Colonial Rule
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Welcome to Colonialism Level 1, Lesson 2: Colonial Rule
In this lesson, you will learn about:
What Europeans did to people once Africa was conquered
The racist political system that was installed
Objectives
By the end of this lesson, you will understand:
How Africa’s modern-day borders were produced
How Europe was able to conquer Africa
What Black people were forced to do under colonialism
Which European countries directly ruled over Africa
Each African country today has borders that were drawn up by Europeans at the Berlin Conference, and many still have the names given to them by Europe.
After the conference, Europe waged war on Africa, using weapons developed from the wealth produced by slavery such as the machine gun to terrorise the population. All of Africa’s empires resisted this terrorism but unfortunately, due to superior weaponry and the greed of certain officials, even the strongest of them fell to the white conquerors.
Below is a table showing examples of how the Berlin Conference divided some of Africa’s nations.
The nations of Europe then installed a system of racial hierarchy in each country. White governmental officials ruled the countries as a white colonial army protected these racist regimes. The Black population were enslaved and forced to work on plantations, in mines, in governor quarters, and on railroads. Conditions were terrible as Black people were forced to slave away often at gunpoint.
Just like throughout the Americas, Africans in Africa were toiling for the profits of white people. Gold and diamonds were mined in treacherous conditions for up to 18 hours a day! Railroads were worked on, not for the transport of any Africans, but for the transport of white colonial officials, armies, and goods produced by the enslaved. Crops were grown on miles of land as Africans were forced to feed the people of Europe while their own children starved.
This period also saw an expansion of European and American corporations. Many of the biggest corporations of today were given African land and the use of Black colonial labour by the governments of Europe. Britain, France, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Spain all directly ruled over Africa and the entire white world, from Russia to the USA, benefited from European colonialism.