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152-460: During the Scramble for Africa at the end of the 19th century, Somali inhabited territories were partitioned between imperial powers. The unification of these territories became a focal objective of an independent Somalia . Referred to as 'Greater Somalia', these regions at the outset of Somali independence encompassed British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland , which had successfully merged into

304-717: A terror regime on the colonized people, including mass killings and forced labour, that Belgium, under pressure from the Congo Reform Association , ended Leopold II's rule and annexed it on 20 August 1908 as a colony of Belgium, known as the Belgian Congo . The brutality of King Leopold II in his former colony of the Congo Free State was well documented; up to 8 million of the estimated 16 million native inhabitants died between 1885 and 1908. According to Roger Casement , an Irish diplomat of

456-453: A war with Austria in 1859 , Sardinia, under the leadership of Victor Emmanuel II and Giuseppe Garibaldi , was able to unify most of the peninsula by 1861, establishing the Kingdom of Italy . Following unification, Italy sought to expand its territory and become a great power, taking possession of parts of Eritrea in 1870 and 1882. In 1889–90, it occupied territory on the south side of

608-666: A British Mohawk fighter and a French Potez 631 exchanged shots over the British aerodrome at Ayesha. Following the failure of negotiations and the final defeat of the Italian forces in the field by July 1941—with the exception of General Guglielmo Nasi at Gondar —the French colony was totally surrounded and cut off by hostile British forces. All horses, donkeys and camels were consumed, as well as all fresh fruits and vegetables. Beriberi and scurvy spread and many townsfolk left for

760-865: A base for the subjugation of neighbouring African states and the Dutch Afrikaner settlers who had left the Cape to avoid the British and then founded their republics. Theophilus Shepstone annexed the South African Republic in 1877 for the British Empire, after it had been independent for twenty years. In 1879, after the Anglo-Zulu War , Britain consolidated its control of most of the territories of South Africa. The Boers protested, and in December 1880 they revolted, leading to

912-652: A certain Major Hamilton went to Aden to begin preparing a "Mobile Force" for blowing up the railway from Djibouti to Dire Dawa. In the end, this plan was dropped, since it was not considered politic to upset the Vichyites at that moment. On 24 March 1941, in an attempt to prevent an Italian withdrawal from occupied British Somaliland , the British bombed a section of the Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway and met with heavy French anti-aircraft fire. By that time,

1064-662: A colony in Mashonaland . Tippu Tip , a Zanzibari Arab based in the Sultanate of Zanzibar , also played a major role as a "protector of European explorers", ivory trader and slave trader. Having established a trading empire within Zanzibar and neighbouring areas in East Africa, Tippu Tip would shift his alignment towards the rising colonial powers in the region and at the proposal of Henry Morton Stanley, Tippu Tip became

1216-748: A company of light tanks, four companies of militia and irregulars, two platoons of the camel corps and an assortment of aircraft. Since the Allies were outnumbered by about 40,000 to 9,000 along the Somaliland frontier, no offensive actions were planned, although Legentilhomme did receive an order on 11 June to resist "to the end" ( jusqu'au bout ). The intention was to pin down the Italians while stoking an Ethiopian revolt. The Italians did undertake some offensive actions beginning on 18 June. From Harrar Governorate , troops under General Guglielmo Nasi attacked

1368-617: A dossier of events in French Somaliland from 17 June through 11 July, the colony "ceased to be a theatre of operations" on 28 July. On 2 August Legentilhomme and two officers, Captains Appert and des Essarts, refused the offer of repatriation on an Italian airplane and defected to the British. They arrived in Aden on 5 August. The Italian chief of staff, Pietro Badoglio , had "with casual vindictiveness" ordered him shot if he fell into Italian hands, in accordance with paragraph 14 of

1520-418: A force of 6,000 Azebo Galla and 6,000 Danakil tribesmen already near the frontier. The plan was soon leaked and in response General Guglielmo Nasi was replaced as governor of Harar by a civilian, Enrico Cerulli . The "Danakil horde" continued to monitor the frontier. On the eve of the world war, Fauque de Jonquières, a battalion commander, was in charge of the local intelligence outfit, itself an arm of

1672-637: A full protectorate over Morocco on 30 March 1912, ending what remained of the country's formal independence. Furthermore, British backing for France during the two Moroccan crises reinforced the Entente between the two countries and added to Anglo-German estrangement, deepening the divisions that would culminate in the First World War. Following the Berlin Conference, the British, Italians, and Ethiopians sought to claim lands inhabited by

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1824-650: A governor of the " Stanley Falls District " ( Boyoma Falls ) in Leopold's Congo Free State, before being involved in the Congo–Arab War against Leopold II's colonial state. To the west, in the land where their expansions would meet, was Katanga , the site of the Yeke Kingdom of Msiri . Msiri was the most militarily powerful ruler in the area and traded large quantities of copper, ivory and slaves—and rumours of gold reached European ears. The scramble for Katanga

1976-544: A meeting at Aden in June 1939. In 8–13 January January 1940 a second conference was held at Djibouti . There it was resolved to form an "Ethiopian Legion" in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan , but not to use it without an Italian declaration of war. The British Commander-in-Chief, Middle East , General Archibald Wavell , also agreed that the French commander-in-chief at Djibouti, Paul Legentilhomme , would command

2128-744: A naval base on the Atlantic. The German move was aimed at reinforcing claims for compensation for acceptance of effective French control of the North African kingdom, where France's pre-eminence had been upheld by the 1906 Algeciras Conference. In November 1911, a compromise was reached under which Germany accepted France's position in Morocco in return for a slice of territory in the French Equatorial African colony of Middle Congo . France and Spain subsequently established

2280-739: A pact in December 1984 agreeing to cease hostilities along the border. Following renewed hostilities in the Ogaden with an August 1982 border clash, Ethiopia and Somalia signed a peace treaty in 1988. With the start of the Somali Civil War , the vision of uniting the various historically and predominantly Somali-inhabited areas of the Horn of Africa into a Greater Somalia was temporarily sidelined. Thousands of refugees have been granted political asylum in Kenya. Talk of pan-Somali unification movements for

2432-522: A proletarian nation. The Second Italo-Abyssinian War (1935–1936), ordered by the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini , was the last colonial war (that is, intended to colonise a country, as opposed to wars of national liberation ), occupying Ethiopia —which had remained the last independent African territory, apart from Liberia. Italian Ethiopia was occupied by fascist Italian forces in World War II as part of Italian East Africa though much of

