The Hubris of Europe

Character of Europe Idea of noblisse

oblige Unequal society Social Ranks Hierarchy of

monarchial society Strong adherence

to natural aristocracy

People seen as subjects, strong patronage system

Europe around 1870 Great Britain- Queen

Victoria France- Emperor

Napoleon III Italy-King Victor

Emmanuel II Austro-Hungarian-

Emperor Francis Joseph

Germany-Kaiser William I

Belgium- King Leopold II

Portugal-King Luis I Spain-King Alphonse

XII

Scramble for Africa Begins in 1876 with Leopold Livingston’s ‘3 Cs’ Commerce, Christianity, Civilization Africa was the lottery ticket for

European countries

A place for new markets Prestige of an overseas empire

where the cards could be played in the halls of Europe

A place for emigrants Africans- there is a fourth ‘C’ Conquest

The New Maxim of the Scramble

The gun, not trade or the cross

African resistance-the Zulu, Mahdi of

Sudan, Abyssinians, Ndebele

Battles were mainly one-sided and brutal

British against the Boers or Italians against the Abyssinians

What the Scramble Gave! Virtually the

whole continent Thirty new

colonies and protectorates

10 million square miles of territory

(Europe is 4 million sq. miles)

110 million new subjects

Finality of Hubris Hubris denied -Liberia and

Ethiopia Leopold dies in

1909 By 1912 the

Scramble is over Squabbles

between France and Germany in the Congo, France and Spain in West Africa end

Italy takes Libya