Colonialism in Africa

Colonialism in Africa was the political and economic domination of African territories by foreign powers, especially during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It imposed external rule while reshaping borders, economies, and societies.

Scramble for Africa: The rapid European conquest and partition of most of Africa, chiefly from the 1880s to the early twentieth century. This partition established the territorial claims that colonial administrations enforced.
Colonial borders in Africa: State boundaries in Africa largely established through European partition and later retained after independence. Many postcolonial states inherited borders drawn without regard to existing political communities.
Atlantic slave trade: The forced transportation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic for enslavement in the Americas from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Its long disruption of African societies preceded, but was distinct from, territorial colonial rule.
Menelik II: Emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 to 1913, known for modernizing the state and defeating Italy at Adwa. His victory at Adwa preserved Ethiopian independence during the partition era.
Indirect rule: A colonial governing system that ruled through existing local authorities under imperial supervision. This approach contrasted with administrations that governed more directly through foreign officials.
Berlin Conference: An 1884–1885 meeting at which European powers set rules for claiming territory in Africa. Its agreements accelerated the diplomatic partition without African participation.
African resistance to colonialism: Armed and nonviolent opposition by African societies to foreign conquest and colonial rule. Resistance challenged the legitimacy and practical reach of colonial authority.
European imperialism: The extension of European political, economic, and military power over other regions. African colonization formed part of a wider expansion of European empires.
Samori Ture: A West African ruler and military leader who resisted French expansion in the late nineteenth century. His campaigns show the sustained military resistance many colonial conquests faced.
Assimilation (colonialism): A colonial policy seeking to incorporate colonized people into the colonizer’s culture and institutions. French colonial policy often invoked assimilation, unlike systems emphasizing separate local authorities.

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