MC_A Concise History of Africa

Colonialism

Liberia : the American Colonization Society was founded in 1816 to help freed African slaves in America migrate back to Africa. Liberia was to be the “Land of the Free,” but its foundation was resisted by the indigenous people of the part of West Africa where Liberia was intended to be. The ACS closely controlled its development, but by the 1840s, Liberia had become a financial burden and the ACS was effectively bankrupt. The transported Liberians had soon become demoralized by hostile local tribes, bad management, and deadly diseases, and Liberia, moreover, was forced to consider political threats, chiefly from Britain, because it was neither a sovereign power nor the bona fide colony of any sovereign nation. In 1847, the colony became the independent nation of Liberia in the absence of the United States declining to claim sovereignty.

The Economics of Colonialism Economic development was a viable option, as far as colonialism was concerned, but required an assortment of approaches to fit varied administrative structures, from the light touch of indirect rule, often used by the British, to the direct rule practiced by the French in West Africa and the Belgians in the Congo; in Rhodesia there was company rule, and there was a parliamentary system with some European oversight in Egypt. Amajor problem was that the world economy and the demand for commodities was changing rapidly. The car industry was now emerging, leading to a demand for rubber for tyres, while bauxite did not become useful until the inter-war period, when the use of aluminium came to the fore. In 1901, the completion of the Uganda Railway, from the coast at Mombasa to the Lake Victoria port

The White Highlands The White Highlands is an area in the central

of Kisumu, led colonial authorities to encourage the growth of cash crops to help pay for its operating costs. Another result of the railway’s construction was to transfer the eastern section of the Uganda protectorate to the Kenya colony, then called the East Africa Protectorate, to keep the entire LEFT: Dwellings along the Mesurado River in Monrovia, Liberia. OPPOSITE: Farmland in the Kisoro District of Uganda. the Mau Mau uprising, a revolt against colonial rule in Kenya, which lasted from 1952 to 1960 and helped to hasten Kenya’s independence. uplands of Kenya, so-called because, during the period of British Colonialism, European or white immigrants settled there in considerable numbers. They were attracted to the good soils and growing conditions, as well as the cool climate. Many Kenyans use the rich soil to grow crops. The East Africa Protectorate, founded in 1905, encouraged British immigration. By the time British Kenya was established in 1920, about 10,000 British people had colonized the area. The colony granted settlers 999-year leases over about 25 percent of the good land in Kenya. This area was at the heart of

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