New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa

The 'new imperialism' of the late nineteenth century saw European powers rapidly partition Africa and extend control across Asia and the Pacific between roughly 1870 and 1914.

Definition

The phase of intensified European imperial expansion from about 1870 to 1914, characterized by the rapid colonial partition of Africa and extensive annexations elsewhere.

Scope

This topic examines the accelerated imperial expansion of the late nineteenth century, focusing on the partition of Africa formalized at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, but also covering Asia and the Pacific. It surveys the economic, strategic, technological, and ideological explanations for the scramble, the role of the 'man on the spot', and the violence of conquest, while attending to the major historiographical debates over imperialism's causes.

Core questions

• Why did European powers partition Africa so rapidly after 1880?
• How important were economic motives compared to strategic and political ones?
• What role did technology, such as railways, steamships, and quinine, play?
• How did African states and peoples respond to and resist conquest?

Key concepts

• Berlin Conference
• partition
• informal empire
• monopoly capitalism
• the man on the spot

Key theories

Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism

V. I. Lenin, building on Hobson, argued that monopoly finance capitalism drove imperial expansion as advanced economies exported capital and competed for markets and raw materials.

The peripheral and strategic explanation

Robinson and Gallagher argued that the scramble was driven less by metropolitan economic appetite than by crises on the imperial periphery and strategic concerns such as securing routes to India.

History

Between 1876 and 1912 European powers brought almost all of Africa under colonial control, a process accelerated by the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 that set rules for partition. Contemporary theorists such as Hobson and Lenin offered economic explanations, while later historians, notably Robinson and Gallagher, emphasized strategy and peripheral crises.

Debates

Economic versus strategic causes

Historians continue to dispute whether the scramble was driven by capitalist economics, as Lenin held, or by strategic and political contingencies, as Robinson and Gallagher argued.

Metropolitan versus peripheral initiative

Scholars debate how far expansion was directed from European capitals or driven by events and actors on the colonial frontier.

Key figures

• Ronald Robinson
• John Gallagher
• V. I. Lenin
• Thomas Pakenham
• Henri Wesseling

Seminal works

• robinsongallagher1961
• pakenham1991
• lenin1917

Frequently asked questions

What was the Berlin Conference?

Held in 1884-1885, it was a meeting of European powers that established rules for the colonial partition of Africa; no African representatives were present, and it helped accelerate the scramble.

Was the scramble for Africa mainly about money?

Economic motives mattered, but historians disagree about their weight relative to strategic, political, and ideological factors; the causes of the new imperialism remain debated.