2584-799: A single nation in 1960. French Somaliland , the Northern Frontier District (NFD) in Kenya and the Ogaden region in Ethiopia were placed under the control of neighboring states, despite the pre-independence unification efforts of Somali nationalists . The post-independence governments of the Somali Republic (1960-1969) and the Somali Democratic Republic (1969-1991) expended significant effort towards

2736-442: A source of military power; Britain and France used large numbers of British Indian and North African soldiers, respectively, in many of their colonial wars (and would do so again in the coming World Wars). In the age of nationalism there was pressure for a nation to acquire an empire as a status symbol; the idea of "greatness" became linked with the " White Man's Burden ", or sense of duty, underlying many nations' strategies. In

2888-618: A sprawling African empire. Britain had sought to extend its East African empire contiguously from Cairo to the Cape of Good Hope , while France had sought to extend its holdings from Dakar to the Sudan, which would enable its empire to span the entire continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea . If one draws a line from Cape Town to Cairo (Rhodes's dream), and one from Dakar to

3040-463: A trade surplus: a market that bought more from the colonial power than it sold overall. Surplus capital was often more profitably invested overseas, where cheap materials, limited competition, and abundant raw materials made a greater premium possible. Another inducement for imperialism arose from the demand for raw materials, especially ivory , rubber , palm oil , cocoa , diamonds , tea , and tin . Additionally, Britain wanted control of areas of

3192-700: A transition from " informal imperialism " – military influence and economic dominance – to direct rule. With the decline of the European colonial empires in the wake of the two world wars, most African colonies gained independence during the Cold War , and decided to keep their colonial borders in the Organisation of African Unity conference of 1964 due to fears of civil wars and regional instability, placing emphasis on pan-Africanism . By 1841, businessmen from Europe had established small trading posts along

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3344-824: A very warm acclamatio from these leaders. Tripodi, Paolo. "The Colonial Legacy in Somalia" In August 1940 Mussolini boasted to a group of Somalis in Rome that with the conquest of British Somalia (that he annexed to Italian Somalia) nearly all the Somali people were united, fulfilling their dream of a union of all Somalis. In September 1940 he even announced to the Somali people in Italy of having created an Italian Grande Somalia inside his Italian Empire . Indeed, in early World War II, Italian troops invaded British Somaliland and ejected

3496-543: A war over control of the predominantly Somali Ogaden region. In 1978 and with the help of Soviet and Cuban troops, Ethiopian troops drove back the Somali army from the Ogaden, effectively marking the end of the Ogaden War . In 1981, Siad Barre visited Nairobi , and asserted that Somalia was suspending its claim on the North Eastern Province (NFD). Improved relations with Kenya led to the signing of

3648-416: Is not so clearly linked to capitalism and the free markets... historically there has been a closer link between colonialism/imperialism and state-led approaches to development." While tropical Africa was not a large zone of investment, other overseas regions were. The vast interior between Egypt and the gold and diamond-rich Southern Africa had strategic value in securing the flow of overseas trade. Britain

3800-777: The 1900 World's Fair presented the famous diorama "living" in Madagascar, while the Colonial Exhibitions in Marseilles (1906 and 1922) and in Paris (1907 and 1931)displayed human beings in cages, often nudes or quasi-nudes. Nomadic "Senegalese villages" were also created, thus displaying the power of the colonial empire to all the population. In the U.S., Madison Grant , head of the New York Zoological Society, exposed Pygmy Ota Benga in

3952-459: The Bronx Zoo alongside the apes and others in 1906. At the behest of Grant, a scientific racist and eugenicist , zoo director William Temple Hornaday placed Ota Benga in a cage with an orangutan and labeled him "The Missing Link " in an attempt to illustrate Darwinism , and in particular that Africans like Ota Benga are closer to apes than were Europeans. Other colonial exhibitions included

4104-672: The Cape Colony contributed to a preoccupation over securing the source of the Nile River. Egypt was taken over by the British in 1882, leaving the Ottoman Empire in a nominal role until 1914, when London made it a protectorate. Egypt was never an actual British colony. Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda were subjugated in the 1890s and early 20th century; and in the south, the Cape Colony (first acquired in 1795) provided

4256-656: The Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway . The French refused the demands, believing the true Italian intention was outright acquisition of the colony. On 30 November, after anti-French protests in Rome, the Italian foreign minister, Galeazzo Ciano , demanded the cession of French Somaliland to Italy. Speaking in the Chamber of Deputies on the "natural aspirations of the Italian people", he inspired shouts of "Nice! Corsica! Savoy! Tunisia! Djibouti! Malta!" On 18 December 1938, there

4408-856: The First Boer War . British Prime Minister William Gladstone signed a peace treaty on 23 March 1881, giving self-government to the Boers in the Transvaal . The Jameson Raid of 1895 was a failed attempt by the British South Africa Company and the Johannesburg Reform Committee to overthrow the Boer government in the Transvaal. The Second Boer War , fought between 1899 and 1902, was about control of

4560-575: The First Italo-Ethiopian War broke out in 1895; Italian troops were defeated as the Ethiopians had numerical superiority, better organization, and support from Russia and France. In 1911, Italy engaged in a war with the Ottoman Empire , in which it acquired Tripolitania and Cyrenaica , that together formed what became known as Italian Libya . In 1919 Enrico Corradini developed the concept of Proletarian Nationalism , which

4712-561: The Horn of Africa (the French ambition), these two lines intersect somewhere in eastern Sudan near Fashoda , explaining its strategic importance. A French force under Jean-Baptiste Marchand arrived first at the strategically located fort at Fashoda, soon followed by a British force under Lord Kitchener , commander in chief of the British Army since 1892. The French withdrew after a standoff and continued to press claims to other posts in

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4864-484: The Islamic Courts Union (ICU) which then controlled much of southern Somalia, declared; "We will leave no stone unturned to integrate our Somali brothers in Kenya and Ethiopia and restore their freedom to live with their ancestors in Somalia." Scramble for Africa The Scramble for Africa was the conquest and colonisation of most of Africa by seven Western European powers driven by

5016-514: The Jardin d'Acclimatation , decided in 1877 to organise two "ethnological spectacles", presenting Nubians and Inuit . Ticket sales at the Jardin d'Acclimatation doubled, with a million paying entrances that year, a huge success for these times. Between 1877 and 1912, approximately thirty "ethnological exhibitions" were presented at the zoo. "Negro villages" were presented in Paris' 1878 World's Fair ;

5168-594: The King's African Rifles (KAR), composed of troops from the Tanganyika Territory , were at this time deployed along the Zeila –Loyada and Ayesha –Dewele routes. After the war, De Gaulle alleged that Britain intended to bring French Somaliland into its sphere of influence, and that this explains Britain's reluctance to use force to liberate a territory that would of necessity been surrendered to their forces at

