European Powers in Conflict

EXPANSION IN THE INDUSTRIAL AGE HIST 1301 | History European Powers in Conflict The other major countries persisted in increasing their influence in Africa despite Italy's withdrawal, occasionally through the actions of their own private persons. For instance, British businessman Cecil Rhodes founded De Beers in 1888 when he was only a young man and entered the South African diamond trade. De Beers quickly came to dominate the industry. Rhodes was appointed prime minister of the Cape Colony in 1890. Expanding the British Empire in South Africa was Rhodes's aim. He was granted a charter by the British government in 1889, which allowed the British South Africa Company, a business he had founded, to negotiate treaties with the native leaders, get mineral concessions from them, and effectively administer their territories. Thus, in 1895, Rhodes and his operatives called the region Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe), extending British control northward from the Limpopo River in South Africa to the Zambezi River to Central Africa. In addition to seeking personal money and power, Rhodes also wanted to increase British influence in Africa and create space for the Anglo-Saxon population, which he saw as superior. Rhodes had little regard for Africans and was a bigot. He suggested building a "Cape to Cairo" railway to link Britain's East African possessions in order to bolster British authority over Central Africa, where Germany, Belgium, and Portugal all also held territorial claims. He was right, and the British government agreed, that this link would facilitate the administration of the British Empire in Africa and draw in additional settlers. There were a few obstacles in the way, though. Initially, Germany had founded the German East Africa colony in 1891, which is now Burundi, Tanzania, and Rwanda. This essentially blocked the route of the planned railway. Moreover, Portugal protested that it owned much of the territory that Rhodes claimed was a part of Rhodesia, which lay between its territories of Angola and Mozambique. Portugal's claims were rejected by Britain, but there was still a problem: the Mahdist army controlled Sudan, not Britain. In 1896, Britain dispatched Sir Herbert Kitchener to retake Sudan out of concern that it would be taken over by a rival foreign force. Additionally, there was fear that Menelik II might form an alliance with Abdullah Ibn-Muhammed Al-Khalifa, the Mahdist king, in order to expel Europeans. In an attempt to seize control of Sudan, France sent expeditions the same year from Senegal in the west and French Somaliland (Djibouti) in East Africa. In order to construct an east-west railway that would connect its colony of French Somaliland with its holdings in West and Central Africa, France intended to claim Sudan. Along the Nile, Kitchener advanced southward with an army of Sudanese and Egyptians, regaining cities from Mahdist rule and laying railway links while the French advanced slowly across the Sahara. At last, in September 1898, Kitchener and his troops—augmented by British troops—met and destroyed Al-Khalifa, the Mahdist king, at Omdurman. However, Kitchener was sent to the town of Fashoda, where the intended British and French railway lines crossed, before he could retake the remainder of Sudan. A few months prior, the town was taken by the French who had arrived from Senegal. When the two armies awaited orders from their respective governments in September and October, the people of both nations loudly declared that their country was superior. The Royal Navy of Britain got ready for battle. The French dropped their claims, understanding they were outmatched, and the two countries decided on a border between their respective zones of influence in Africa, bringing an end to the socalled Fashoda Incident. The Boer War was Britain's last attempt to seize land in Africa. There was a rise in hostilities between the Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic and the British Cape Colony. The First Boer War broke out in 1877 after Britain said it was annexing the Transvaal Republic. British and Boer armies were at war with one another. After suffering a crushing loss, the British were had to acknowledge the independence of the South African Republic, which was now known as the Transvaal Republic. In 1900, the Boers besieged British Cape Colony villages after an unsuccessful British invasion into the South African Republic. The British implemented a scorched-earth policy in reaction to Boer guerrilla tactics, demolishing Boer houses, farms, and cattle in order to deprive them of food and shelter. Boer women and children were sent to concentration camps, where they perished from malnutrition or illness in numbers close to thirty thousand. The South African Republic and the Orange Free State were absorbed by the Cape Colony when the war concluded in 1902. The Union of South Africa was established in 1910 by the union of the two former Boer republics—the British-controlled Natal Colony and the Cape Colony.