This is just a simplified guide. The questions are not central to the discussion in this class, but rather basic starting points.

Prof. Jorge Majfud

After the Berlin Conference (1885), European powers conquered most of Africa through force. Although most African resistance movements were defeated, Ethiopia’s victory at Adwa proved that European conquest was not inevitable. Colonial rule imposed artificial borders, economic exploitation, and lasting political and social consequences.

1. What was the main purpose of the military campaigns launched by European powers in Africa after the Berlin Conference of 1885?
2. Which African state successfully defeated a European invasion and remained independent during the Scramble for Africa?
3. Why is the Battle of Isandlwana (1879) considered a significant event in African resistance to colonialism?
4. What methods did Germany use to suppress the Herero and Nama uprising in present-day Namibia, and why is this campaign historically significant?
5. What were the immediate causes and major consequences of the British Punitive Expedition against the Kingdom of Benin in 1897?

Table of Contents

European Invasions

After the Berlin Conference (1885), European powers had to establish actual control over territory to claim it. This triggered a series of military campaigns between roughly 1885 and 1914, as European armies sought to conquer African states that resisted colonial rule.

From 1885 to 1914, Africa was transformed politically and economically. 90 per cent of Africa came under European colonial rule. Like in Asia and Middle East, artificial colonial borders ignored existing ethnic, linguistic, and political boundaries, contributing to future conflicts.

Colonial governments imposed new systems of taxation, forced labor, cash-crop agriculture, and resource extraction.

Despite eventual military defeats in most cases, African resistance challenged European expansion, preserved national identities, and inspired twentieth-century independence movements. Ethiopia’s victory at Adwa, in particular, became a powerful symbol that colonial conquest was not inevitable.

France

France in Algeria: 1830–1903 (longest colonial conquest in Africa, mostly after 1885)
Created the Algerian resistance. Algeria was the model for French settler colonialism.

Initial resistance was led by Emir Abdelkader (1832–1847). Later revolts continued throughout the nineteenth century. France confiscated large amounts of land for European settlers (colons or pieds-noirs). By 1900 Algeria had become France’s largest settler colony.

Samori Touré, leader of Wassoulou Empire in West Africa. (1882–1898)

Present-day Guinea, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire.

Samori Touré imported repeating rifles, manufactured ammunition, and used guerrilla warfare. Also relocated entire populations to avoid French capture. For nearly 16 years, he prevented French expansion.He was finally captured in 1898 and exiled.

France in Madagascar. 1896–1898.

Merina Kingdom. End of independent Madagascar. France invaded Madagascar and defeated the Merina Kingdom. Queen Ranavalona III was exiled. End of one of Africa’s last independent island monarchies.

Britain

Britain in Zulu Kingdom, 1879. Zululand.

Battle of Isandlwana: The Zulus destroyed an entire British army. About 1,300 British soldiers were killed. It remains Britain’s greatest defeat by an indigenous African army.

Britain vs. Boers, 1881. Transvaal. Showed Europeans could also resist empire.

Britain vs. Ndebele Kingdom. 1893–1894 Zimbabwe. Expansion of Cecil Rhodes’ empire.

Britain in Sudan. 1881–1899.

Mahdist State vs. Britain & Egypt. British reconquest. Largest successful anti-colonial state before defeat. Muhammad Ahmad united much of Sudan. He captured Khartoum (1885) and established an independent Mahdist state.

Britain reconquered Sudan in 1898 in the Battle of Omdurman. 11,000 Mahdists and fewer than 50 British soldiers were killed due to the use of Machine guns and modern artillery. Overwhelming technological superiority of industrial armies.

Britain in Kingdom of Benin. 1897.

British victory. Famous destruction and looting of Benin City.

After conflict with British officials, Britain launched the Punitive Expedition.

Tensions before 1897: The Kingdom of Benin resisted British efforts to expand trade and political control over its territory. British officials wanted greater access to Benin’s markets and resources, while Benin sought to preserve its sovereignty and regulate foreign trade.
The Phillips expedition (January 1897): Acting Consul General James Robert Phillips led a delegation into Benin despite being advised to wait because the Oba was observing a sacred ceremony. Benin warriors intercepted the delegation, and Phillips and most of the British party were killed.
The Punitive Expedition (February 1897): Britain responded by sending a large military force under Harry Rawson. The force defeated Benin’s defenders, captured and burned Benin City, exiled the Oba, and annexed the kingdom into the British colonial empire.

Benin City was burned. Thousands of artworks (the famous Benin Bronzes) were looted.
The kingdom was incorporated into British Nigeria. One of history’s best-known cases of colonial cultural destruction and looting.

Britain in Mahdists, 1898. Industrial warfare against African armies.

Italy

Italy in Ethiopia. 1895–1896.

Ethiopian victory. Only African state to decisively defeat a European invasion. Italy attempted to turn Ethiopia into a protectorate through the Treaty of Wuchale. Italy claimed Ethiopia had accepted Italian protection but the Emperor Menelik II rejected that interpretation.

Battle of Adwa 100,000 Ethiopian soldiers and 17,000 Italians were killed.

The Ethiopians won a decisive victory and remained independent (except during the Italian occupation of 1936–1941).

Benito Mussolini received funding from British intelligence during World War I. In 1917, as he was beginning his political career as a journalist, he received a weekly salary authorized by Samuel Hoare—the head of British intelligence in Rome—in exchange for advocating that Italy remain in the war. He used these funds to strengthen the early Fascist militias, the Blackshirts, who intimidated and assaulted anti-war protesters in cities such as Milan and Rome.

Years later, bolstered by the violence of his followers and electoral fraud, Mussolini consolidated his Fascist dictatorship. In 1935, his colonial ambitions in Africa once again aligned with British interests during negotiations for the Hoare-Laval Pact, which proposed granting Italy a large portion of Ethiopia. Although the agreement collapsed due to the ensuing scandal, Mussolini continued his imperial expansion and, shortly thereafter, allied himself with Hitler to enter World War II.

Germany

Germany in Namibia, 1904–1908. Genocide of Herero & Nama. First genocide of the twentieth century.

The Herero and Nama peoples rebelled against German colonial rule in present-day Namibia. General Lothar von Trotha ordered their extermination. Germans drove civilians into the Namib Desert, poisoned water sources, established concentration camps, and used forced labor.

65–80% of the Herero population died. About half of the Nama population died.

Widely recognized by historians as the first genocide of the twentieth century and a precursor to later German practices of racial violence.

In 2021, Germany agreed to pay Namibia €1.1bn ($1.25bn) over the historical Herero-Nama genocide.

The Maji Maji Rebellion (1905–1907)

Germany in East Africa, 1905–1907 Maji Maji rebellion. Massive civilian casualties from famine.

In German East Africa (present-day Tanzania), many ethnic groups united against forced cotton cultivation and colonial labor. The rebellion was inspired by the belief that sacred water (maji) would protect fighters from bullets. Germany crushed the revolt using a scorched-earth strategy.

200,000–300,000 were killed, mostly from famine.

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