5320-495: The Kingdom of Prussia , and through a series of wars with both Austria in 1866 and France in 1870 was able to unify all of Germany under Prussian rule. The German Empire was formally proclaimed on 18 January 1871. At first, Bismarck disliked colonies but gave in to popular and elite pressure in the 1880s. He sponsored the 1884–85 Berlin Conference , which set the rules of effective control of African territories and reduced

5472-790: The Niger River to the Nile, thus controlling all trade to and from the Sahel region by their existing control over the caravan routes through the Sahara. The British, on the other hand, wanted to link their possessions in Southern Africa with their territories in East Africa and these two areas with the Nile basin. The Sudan (which included most of present-day Uganda) was the key to the fulfilment of these ambitions, especially since Egypt

5624-408: The Ogaden War in Ethiopia and the Shifta War in Kenya. However, following of breakout of the Somali Civil War and the splintering of Somalia into various autonomous polities, the concept of Greater Somalia has seen a sharp decline in support, with some Somali diaspora communities advocating for autonomy or independence rather than a full fledged union. Since the beginning of the 20th century

5776-399: The Ovambo kingdoms , most of which were later conquered. The 1884 Berlin Conference regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa, and is seen as emblematic of the "scramble". In the last quarter of the 19th century, there were considerable political rivalries between the European empires , which provided the impetus for the colonisation. The later years of the 19th century saw

5928-602: The Royal Navy established a blockade of French Somaliland (and dividing the colony) with ships based out of Aden. Pétain replaced Germain as governor with Pierre Nouailhetas , a naval officer, that same month. On 25 September the British bombed Djibouti from the air, prompting Nouailhetas to institute a brutal reign of terror. Europeans suspected of contact with the enemy were interned at Obock , while 45 others were condemned to death or forced labour, mostly in absentia . In May 1941 six Africans were shot without trial to set an example to potential deserters. The rule of Nouailhetas

6080-417: The Second Industrial Revolution during the era of " New Imperialism " (1833–1914): Belgium , France , Germany , United Kingdom , Italy , Portugal and Spain . In 1870, 10% of the continent was formally under European control. By 1914, this figure had risen to almost 90%; the only states retaining sovereignty were Liberia , Ethiopia , Egba , Aussa , Senusiyya , Mbunda , the Dervish State , and

6232-499: The Section d'Études Militaires (SEM), the Deuxième Bureau station in Marseille . After the Italian conquest of Ethiopia he gave money, arms, advisors, propaganda and refuge to the Ethiopian resistance . One French reserve officer, P. R. Monnier, was killed on a secret mission in Ethiopia in November 1939. Despite the fact that British Somaliland bordered the French territory and both were surrounded by Italian East Africa , no Anglo-French joint military planning took place prior to

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6384-407: The Somali Republic , began in 1963 in an ethnic Oromo and Somali district, Elekere , then part of Bale province , instigated by the Oromo founder of the United Liberation Forces of Oromia , Waqo Gutu . The Bale revolt , a peasant revolt stemming from issues involving land, taxation, class, and religion, raged in the province for several years until a number of developments took the energy out of

6536-458: The Somali Youth League selected Harar as the future capital of Greater Somalia and subsequently sent delegates to the United Nations office in Mogadishu to reveal this proposal. Italians occupied the Benadir in 1890 and soon started to enlarge their Somalia italiana ( Italian Somaliland ): they created their colony in the first years of the 20th century. During World War I , Britain secretly reached an agreement with Italy to transfer to

6688-465: The United States . Technological advances facilitated European expansion overseas. Industrialization brought about rapid advancements in transportation and communication, especially in the forms of steamships, railways and telegraphs. Medical advances also played an important role, especially medicines for tropical diseases, which helped control their adverse effects. The development of quinine , an effective treatment for malaria, made vast expanses of

6840-512: The United States . The American consul at Aden, Clare H. Timberlake , even bluffed the acting British governor, John Hall , into getting Frederick Hards , AOC Aden , to fly him to Djibouti to interview Nouailhetas before his dismissal. In the end the Americans apologised for this interference. Only following Operation Streamline Jane —the Allied conquest of Madagascar (September–November 1942)—and Operation Torch —the Allied landing in French Morocco and Algeria in November 1942—did one third of

6992-532: The 1870s, European initiatives against the slave trade caused an economic crisis in northern Sudan, precipitating the rise of Mahdist forces. In 1881, the Mahdist revolt erupted in Sudan under Muhammad Ahmad , severing Tewfik's authority in Sudan. The same year, Tewfik suffered an even more perilous rebellion by his Egyptian army in the form of the Urabi revolt . In 1882, Tewfik appealed for direct British military assistance, commencing Britain's administration of Egypt. A joint British-Egyptian military force entered

7144-423: The 1924 British Empire Exhibition and the 1931 Paris "Exposition coloniale". Italian invasion of French Somaliland Associated articles French Somaliland (officially the Côte française des Somalis , French Somali Coast), with its capital at Djibouti , was the scene of only minor skirmishing during World War II , principally between June and July 1940. After the fall of France (25 June 1940)

7296-445: The African continent, with all their territories located near the coasts. The most important holdings were Angola and Mozambique , held by Portugal ; the Cape Colony , held by the United Kingdom ; and Algeria , held by France . By 1914, only Ethiopia and Liberia remained outside European control, with the former eventually being occupied by Italy in 1936 while the latter having strong connections with its historical colonizer,

7448-405: The Allied offensive against the Italians had tightened the blockade of French Somaliland and a famine was setting in. Malnutrition-related diseases took many lives, 70% of them women and children. The locals named the blockade the carmii , a word for a type of sorghum usually reserved for cattle, but used as human food at the height of the famine. In March 1941, with Free French forces facing

7600-418: The Atlantic. By 1890 the Congo Free State had consolidated control of its territory between Leopoldville and Stanleyville and was looking to push south down the Lualaba River from Stanleyville. At the same time, the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes was expanding north from the Limpopo River , sending the Pioneer Column (guided by Frederick Selous ) through Matabeleland , and starting

7752-407: The British Empire recognized France's claim to Madagascar as well as their sphere of influence in North Africa stretching down to the border region of Sokoto. However, finely demarcating this border was difficult to do without a large map. Although the Berlin Conference had set the rules for the Scramble for Africa, it had not weakened the rival imperialists. As a result of the Entente Cordiale ,

