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Example research essay topic: Franco Prussian War Suez Canal - 2,210 words

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By the mid 1800 s colonialism appeared to have become a thing of the past. Except for Canada, which was on its way toward self-rule, Britain had lost her American holdings. Spain and Portugal had lost control of most of South America and the Caribbean, and The Netherlands was having difficulties maintaining the East Indies (saburchill. com). The prevailing train of thought was that colonies were a burden to the mother country and should be formally acquired only if absolutely necessary. Most nations, especially Great Britain, preferred to avoid governing foreign lands, and instead strove to build influence with native leaders in order to secure their interests.

Imperialism was seen as something that despots engaged in and was unfitting of civilized nations. As time progressed, these views changed and a second phase of colonization took place. This New Imperialism was seen as glorious and combined the Europeans curiosity, innovation, and desires to spread civilization, with greed, arrogance, and nationalism. Within twenty years, every corner of the world that was not formally governed would be claimed by a European state (saburchill. com). Of any place on Earth, Africa saw the most dramatic colonization.

Between 1880 and 1900, the second largest continent on the globe was divided between a handful of European leaders. This is known as the Scramble for Africa. Europeans had known of Africa for centuries, and the Portuguese first established a chain of trading settlements along the West African coast in the 1400 s. The interior of the continent remained shrouded in mystery and untouched by Europeans well into the 19 th century. The first Europeans to take an active interest in Africa were the missionaries who began arriving on the continent around 1800. The sheer size of Africa as well as other factors made penetration nearly impossible until the mid 1800 s when the quality of technology began to improve at an unprecedented pace.

Technological advances facilitated overseas expansion: the steamship, the telegraph, medicines for tropical diseases, and the railway, made it possible for a few foreign countries to open up even the most remote of places. Its no coincidence that the opening of Africa coincided with the closing of the North American frontier. People in Europe spoke of Africa as the New Americas, and after witnessing the Union Pacific and Canada Pacific railways take form, a trans-African rail system seemed realizable (Chamberlain 17 - 27). A variety of reasons drove explores into the Heart of Darkness in the 1800 s, among these were the desire for fame and adventure, humanitarianism, and curiosity. Europeans of the Victorian Era were ceaselessly inquiring people; science and discovery were new, and news of exploration generated intense public interest.

Discovery of the African interior centered on four rivers: the Niger, the Zambesi, the Nile and the Congo (Chamberlain 26). Men such as David Livingston, Henry Stanley, John Kirk and Richard Burton wrote vivid accounts of their journeys, and their exploits became known far and wide. As a result, Africa came to be regarded by a newly literate public, which was highly susceptible to sensationalism, especially when laced with jingoism, as a wild land, absent of civilization. The indigenous Africans were seen as part of the spectacular local color, like lions or zebras (29).

In 1865 Leopold II ascended to the throne of Belgium. The Belgians had only recently gained independence in 1830, and their country was obliged by law to remain a neutral state. Consequently, Belgium could not take part in any European exploits alongside the Great Powers. Although the Belgian government was quite content with the countrys situation, the king was not. King Leopold was passionate about creating a Belgian Empire and he rather sensationally exalted the glories of exploration and conquest (laredo class. net).

Through his Association Internationale Aticaine, he had, by 1875, laid claim to an immense amount of territory, eighty times the size of Belgium, in the Congo River basin. Uniquely, this territory did not become a Belgian colony, but was instead the king's own property, paid for out of his own royal pocket (saburchill. com). Prior to this event, the African interior had been seen as unsuitable for colonization, and the European powers had contented themselves with colonies along the coast. The specter of such an immense, and previously anonymous territory, being claimed by the king of a diminutive state awakened Europe's governments to the possibilities of African expansion and opened up the question of control over most of sub-Saharan Africa (laredo class. net).

The greatest power on earth at this time was Great Britain, and during the Scramble for Africa, it was the British who did most of the grabbing. In the late 1800 s the gem of the British Empire was India, and the prime objective of British diplomacy was aimed at keeping rivals away from her prize. Consequently, the British had been opposed to the construction of the Suez Canal from the moment the idea was first proposed. They believed that any advantages the canal could offer would be outweighed by its strategic liability, the fact that the canal would likely fall into enemy hands in the event of war. Ultimately, the only result of Britains opposition was that the canal ended up being built by the French. History proved the British governments position on the canal to be wrong, and by the 1870 s it had become of tremendous economic importance.

With the arrival of steamships, sailing vessels, and with them, the long voyage around the Cape, became cost-effectively outdated, making the Suez Canal even more important. In 1870 the total annual tonnage that passed through the Suez Canal was 436, 609, by 1882 it had reached 5, 074, 809. Before World War I it would grow to over twenty million tons. In 1882, 80 % of that traffic was British. By the late 1870 s, London clearly could no longer remain indifferent to Egypt or to the Suez Canal, and conditions in Egypt began to invite British intervention. Between 1863 and 1869, Egypt's foreign dept ballooned from 3 million to over 100 million pounds; by 1875 bankruptcy was imminent.

