Colonialism The section on Colonialism is very inadequate No sources are cited I recommend that the following be added To speak of the scramble for Africa is to begin a debate centuries old In the words of Robert Collins The explanations for the colonization of Africa are nearly as unsatisfactory as they are numerous The misconceptions are as enduring as they are erroneous To scholar and student alike the search for understanding this dynamic period which resulted in European colonial rule in Africa and dramatically altered the future of a vast continent is the Problem of the Partition of Africa Robert O Collins Historical Problems of Imperial Africa Princeton Markus Wiener Publishers 1994 7 By 1870 many European nations were interested in the African interior and began moving up the rivers Generally except for a few cases foreign powers could not move beyond small coastal enclaves Kevin Shillington History of Africa Revised Second Edition New York Macmillian Publishers Limited 2005 301 But from the years of 1880 1900 the European imperial powers engaged in a major territorial scramble and occupied most of the continent creating many colonial nation states and leaving only two independent nations Liberia an independent state partly settled by African Americans and Orthodox Christian Ethiopia known to Europeans as Abyssinia Colonial rule by Europeans would continue until after the conclusion of World War II when all colonial states gradually obtained formal independence The scramble came from the rising of a new world from old Europe Until this point Britain had been the undisputed leader in the industrial realm They could produce more manufactured goods than any other country and at the lowest price Britain promoted the idea of free trade in Africa the idea that no European countries would interfere with one another while freely trading in Africa Britain had no worries until the 1860 s when France Germany and the United States had caught up with Britain in terms of industrial technology and manufacturing Kevin Shillington History of Africa Revised Second Edition New York Macmillian Publishers Limited 2005 301 As a result of this industrialization of the world there was a shortage of markets to sell to many European countries as a result looked to Africa as a potential client Some believed when diamonds were discovered in 1869 they provided the incentive and capital for a large influx of Europeans Robert O Collins Historical Problems of Imperial Africa Princeton Markus Wiener Publishers 1994 7 The creation of the Suez Canal not only made the East African coast more accessible but also became the great pivot in British imperial strategy ibid 7 Above all else we must look at this imperial world pragmatically and not ideologically Until this point military and political relations between Africans and Europeans concludes that Africans controlled the nature of their interactions with Europe Europeans did not possess the military power to force Africans in any type of trade in which their leaders did not wish to engage John Thornton Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic World 1400 1800 second edition New York Cambridge University Press 1998 7 But a new world as noted above had begun Because of new competition in the trading industries of Europe and the Americas Britain now had rivals for trade in Africa Even smaller countries sometimes wanted to get involved looking for quick cash and to find ways to sustain their countries Within the hubris of the European nations was the ideal of national prestige an idea that holding African colonies would increase the power of a nation Kevin Shillington History of Africa Revised Second Edition New York Macmillian Publishers Limited 2005 303 New technology as well in the form of the repeater rifle and the maxim gun gave Europeans new advantages over Africa There had been trade of guns with Africa before this era but as Hilaire Belloc put it Whatever happens we have got The Maxim gun and they have not Kevin Shillington History of Africa Revised Second Edition New York Macmillian Publishers Limited 2005 301 But the main question that we must decide is how the partition of Africa began What was the primary catalyst for the scramble Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher argue that the British occupation of Egypt began the process Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher with Denny Alice Africa and the Victorians The Official Mind of Imperialism London Macm