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7904-475: The British. Benito Mussolini annexed the conquered area to the Italian Somalia and added even the area of Moyale and Buna near the Jubaland in eastern Kenya (with some southern borders of French Somalia ). Mussolini told to a group of Somali clan leaders in September 1940 that Italy has realized their dream of a "Greater Somalia", conquering the British Somalia and areas of Kenya around Moyale. Also some southern borders of French Somalia were united. He received

8056-402: The British. However, Britain retained administration of most of the almost exclusively Somali-inhabited Northern Frontier District . Italians even did a tentative to occupy French Somaliland in summer 1940. However the British regained control of British Somaliland in the spring of 1941, and conquered Italian Somaliland and the Somali Region. In 1945, the Potsdam conference was held, where it

8208-454: The Cameroons and South West Africa to be under its protection; and France occupied Guinea. French West Africa was founded in 1895 and French Equatorial Africa in 1910. In French Somaliland , a short-lived Russian colony in the Egyptian fort of Sagallo was briefly proclaimed by Terek Cossacks in 1889. Germany, divided into small states , was not initially a colonial power. In 1862, Otto von Bismarck became Minister-President of

8360-452: The Cameroons, and Tanganyika. Germany tried to isolate France in 1905 with the First Moroccan Crisis . This led to the 1905 Algeciras Conference , in which France's influence on Morocco was compensated by the exchange of other territories, and then to the Agadir Crisis in 1911. After fighting alongside France during the Crimean War (1853–1856), the Kingdom of Sardinia sought to unify the Italian peninsula, with French support. Following

8512-408: The Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway and evacuating them through Djibouti's port. On 1 May Nouailhetas telegraphed Aden to inform the British that he had received permission from Vichy to negotiate. On 8 May General Alan Cunningham responded with his proposals, but no commitments. When the policy of stoking a "rally" had no immediate effect, Wavell suggested negotiations with Nouailhetas to obtain use of

8664-541: The European powers as they divided the continent among themselves. More importantly, the diplomats in Berlin laid down the rules of competition by which the great powers were to be guided in seeking colonies. They also agreed that the area along the Congo River was to be administered by Leopold II as a neutral area in which trade and navigation were to be free. No nation was to stake claims in Africa without notifying other powers of its intentions. No territory could be formally claimed before being effectively occupied. However,

8816-454: The French Somali border and begin disseminating pro-Gaullist propaganda, seeking to justify the British action at Mers-el-Kébir , the attack on Dakar and the war in Syria . This was labelled Operation Marie . The Royal Navy was to ferry the Free French troops to East Africa. The French plan was enthusiastically approved by Churchill, but it was not implemented until the naval assets became available in February 1941. Nonetheless, in November

8968-416: The French colonial project in the late 19th century and early 20th century was the civilizing mission ( mission civilisatrice ), the principle that it was Europe's duty to bring civilisation to benighted peoples. As such, colonial officials undertook a policy of Franco-Europeanisation in French colonies, most notably French West Africa and Madagascar . During the 19th century, French citizenship along with

9120-462: The French conquest of Timbuktu (visited by René Caillié , disguised as a Muslim, in 1828, thereby winning the prize offered by the French Société de Géographie ); Malagasy after the occupation of Madagascar; Amazons of Abomey after Behanzin 's mediatic defeat against the French in 1894. Not used to the climatic conditions, some of the indigenous died from exposure, such as some Galibis in Paris in 1892. Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire, director of

9272-480: The French evacuated the outlying station of Dadda'to and Douméra on the border, although whether it had come under Italian attack is a matter of dispute. The French soon re-occupied it. On 21 June eleven Caproni Ca.133s bombed Djibouti in the largest raid of the colony's brief war. Anti-aircraft fire was intense and two Italian aircraft failed to return, but fires and explosions were seen in Djibouti. Overnight, several waves of Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 bombers attacked

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9424-417: The French foreign minister, Théophile Delcassé , took a defiant line. The crisis peaked in mid-June 1905 when Delcassé was forced out of the ministry by the more conciliation-minded premier Maurice Rouvier . But by July 1905 Germany was becoming isolated, and the French agreed to a conference to solve the crisis. The 1906 Algeciras Conference was called to settle the dispute. Of the thirteen nations present,

9576-513: The French fort at Loyada on the border with British Somaliland in early August. When the Italian invasion of British Somaliland began on 3 August, the forces at Loyada moved on Zeila , which they had taken by 5 August. The French territory was completely surrounded on land by Italian possessions. Vichy managed to continue supplying it by submarine from Madagascar , and maintained direct contact by air through flights from France via Greece (usually terminating in Madagascar). On 18 September 1940,

9728-452: The French government paid increased attention to the defence of French Somaliland. In January 1938 an Italian force moved down onto the plain of Hanlé in French territory and encamped there. Italy claimed that this territory lay on the Ethiopian side of the border, as per the Franco-Ethiopian treaty of 1897. The French colonial minister, Georges Mandel , and the commander-in-chief at Djibouti, Paul Legentilhomme , responded by strengthening

9880-468: The French government. Looking for Italian support against Germany in the event of war, France ceded several territories, including a small piece of territory in northern Somaliland to Italian Eritrea , in the Mussolini–Laval Accord of 7 January 1935. This treaty was never ratified by Italy and although preparations were made to transfer the territory, it was not actually transferred prior to the outbreak of war in 1940. In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia and

10032-412: The French had built a post at Afambo in undisputedly Italian territory, although there is no record that there had been a post there before the Italians built one in October 1940. In January 1940, the Italian viceroy and commander-in-chief in East Africa, Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta , submitted a proposal to Rome for a "surprise" invasion of French Somaliland involving sixteen motorised battalions and

10184-418: The German Kaiser decided to test the solidity of such influence, using the contested territory of Morocco as a battlefield. Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Tangier on 31 March 1905 and made a speech in favour of Moroccan independence, challenging French influence in Morocco. France's presence had been reaffirmed by Britain and Spain in 1904. The Kaiser's speech bolstered French nationalism, and with British support,

10336-422: The German representatives found their only supporter was Austria-Hungary , which had no interest in Africa. France had firm support from Britain, the U.S., Russia, Italy, and Spain. The Germans eventually accepted an agreement, signed on 31 May 1906, whereby France yielded certain domestic changes in Morocco but retained control of key areas. However, five years later the Second Moroccan Crisis (or Agadir Crisis )

10488-421: The Hanlé, Hadela to the north of lake Abbe and possibly also Alailou. During the period of uncertainty in Djibouti, the Duke of Aosta urged an attack on British Somaliland in order to cut off the French colony from British support. Benito Mussolini approved the campaign on 19 July, but the situation in Djibouti changed rapidly in Italy's favour after that. The 17th Colonial Brigade under Colonel Agosti occupied

