The European Scramble Affected People in Africa

Partition of Africa

The takeover of Europeans in all of Africa is the European Scramble. The treatment of Africans was sacrificed for the materials and goods needed by the Europeans. The mistreatment caused Africans to rebel even though sometimes their battles were not won. In thirty years European troops colonized Africa in search for natural resources due to the impact of the Industrial Revolution. As a response Africans were enraged that their loved ones had to suffer, while others hoped for change and surrendered.

When the European Scramble started to occur in Africa, Europeans were demanding the right to take Africans and hold them as slaves. As a result the Royal Niger Company commissioned a contract to develop the Niger River delta and surrounding areas in 1886. The tribes in this area both were infuriated and fought back with all other members or they surrendered and gave up. In the case of Prempeh I, who was an Ashanti leader, responded to a British offer of protectorate status in West Africa, 1891. During this time Prempeh I announced that Ashanti “will never allow any such policy and that the state will remain friendly with white men”(Prempeh I). He immediately does not want to agree with the British, yet he does not fight back and chooses to not make an enemy out of this situation.

Since Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia were very large superpowers at that time Menelik II from Ethiopia wrote a letter to these countries. He was terrified that these countries were not going to protect Ethiopia any longer because they were very engrossed in dividing up Africa. In addition Ethiopia’s boundary on the sea fell into the hands of Muslims. Menelik hoped that through “Jesus Christ Ethiopia will regain its ri...

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...y, Italy, and Russia, 1891.

Mojimba, an African chief, describing a battle in 1877 on the Congo River against British and African mercenaries, as told to a German Catholic missionary in 1907.

Ndansi Kumalo, an African Veteran of the Ndebele Rebellion against British advances in southern Africa, 1896.

Prempeh I, Ashanti leader response to a British offer of protectorate status in West Africa, 1891.

Royal Niger Company, commissioned by the British government to administer and develop the Niger River delta and surrounding areas, standard from signed by multiple African rulers, 1886.

Samuel Maherero, a leader of the Herero people, letter to another African leader, German South-West Africa, 1904.

"The Scramble for Africa." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 25 Dec. 1999. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

Yaa Asantewa, Ashanti queen mother, speech to chiefs, West Africa, 1900.