scramble and partition of africa

scramble and partition of africa

The term Scramble for Africa means the rush by European powers to get as many territories as possible on the African continent. This took place before the last quarter of the nineteenth Century in South Africa.
In the whole of Southern Africa, this rush for colonies started before the nineteenth Century, but it did become serious in l880s, which led to sharing of the area with Anglo-Boer tensions.
Therefore the term partition of Africa means dividing the African continent among the scrambling European powers. It was also done at the Berlin Conference 1884-85 and finally on land thus victimizing the African continent.
Several reasons are put forward to explain why the partition of South Africa did actually take place before 1880 than elsewhere in Africa. Despite this, the area was still considered a white man's grave due to tropical diseases, the Europeans regarded the area as a dark continent, there was a negative attitude towards colonies in the area due to European colonial occupation elsewhere, other Europeans wanted to occupy other areas or parts of the world, industrialization in Europe made the whites expand to other areas and end the British monopoly.
Important to note also were internal political problems in Europe, explorers had also not acquired a favorable operational atmosphere, but the discovery of diamonds in 1867 and later gold, pushed more the Scramble for the area.
The reasons for the Scramble for and partition of South Africa range from economic, philanthropic, strategic, mineral discovery, racial purity, nationalism, European superiority over the Africa race, imbalance of power in Europe after 1870 and imperial rivalry in the whole of Africa.
For the sake of South Africa, the Scramble for and Partition of was precipitated by traders like Cecil Rhodes, the Uitlanders and tbe Boer traders in the interior of South Africa. Other forces or agents included the Missionaries, ixplorers, travelers, collaborators, the industrial revolution in Europe, the 1884-85 Berlin conference, imperialists and European thirst colonialists.
The Scramble for South Africa reached the highest peak due to Anglo-Boer tensions in the last quarter of the nineteenth Century, the interference in the area due to German presence in Namibia and the Portuguese hold of Mozambique and Angola.
The climax of this was the Union of the whites in 1910 that dashed hopes for African existence and sovereignty and the launch of Apartheid.
Note, that the Cape in south Africa was a strategic point, which attracted many European explorers and the Dutch in particular who stayed there until the coming of the British who invaded the area in 1795 and later 1806 in their original land in Cape Province leading to the Great Trek upheaval in 1830's.
The Mineral discovery and consequent exploitation was a factor that brought tension among many Europeans in the whole of Africa.
The imposition of British and Dutch Colonial rule in South Africa was done through the use of peaceful and violent methods, which included treaty signing, divide and rule policy, use of Missionaries, men onthe spot or the imperialists, chartered companies, deceit and trickery, use of high commissioners and consuls.
The violent methods included gunboat diplomacy, deployment method and that of outright military conquest as a last resort.
One of the most important political complication in South Africa brought about by the discovery of minerals was theAnglo- Boer wars- 1880-1881, '1895',1899- 1902