10640-401: The Horn of Africa, forming what would become Italian Somaliland . In the disorder that followed the 1889 death of Emperor Yohannes IV , General  Oreste Baratieri occupied the Ethiopian Highlands along the Eritrean coast, and Italy proclaimed the establishment of a new colony of Eritrea, with its capital moved from Massawa to Asmara . When relations between Italy and Ethiopia deteriorated,

10792-399: The Italians 94,050 square kilometers of the Jubaland protectorate , which was situated in present-day southwestern Somalia. This was Italy's reward for allying itself with Britain in its war against Germany. The treaty was honored, and in 1924, Britain ceded Jubaland. In 1926, the northern half of Jubaland was incorporated into Italian Somaliland, and was later re-dubbed Oltre Giuba by

10944-569: The Italians took place on the plain of Hanlé, at Ali-Sabieh and along the railroad. The border area of western French Somaliland was occupied by Italian troops. Under increasing British pressure, they withdrew from Hanlé beginning in October 1940 and from Dagguirou by April 1941, when the French had returned. When the government on 10 July learned that the armistice was not yet put into effect in Somaliland, President Philippe Pétain sent General Gaëtan Germain as his personal representative to correct

11096-459: The Italians. Britain retained control of the southern half of the partitioned Jubaland territory, which was later called the Northern Frontier District (NFD). After its conquest of Ethiopia in 1936, Italy also annexed the Huwan region. In this way Italian Somaliland, with capital Mogadishu , was enlarged once more. In early World War II , Italian troops invaded British Somaliland and ejected

11248-709: The Mahdist War. Additionally the Egyptian province of Equatoria (located in South Sudan) led by Emin Pasha was also subject to an ostensible relief expedition of Emin Pasha against Mahdist forces. The British-Egyptian force ultimately defeated the Mahdist forces in Sudan in 1898. Thereafter, Britain seized effective control of Sudan, which was nominally called Anglo-Egyptian Sudan . The occupation of Egypt and

11400-427: The Somali garrison, the first battalion of Senegalese Tirailleurs under Colonel Georges Charles Raymond Raynal, cross the border into British Somaliland and defect. This prompted the new governor, Christian Raimond Dupont , to offer the British an economic agreement without surrender, but it was rejected. He was informed that if the colony surrendered without firing a shot, the French right to it would be respected in

11552-471: The Somali lands that it had turned over. Britain also granted administration of the almost exclusively Somali-inhabited Northern Frontier District to Kenyan nationalists despite an informal plebiscite demonstrating the overwhelming desire of the region's population to join the newly formed Somali Republic. The first armed conflict following the independence and unification of the former British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland territories, known collectively as

11704-713: The Somali nation, and the Germans promised to officially recognise any territories the Dervishes were to acquire. After a quarter of a century of holding the British at bay, the Dervishes were finally defeated in 1920 as a direct consequence of Britain's use of aircraft. Between 1904 and 1908, Germany's colonies in German South West Africa and German East Africa were rocked by separate, contemporaneous native revolts against their rule. In both territories

11856-643: The Somalis in 1884 and 1886) and the Somali Region to Ethiopia, based on a treaty they signed in 1897 in which the British ceded Somali territory to the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik in exchange for his help against raids by Somali clans. Britain included the proviso that the Somali residents would retain their autonomy, but Ethiopia immediately claimed sovereignty over the area. This prompted an unsuccessful bid by Britain in 1956 to buy back

12008-513: The Somalis. The Dervish movement , led by Sayid Muhammed Abdullah Hassan , existed for 21 years, from 1899 until 1920. The Dervish movement successfully repulsed the British Empire four times and forced it to retreat to the coastal region. Because of these successful expeditions, the Dervish movement was recognized as an ally by the Ottoman and German empires. The Turks named Hassan Emir of

12160-614: The Suez Canal. The shares were snapped up by Britain, under Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli , who sought to give his country practical control in the management of this strategic waterway. When Isma'il repudiated Egypt's foreign debt in 1879, Britain and France seized joint financial control over the country, forcing the Egyptian ruler to abdicate and installing his eldest son Tewfik Pasha in his place. The Egyptian and Sudanese ruling classes did not relish foreign intervention. During

12312-509: The Vichyite garrison in Somaliland, the British changed their policy to "rally French Somaliland to the Allied cause without bloodshed". The Free French were to arrange a voluntary "rallying" ( ralliement ) by means of propaganda while the British were to blockade the colony. Wavell considered that if British pressure was applied, a rally would appear to have been coerced. Wavell preferred to let

12464-560: The acquisition of military and naval bases, for strategic purposes and the exercise of power. The growing navies, and new ships driven by steam power, required coaling stations and ports for maintenance. Defence bases were also needed for the protection of sea routes and communication lines, particularly of expensive and vital international waterways such as the Suez Canal. Colonies were seen as assets in balance of power negotiations, useful as items of exchange at times of international bargaining. Colonies with large native populations were also

12616-529: The acquisition of the Congo were the first major moves in what came to be a precipitous scramble for African territory. In 1884, Otto von Bismarck convened the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference to discuss the African problem. While diplomatic discussions were held regarding ending the remaining slave trade as well as the reach of missionary activities, the primary concern of those in attendance was preventing war between

12768-527: The air to inform the inhabitants of French Somaliland of Britain's terms. Nouailhetas wrote to Aden on 15 June about the high rate of infant mortality owing to malnutrition in the territory, but he rejected the British terms. The British considered but ultimately rejected an invasion of French Somaliland because they could not spare the troops and did not wish to offend the local French, whom they hoped would join Free France. The 2nd Tanganyika Battalion of

12920-578: The armistice convention which defined those leaving French territory to fight against Italy as " illegal combatants ". Negotiations at Dewele on the local implementation of the armistice were only finally completed on 8 August. In a note penned that day, now in the Archives nationales d'Outre-mer , the French colonial official Edouard Chedeville recorded that "the Italians have taken by force our posts at Dadda'to and Balambolta, and occupied certain others after we had evacuated them, notably Dagguirou and Agna in

13072-690: The backbone of the Bataillon de tirailleurs somalis , which later fought in Europe. Some Free French sloops also took part in the blockade. The Commander-in-Chief, East Africa , William Platt , codenamed the negotiations for the surrender of French Somaliland "Pentagon", because there were five sides: himself, the Vichy governor, the Free French, the British minister at Addis Ababa ( Robert Howe ), and