It was then that Benjamin Disraeli, learning that the Egyptians were considering selling their shares in the canal to the French, bought them instead for the British (Chamberlain 35 - 38). The Egyptian ruler, Ismail, eventually reneged on the countrys foreign debt altogether, and Britain and France jointly took over Egypt's finances. When a Nationalist revolt broke out in 1882, and could not be kept under control, Britain decided to quell the revolt directly and in doing so assumed responsibility for the administration of the country (Wikepedia. org). The British occupation of Egypt ended the Anglo-French partnership there and strained relations between the two countries for decades. The French were incurably offended not so much by the British intervention, which they had abstained from taking part in, but rather by Britains decision to remain in the country indefinitely (Chamberlain 44).

In direct response to what was perceived as a Belgian incursion into a French trade zone, France founded a small colony north of the Congo. A number of French politicians led by Jules Ferry, sought commercial gain, prestige and compensation for Frances humiliation and losses in the Franco-Prussian war, by expanding eastwards into the African interior (saburchill. com). They claimed that the way to tap the wealth of the Congo basin was not through the River Congo itself, but by another river, the Ogoue, from which they planned to funnel trade into Equatorial Africa. Among the supporters of this proposal was a French explorer named Savorgnan de Brazza. Nominally employed by the French government, he undertook an expedition up the Ogoue River in the 1870 s.

Along his journey, de Brazza concluded a series of treaties with an African chief known as the Makoko. These treaties ceded large tracts of land to de Brazza, as a representative of France; yet they were vague and highly irregular, and the government decided to ignore them. However, in 1882, as a result of the Egypt crisis, the government of France reversed itself and publicly recognized the Makoko treaties as valid, thereby claiming a considerable amount of territory in Central Africa. It wasnt so much that the French government wanted to get back at Britain, but rather the French public, resenting the losses their country suffered to Germany and angered by the weak role France had played in Egypt, was particularly susceptible to the press campaign that de Brazza, members of the government and other interested parties waged in support of the treaties (Chamberlain 53). The British were now alarmed by what appeared to be rapid French expansion into Central Africa. Since 1879, they had been in land negotiations with Portugal, and in 1884 the two countries concluded a treaty whereby Britain recognized Portugal's ancient claim to the mouth of the Congo River, and agreed to joint British/Portuguese control over navigation of the River, instead of setting up an international zone, as was the custom.

The treaty with Portugal was signed, but not ratified, when protectionist measures within it were found to be unpopular and the Liberal government began searching for a way to avoid ratification all together. Meanwhile the rest of Europe was incensed by what they saw as a private British assumption of an international question. German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck then decided to use the international discord to his benefit. At the time, the German government needed to effect reconciliation with France, however the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine following the Franco-Prussian war made that impossible. France was known to be actively pursuing overseas colonies, and Bismarck seized the opportunity to suggest that Germany and France work together to pressure Britain over the Congo. The Franco-German Entente was short lived; however it had lasting consequences (Chamberlain 53 - 54).

Germany and France persuaded Portugal to put the Congo question before international opinion. Britains consorting with Portugal had merely been to prevent France from gaining more land above the Congo, and she was more than happy to see the situation internationalized. Bismarck invited representatives of the USA, France, the UK, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway, and Zanzibar to Berlin for a conference to decide what the civilized worlds position on Africa would be (Wikepedia. org). Held from November 1884 through February 1885, the Berlin Conference formalized, and effectively laid down the rules under which the Scramble for Africa would take place. The outcome of the Berlin Conference, the Berlin Act, was unprecedented; nothing like it had been seen in international law.

Beyond grating freedom of navigation of the Congo, it designated all of Sub-Saharan Africa a basin and said that the region would be a free trade zone. In addition, the Free State of the Congo was confirmed as property of King Leopold. The third clause of the Berlin act laid down the doctrines of effective occupation and new occupants. Basically, it was concluded that powers could only claim to possess colonies if they actually took control of them, and any power taking possession of any land in Africa would have to notify the other signatory powers of their intent (Wikepedia. org). Effective occupation was insisted on by Bismarck to neutralize Portugal's ancient claims to the west coast of Africa, but it had much farther-reaching consequences.

Vague claims now had to be secured immediately, and the powers were compelled to assert their influences like never before. In most cases, the African chiefs who continued signing (marking) treaties with representatives of European governments as they had for centuries, had no way of knowing that the order of things had changed, and that they were effectively transferring sovereignty (Chamberlain 56). The Scramble for Africa was prompted by King Leopold's activities in the Congo and by the British occupation of Egypt, however it really got underway following the Berlin Conference. Britain had edged cautiously but unalterably toward colonial domination of the lower Niger Basin for decades before things were formalized in Berlin.

Mindful of her apparently weak situation at the onset of the conference, Britain had presented herself as the Niger Power, and had won uncontested acknowledgment of her sphere of influence in the Niger River Basin. However, it was stipulated that only effective occupation would secure full international recognition. Ultimately, pressure in the region from Germany and France hastened the establishment of effective British occupation (Library of Congress. gov). Demands began to escalate from the National African Company, which was in the process of consolidating its control over the Niger region, for official backing from the government. The Foreign Office held out against calls to action, by saying that the protection of trade was not a governmental responsibility, and that it was instead a private matter, and those parties involved should pay for Consular forces.

Opponents to the governments position claimed that keeping France from gaining any more territory in the region was of national concern and warranted London's intervention. They also cited that more trade was conducted in the Niger Basin than in all of Greece or Japan, both of which were supplied with Consular services. Finally the government conceded and the territory was made a protectorate in the mid 1880 s. Britain still wanted to avoid ruling West Africa from Westminster...


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