Africa H1 A Peer Tutoring

a. Explain how the European partitioning across Africa contributed to conflict, civil war, and artificial political boundaries in Africa today.

As European imperialism spread across the globe, competition for African land increased.

This fight over land is commonly referred to as the Scramble for Africa (1881-1914). They wanted to spread their religion, gain natural resources, and look powerful. (3 Gs.)

As European countries faced increasing conflicts amongst themselves over the land, they agreed to the Berlin Conference (1884-1885).

Unsurprisingly, African leaders were not invited to the Berlin Conference. The pre-existing cultural, linguistic, and political landscapes of Africa were ignored to the future detriment of many. As when slicing a cake, European leaders divided Africa in the most convenient way for them. These new partitions even combined rival groups in the same colonies.

These tensions, particularly ethnic tensions, were intensified by the method of indirect rule. Indirect rule allowed imperial powers freedom from governance of their colonies while quietly encouraging conflict between two local groups, one whom they gave power of governance over the other.

The European partitioning served to weaken Africa’s stability and continues to force the continent to grapple with its histories, cultures, and identities to the modern day.

As colonies gained independence, they still grappled with these domestic issues as sovereign nations. The Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) and the Rwandan genocide (1990-1994) were events that confronted each country’s legacy of indirect rule.

In Rwanda, it was less than 30 years after independence that members of the Hutu group orchestrated a genocide against the Tutsi who were given preferential treatment under British indirect rule.

All these and similar armed political conflicts are directly responsible for refugee crises, starvation, and lack of stability experienced in modern African history.

European countries created colonies in Africa with no regard to pre-existing ethnic, political, or religious divisions. This worked to their advantage by the age old adage of “divide and conquer.” After African colonies gained independence, the new nations stayed confined to their colonial borders with the same domestic conflicts.

Civil war, genocide, and conflicts over how to rule, as well as the accompanying human rights abuses associated with these conflicts, spread across the continent leaving an indelible mark on Africa’s modern history.