13224-459: The blockade for use in the East. For six months (June 1941–January 1942), Nouailhetas remained willing to grant concessions over the port and railway but would not tolerate Free French interference. In October the blockade was reviewed but no changes were implemented before the beginning of the war with Japan. On 2 January 1942, the Vichy government offered the use of the port and railway, subject to

13376-518: The bush of civilians in German South West Africa resulted in a genocide of the population. In total, as many as 65,000 Herero (80% of the total Herero population), and 10,000 Namaqua (50% of the total Namaqua population) either starved, died of thirst, or were worked to death in camps such as Shark Island concentration camp between 1904 and 1908. Between 24,000 and 100,000 Hereros, 10,000 Nama , and an unknown number of San died in

13528-447: The coasts of Africa, but they seldom moved inland, preferring to stay near the sea. They primarily traded with locals. Large parts of the continent were essentially uninhabitable for Europeans because of their high mortality rates from tropical diseases such as malaria . In the middle of the 19th century, European explorers mapped much of East Africa and Central Africa . As late as the 1870s, Europeans controlled approximately 10% of

13680-693: The colonial administration when left to itself; as described in Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness (1899)—published around the same time as Kipling 's The White Man's Burden —or in Louis-Ferdinand Céline 's Journey to the End of the Night (1932). Colonial lobbies emerged to legitimise the Scramble for Africa and other expensive overseas adventures. In Germany, France, and Britain,

13832-522: The colonial empires had become very popular almost everywhere in Europe: public opinion had been convinced of the needs of a colonial empire, although most of the metropolitans would never see a piece of it. Colonial exhibitions were instrumental in this change of popular mentalities brought about by the colonial propaganda, supported by the colonial lobby and by various scientists. Thus, conquests of territories were inevitably followed by public displays of

13984-481: The colonial lobby in his cabinet and thus did not execute his electoral promise to disengage from Egypt. Although Gladstone was personally opposed to imperialism, the social tensions caused by the Long Depression pushed him to favour jingoism : the imperialists had become the "parasites of patriotism." In France , Radical politician Georges Clemenceau was adamantly opposed to it: he thought colonization

14136-536: The colony was briefly in limbo until a governor loyal to the Vichy government was installed on 25 July. It was the last French possession in Africa to remain loyal to Vichy, surrendering to Free French forces only on 26 December 1942. Pierre Nouailhetas governed the territory through most of the Vichy period. After aerial bombardment by the British, he instituted a reign of terror against Europeans and locals. Nouailhetas

14288-471: The colony's defences to unprecedented levels: 15,000 troops were stationed there and posts were established at Afambo , Moussa Ali and even on the other side of the Italians. The landward fortifications were augmented extensively with concrete. In October 1938, in the aftermath of the Munich Agreement , Italy demanded concessions from France, among them a free port at Djibouti and control of

14440-588: The competitors ignored the rules when convenient, and on several occasions war was only narrowly avoided (see Fashoda Incident ). The Swahili coast territories of the Sultanate of Zanzibar were partitioned between Germany and Britain, initially leaving the archipelago of Zanzibar independent until 1890, when that remnant of the Sultanate was made into a British protectorate with the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty . Britain's administration of Egypt and

14592-535: The concept of Greater Somalia started to be developed with the birth of the nation of Somalia, as a united country inhabited by all the Somalis in their "Horn of Africa" areas. Pan-Somalism refers to the vision of reunifying these areas to form a single Somali nation. The pursuit of this goal has led to conflict: Somalia engaged after World War II in the Ogaden War with Ethiopia over the Somali Region , and supported Somali insurgents against Kenya. In 1946

14744-481: The conditions of wireless communication between France and the colonies (article 19) were left to an Italian Armistice Control Commission . Legentilhomme procrastinated in carrying out the armistice terms, since he had lost contact with the government in France. On 28 June, when the Italians demanded that he fulfill certain clauses, he denied all knowledge of any such clauses. Between 1 and 10 July several clashes with

14896-489: The desert, leaving their children to be cared for by the Catholic missions. The head doctor at the hospital committed suicide in despair. Only a few Arab dhows ( boutres ) managed to run the blockade from Djibouti to Obock; and only two French ships from Madagascar managed to run it. The Japanese declaration of war (7 December 1941) gave the colony some respite, since the British were forced to withdraw all but two ships from

15048-589: The early 1880s, Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza was exploring the region along the Congo River for France, at the same time Henry Morton Stanley explored it on behalf of the Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo , backed by Leopold II of Belgium , who would have it as his personal Congo Free State . Leopold had earlier hoped to recruit Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, but turned to Henry Morton Stanley when

15200-471: The end of the war. When negotiations resumed with Nouailhetas later in the summer, the British offered to evacuate the garrison and European civilians to another French colony upon surrender. The French governor informed them that he would have to destroy the colony's railroads and port facilities prior to surrendering. As late as November flights from Italy were still landing in Djibouti, and on 11 December

15352-456: The first census did not take place until 1924, it is difficult to quantify the population loss of the period. The Casement Report set it at three million. William Rubinstein writes: "More basically, it appears almost certain that the population figures given by Hochschild are inaccurate. There is, of course, no way of ascertaining the population of the Congo before the twentieth century, and estimates like 20 million are purely guesses. Most of

15504-523: The fort of Ali-Sabieh in the south and Dadda'to in the north. There were also skirmishes in the area of Dagguirou and around the lakes Abbe and Ally. Near Ali-Sabieh, there was some skirmishing over the Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway . In the first week of war, the Italian Navy sent the submarines Torricelli and Perla to patrol French territorial waters in the Gulf of Tadjoura in front of

15656-681: The genocide. Characteristic of this genocide was death from starvation, thirst, and possibly the poisoning of the population's wells, whilst they were trapped in the Namib Desert . In its earlier stages, imperialism was generally the act of individual explorers as well as some adventurous merchantmen. The colonial powers were a long way from approving without any dissent the expensive adventures carried out abroad. Various important political leaders, such as William Gladstone , opposed colonization in its first years. However, during his second premiership between 1880 and 1885, he could not resist

15808-682: The gold and diamond industries; the independent Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic were this time defeated and absorbed into the British Empire. The French thrust into the African interior was mainly from the coasts of West Africa (present-day Senegal) eastward, through the Sahel along the southern border of the Sahara . Their ultimate aim was to have an uninterrupted colonial empire from

15960-510: The impending Franco-Italian armistice was itself ignored by most officers in Somaliland, only Legentilhomme himself was in favour of siding with De Gaulle and " Fighting France ". On 25 June the Armistice of Villa Incisa came into effect, ending the war between Italy and France. It called for the demilitarisation of Somaliland "for the duration of hostilities between Italy and the British Empire," and granted Italy "full and constant right to use

