SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA

SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA

Suez Canal (1859)

The Conference of Berlin (1884-1885)

White Man’s Burden (1899)

King Leopold and Belgium

The Boer War (1899)

Significance:



The Conference of Berlin (1884-1885)

Chap. I [relating to the Congo River Basin and adjacent territories]

I. The trade of all nations shall enjoy complete freedom

II. All flags, without distinction of nationality, shall have free access to the whole of the coast-line of the territories.

III. Goods of whatever origin, imported into these regions, under whatsoever flag, by sea or river, or overland, shall be subject to no other taxes than such as may be levied as fair compensation for expenditure in the interests of trade . . .

IV. Merchandise imported into these regions shall remain free from import and transit duties [subject to review after 20 years]

V. No power which exercises or shall exercise sovereign rights in the…regions shall be allowed to grant therein a monopoly or favor of any kind in matters of trade...

VI. All the powers exercising sovereign rights or influence in the aforesaid territories bind themselves to watch over the preservation of the native tribes, and to care for the improvement of the conditions of their moral and material well-being and to help in suppressing slavery, and especially the Slave Trade, Christian missionaries, scientists, and explorers, with their followers, property, and collections, shall likewise be the objects of especial protection.
Freedom of conscience and religious toleration are expressly guaranteed to the natives, no less than to subjects and to foreigners.

Rhodes on how to treat African tribesmen:
“You should kill all you can, as it serves as a lesson to them when they talk things over at their fires at night.”

Rudyard Kipling:
“Africans are half devil, half child.”

White Man’s Burden (1899)
“Take up the White Man's burden
The savage wars of peace
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hope to naught...”

“Take up the White Man's burden
Ye dare not stoop to less
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your Gods, and you.”

“Take up the White Man's burden
Have done with childish days
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Come now, to search your manhood Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers.”