最先有意识地试图改变非洲文化的欧洲人。其他人对非洲文化的影响是间接的、偶然的，如他们强迫非洲人离开他们祖先的村庄、到城市或矿山去工作时的情况就是如此。但传教士却带着改变非洲人生活方式的公开目的来到这里，为实现这一目的他们运用了三大工具：教育、医学和宗教。 提供西方教育和西方思想的学校是每个传教站的一个主要部分。这些学校特别有影响，因为大多数殖民政府都将教育交给了传教士。在许多方面，教会学校就其影响而言是建设性的：他们经常教学生如何建造较好的房屋、如何改进自己的农业方法、如何遵循健康法和公共卫生的基本原理。他们不仅向学生传授欧洲语言，还教学生用非洲语言进行阅读和写作。传教士确立了非洲语言的书面形式，从而给非洲本土文学打下了基础。绝大多数选择文字生涯的非洲人都在教会学校受过教育。 另一方面，这些学校不可避免地对非洲人民产生一种破坏性的影响；它们常常教导学生说，传统的生活方式是原始的、错误的。经过一段时间后，这些学生不太听从父母和长辈的教导，而更多地听从他们认为应予以尊敬的欧洲教师的教导。此外，教会学校使用的是欧洲课本，讲授欧洲多于讲授非洲。在法国殖民地中使用的早期历史教科书就是以讲述“我们的祖先高卢人”的课文开头的。教会教育鼓励个人主义，这与非洲人的村社生活方式格格不久。毫不奇怪，受过几年这类教育的非洲人通常都不愿意返回他们的村庄。相反，他们在殖民政府、传教团或私人企业中寻找工作，因而进一步脱离了他们的传统文化。 传教团还将医学知识和医疗器材带入非洲，挽救了许多非洲人的生命。不过，除了救人之外，医学还迫使非洲人对有关致病原因和死亡原因的传统思想提出疑问。白人甚至能在非洲人正式祈求神灵但却毫无作用之后将病人治好。因此，人们不再指望靠传统的宗教来应付一切紧急情况和提供所有的答案。尽管大多数非洲人仍坚持他们过去的信仰，但传统的宗教不再象以前那样是一种使非洲人的整个生活方式结成一体的有效的接合剂。 欧洲的印记在政治领域如同在经济领域和文化领域一样显著。首先，各殖民地的边界必须确定下来（其结果完全取决于欧洲的势力平衡）。当地的土著居民并不关心这些边界，因此，他们经常发现自己处在两个甚至三个欧洲列强的统治之下。例如，在索马里，一些人由法国人统治，另一些人由英国人统治，还有一些人归意大利人统治，少数人甚至发现自己处在埃塞俄比亚国内。 一旦边界确定下来，组织管理体系的问题便随之而来。欧洲各国政府没有足够的人力去直接统治辽阔的非洲大陆上的所有民族，因此，他们采取了各种形式的间接统治；允许部族酋长保留某种权力，通过他们进行管理。通常，英国人给酋长的回旋余地比法国人所给予的要大，但即便这样，法国人也不能控制一切，因为他们的非洲领地太大，而他们所能配给的官员非常有限。 从表面上看，非洲人仍保留了他们传统的政治制度。他们仍有自己的长者议会、自己的法律、自己的法庭和自己的酋长。但实际上，这种政治机构已遭破坏。当地的欧洲行政官员能任免酋长；酋长的决定不再具有法律的力量，因为部族成员可以越过他们的首领向欧洲官员反映情况，而欧洲官员的话才是决定性的。有位殖民地官员曾谈到他是如何治理所辖地区的，他的下面这段话清楚地说明了酋长权力被剥夺的程度： 或许，欧洲人的统治所引起的经济变化和文化变化是破坏传统政治制度的最主要的因素。过去，人们常常认为酋长的权力是部族之神赐给的，因此他们的宗教领导权加强了他们的政治权力。很明显，在人民政信一个新宗教的地方，或者在他们对过去的信仰发生动摇的地方，酋长的宗教领导权和政治权力都被削弱了。同样，那些因在城市或矿山工作而挣得钱财的人获得了地位和独立，而这是他们继续呆在村庄里所得不到的。在某些情况下，这些新富起来的人实际上比过去的酋长更有威信和权力。 对传统的部族当权者的最严重、最直接的挑战来自非洲人中受过西方教育的一个阶层；这一阶层在几乎所有殖民地中逐渐发展起来。他们往往不仅向当地酋长挑战，而且向欧洲官员挑战。他们通常是最先提出允许受过教育的非洲人参与国家管理这一要求的人。这些人是最早的民族主义者；他们为今天强大的民族主义运动打下了基础。他们之所以这样做，是因为他们在西方学校吸收了某些政治思想，如个人自由和政治自由等；他们不明白为什么自由主义和民族主义的原则应适用于欧洲而不应适用于非洲。他们在受雇于政府和私人时经常遭到歧视，这一点也驱使他们发动政治运动。通常，他们只能是欧洲公司中薪水微薄的职员，或者殖民地行政机构中职位很低的官员。此外，他们无法明白为什么他们在获得所需的教育和经验之后，仅仅因为自己的皮肤是黑的而仍应被置于从属地位。基督教，尤其是新教，之所以会唤起民族主义，就因为它强调了个人的判断力和主动性。安哥拉一家杂志的作者阐明了这一点：“告诉一个人他能随意解释《圣经》，就是向他暗示一种过分的自治权，使他变成反叛者。……一个皈依新教的土著已倾向于——并不是说积极投身于——反抗文明的民族。” 正是种种力量的结合，驱使受过西方教育的非洲人去接管本民族的政治领导权。1914年以前，他们并不要求完全的独立，但坚持要更多地参与政治，从而为今天成功的民族主义运动准备了条件。 上述概况表明，在许多方面，欧洲给非洲留下的印记比给欧亚大陆留下的要深得多。欧亚大陆并不存在着通过奴隶贸易使非洲人力枯竭的类似情况，虽然非洲的总人口并未因此而受到严重影响。除了南亚外，欧亚大陆也不存在农业土地转让的情况，尽管这种转让在非洲也仅限于东非和南非。同样，欧亚大陆不存在运输、财政、外贸、采矿业和制造业实际上完全为欧洲人所控制的情况。最后，除菲律宾外，欧亚大陆还不存在欧洲基督教和欧洲语言广泛传播、欧洲传教士通过他们的学校和医疗机构扩大文化影响的情况。 欧洲对非洲和欧亚大陆的影响程度截然不同的根本原因在于非洲和欧亚大陆所达到的总的发展水平完全不同。这种明显的差别在各个方面——文化的复杂、经济和技术的发展以及与此相关的人口密度等方面——都普遍存在。正是这种差别使撒哈拉以南非洲更远远地易受到欧洲传教士、企业家和移居者的伤害。 然而，撒哈拉以南非洲的极不发达提供了乡村水平的天然抵抗（这与受欧洲影响的城市中心的情况截然不同）。1914 年以前，非洲大陆大多数地区的内地村庄仍保持着自给自足的经济和完整的传统文化；这使它们在很大程度上不受西方的影响。在承认欧洲在某些基本方面的决定性影响的同时，人们还应认识到，即使在今天，撒哈拉以南非洲的许多村庄仍保留着传统的生活方式而未发生较大的变化。