16112-705: The indigenous people for scientific and leisure purposes. Carl Hagenbeck , a German merchant in wild animals and a future entrepreneur of most Europeans zoos, decided in 1874 to exhibit Samoa and Sami people as "purely natural" populations. In 1876, he sent one of his collaborators to the newly conquered Egyptian Sudan to bring back some wild beasts and Nubians . Presented in Paris, London, and Berlin these Nubians were very successful. Such " human zoos " could be found in Hamburg, Antwerp, Barcelona, London, Milan, New York City, Paris, etc., with 200,000 to 300,000 visitors attending each exhibition. Tuaregs were exhibited after

16264-450: The interior of the Congo was literally unexplored if not inaccessible." A similar situation occurred in the neighbouring French Congo , where most of the resource extraction was run by concession companies, whose brutal methods, along with the introduction of disease, resulted in the loss of up to 50% of the indigenous population according to Hochschild. The French government appointed a commission headed by de Brazza in 1905 to investigate

16416-687: The latter was recruited by the French government. France occupied Tunisia in May 1881, which may have convinced Italy to join the German-Austrian Dual Alliance in 1882, thus forming the Triple Alliance . The same year, Britain occupied Egypt (hitherto an autonomous state owing nominal fealty to the Ottoman Empire ), which ruled over Sudan and parts of Chad, Eritrea, and Somalia. In 1884, Germany declared Togoland ,

16568-683: The lifting of the blockade, but Britain refused. At the same time, on account of the increased ease of the dhow trade, even the land blockade of the colony was lifted on 15 January 1942. The British ended the blockade unilaterally in March 1942. A few defections from French Somaliland took place in 1941. Some air force pilots escaped to Aden to join the Escadrille française d'Aden under Jacques Dodelier, and Captain Edmond Magendie began training some non-commissioned officers who would become

16720-413: The majority of those who voted "no" were Somalis who were strongly in favor of joining a united Somalia as had been proposed by Mahmoud Harbi . Harbi was killed in a plane crash two years later, and Hassan Gouled Aptidon , a Somali who campaigned for a yes vote in the referendum of 1958, wound up as Djibouti's first president post-independence (1977–1991). Between 1977 and 1978, Somalia and Ethiopia waged

16872-446: The middle class often sought strong overseas policies to ensure the market's growth. Even in lesser powers, voices like Enrico Corradini claimed a "place in the sun" for so-called "proletarian nations", bolstering nationalism and militarism in an early prototype of fascism. A plethora of colonialist propaganda pamphlets, ideas, and imagery played on the colonial powers' psychology of popular jingoism and proud nationalism. A hallmark of

17024-574: The militants, as well as the decision of Somali Prime Minister Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal to focus his country's resources on economic development. Rebels began to surrender to the Ethiopian government at the end of 1969; Waqo Gutu, who had been the foremost of the insurgents, was surrounded with his command of barely 200 men in Arana by the Ethiopian army in February 1970 and surrendered. Pacification

17176-418: The military forces in both Somalilands should war come with Italy. Italy's declaration of war on France and Great Britain came on 10 June 1940, and the next day Legentilhomme was named supreme commander of all Allied forces in the Somaliland theatre. In French Somaliland he had a garrison of seven battalions of Senegalese and Somali infantry, three batteries of field guns, four batteries of anti-aircraft guns,

17328-726: The moment took a backseat, as the Republic splintered into a few autonomous smaller regional or clan-based governing zones. The northern regions of the Somali Republic, which previously was a British protectorate , declared independence as the Republic of Somaliland in 1991, shattering the dream of a greater Somalia now that the two regions that previously united split apart. Though there was no unified government and thus no formal policy towards irredentism, individual militia leaders clashed with Ethiopian troops between 1998 and 2000. In late 2006, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys , head of

17480-528: The mountainous countryside had remained out of Italian control due to resistance from the Arbegnoch . The occupation is an example of the expansionist policy that characterized the Axis powers as opposed to the Scramble for Africa. David Livingstone 's explorations, carried on by Henry Morton Stanley , excited imaginations with Stanley's grandiose ideas for colonisation; but these found little support owing to

17632-497: The port and railway. The suggestion was accepted by the British government but, because of the concessions granted to the Vichy regime in Syria and Lebanon , proposals were made to invade the colony instead. On 8 June, Nouailhetas was given an ultimatum. Wavell promised to lift the blockade and provide one month's worth of provisions if the colony declared for De Gaulle; otherwise the blockade would be tightened. Leaflets were dropped from

17784-636: The port facilities. On 22 June the Italians suspected the British might try to establish a forward base at Djibouti, and five Ro.37bis, four CR.42 and one CR.32 aircraft based out of Dire Dawa strafed the airfield there. An Italian pilot described this attack in his diary: "The anti-aircraft defence is very poor ... We make another turn to see if any of the French fighters will have the courage to take off. Not one!" Some French Potez 25 TOE reconnaissance aircraft bombed Italian installations at Dewele in retaliation. General Charles de Gaulle 's appeal of 18 June for French officers and soldiers to ignore

17936-409: The port of Djibouti with all its equipment, together with the French section of the railway, for all kinds of transport" (article 3). The location for the surrender of "all movable arms and ammunition, together with those to be given up to the troops effecting the evacuation of the territory ... within 15 days" (article 5), the procedures for demobilisation and disarmament of French forces (article 9) and

18088-422: The ports of Djibouti, Tadjoura and Obock . By the end of June the Italians had also occupied the border fortifications of Magdoul, Daimoli, Balambolta, Birt Eyla, Asmailo, Tewo, Abba, Alailou , Madda and Rahale. On 17 June some Italian Meridionali Ro.37bis aircraft undertook a reconnaissance of Djibouti, noting five or six warships in the port and about twenty aircraft at a nearby aerodrome. That same day,

18240-479: The post-war order. On hearing this, Dupont surrendered and Colonel Raynal's troops crossed back into French Somaliland on 26 December 1942, completing its liberation. The official handover took place at 10:00 p.m. on 28 December. The first governor appointed under the Free French was André Bayardelle , transferred from New Caledonia in December 1942. Under Bayardelle, the Bataillon de tirailleurs somalis

18392-605: The problems and scale of action required, except from Leopold II of Belgium, who in 1876 had organised the International African Association . From 1869 to 1874, Stanley was secretly sent by Leopold II to the Congo region, where he made treaties with several African chiefs along the Congo River and by 1882 had sufficient territory to form the basis of the Congo Free State . While Stanley

18544-528: The problems of low prices and overproduction caused by shrinking continental markets. John A. Hobson argued in Imperialism that this shrinking of continental markets was a key factor of the global "New Imperialism" period. William Easterly , however, disagrees with the link made between capitalism and imperialism , arguing that colonialism is used mostly to promote state-led development rather than corporate development. He has said that "imperialism

18696-483: The propaganda continue and provide a small amount of supplies under strict control. As part of this propaganda war, there were even competing newspapers: the Free French published Djibouti Libre ("Free Djibouti") and smuggled it into the colony, while the Vichy authorities published the official Djibouti Français ("French Djibouti"). In April, after the fall of Addis Ababa , the British tried to negotiate with Nouailhetas for transporting Italian prisoners-of-war along

18848-644: The region. The Fashoda Incident ultimately led to the signature of the Entente Cordiale of 1904, which guaranteed peace between the two. In 1890, both the United Kingdom and France were able to reach a diplomatic solution over a colonial dispute that would guarantee freedom of trade for the British Empire while allowing France to expand their influence in North Africa. In exchange for France recognizing Britain's protectorate over Zanzibar,

19000-598: The right to elect a deputy to the French Chamber of Deputies was granted to the four old colonies of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane and Réunion as well as to the residents of the " Four Communes " in Senegal. In most cases, the elected deputies were white Frenchmen, although there were some black deputies, such as the Senegalese Blaise Diagne , who was elected in 1914. By the end of World War I

19152-640: The risk of conflict between colonial powers. Bismarck used private companies to set up small colonial operations in Africa and the Pacific. Pan-Germanism became linked to the young nation's new imperialist drives. In the beginning of the 1880s, the Deutscher Kolonialverein was created, and published the Kolonialzeitung . This colonial lobby was also relayed by the nationalist Alldeutscher Verband . Weltpolitik (world policy)

19304-569: The rumoured abuses in the colony. However, de Brazza died on the return trip, and his "searingly critical" report was neither acted upon nor released to the public. In the 1920s, about 20,000 forced labourers died building a railroad through the French territory. To construct the Suez Canal , French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps had obtained many concessions from Isma'il Pasha , the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan in 1854–56. Some sources estimate

19456-473: The same day, Governor Hubert Deschamps was dismissed for his refusal to expel the British consul, with whom he had reached an agreement to supply the colony with food. Germain succeeded him as well, thus becoming the supreme civil and military authority in the colony. He entered Djibouti on 25 July. According to the Service historique de l'armée de terre , the official archives of the French army, which has

19608-735: The situation. Germain arrived at Asmara on 14 July. On 19 July the local conseil d'administration (administrative council) voted unanimously (with the exception of Legentilhomme) to remain loyal to Pétain's collaborationist government at Vichy . Germain then negotiated the resignation of Legentilhomme and convinced the armistice commission then being set up that it was inadvisable and impractical to demilitarise French Somaliland, in which approximately 8,000 soldiers (with tanks and airplanes) remained on guard. French troops in British Somaliland were withdrawn. On 23 July Germain succeeded Legentilhomme as commander-in-chief of French forces. On

19760-604: The southern and eastern coasts of Africa for stopover ports on the route to Asia and its empire in India . But, excluding the area that became the Union of South Africa in 1910, European nations invested relatively limited amounts of capital in Africa. Pro-imperialist colonial lobbyists such as the Alldeutscher Verband , Francesco Crispi and Jules Ferry , argued that sheltered overseas markets in Africa would solve

19912-635: The threat to German rule was quickly defeated once large-scale reinforcements from Germany arrived, with the Herero rebels in German South West Africa being defeated at the Battle of Waterberg and the Maji-Maji rebels in German East Africa being steadily crushed by German forces slowly advancing through the countryside, with the natives resorting to guerrilla warfare . German efforts to clear

20064-428: The time, this depopulation had four main causes: "indiscriminate war", starvation, reduction of births and diseases. Sleeping sickness ravaged the country and must also be taken into account for the dramatic decrease in population; it has been estimated that sleeping sickness and smallpox killed nearly half the population in the areas surrounding the lower Congo River. Estimates of the death toll vary considerably. As

20216-538: The tropics more accessible for Europeans. Sub-Saharan Africa , one of the last regions of the world largely untouched by "informal imperialism", was attractive to business entrepreneurs. During a time when Britain's balance of trade showed a growing deficit, with shrinking and increasingly protectionist continental markets during the Long Depression (1873–1896), Africa offered Britain, Germany, France, and other countries an open market that would garner them

20368-407: The unification of the NFD and French Somaliland with Somalia, however their primary focus was the Ogaden region, which had been occupied by Ethiopia since Menelik's invasions in the 1890s. From 1960 and onwards, Somalis in Ethiopia seeking their self-determination have waged several insurgencies with the support of neighboring Somalia, escalating into several major interstate conflicts including

20520-404: The unity of the nation state which provided citizenship to its population. Thus, a tension between the universalist will respect human rights of the colonized people, as they may be considered as "citizens" of the nation-state, and the imperialist drive to cynically exploit populations deemed inferior began to surface. Some, in colonizing countries, opposed what they saw as unnecessary evils of

20672-399: The workforce at 30,000, but others estimate that 120,000 workers died over the ten years of construction from malnutrition, fatigue, and disease, especially cholera . Shortly before its completion in 1869, Khedive Isma'il borrowed enormous sums from British and French bankers at high rates of interest. By 1875, he was facing financial difficulties and was forced to sell his block of shares in

20824-407: Was a counter-demonstration in Djibouti in the course of which a huge crowd gathered in the centre of town waving the French flag and shouting pro-French slogans. Meanwhile, the Italians built a string of small posts (Abba, Dagguirou , Gouma, etc.) inside the western border of French Somaliland, claiming in late 1939 that the territory had always been part of Ethiopia. In April 1940, they claimed that

20976-458: Was a diversion from the "blue line of the Vosges " mountains, that is revanchism and the patriotic urge to reclaim the Alsace-Lorraine region which had been annexed by the German Empire with the 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt . Clemenceau made Jules Ferry 's cabinet fall after the 1885 Tonkin disaster . According to Hannah Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), this expansion of national sovereignty on overseas territories contradicted

21128-440: Was a prime example of the period. Rhodes sent two expeditions to Msiri in 1890 led by Alfred Sharpe , who was rebuffed, and Joseph Thomson , who failed to reach Katanga. Leopold sent four expeditions. First, the Le Marinel expedition could only extract a vaguely worded letter. The Delcommune expedition was rebuffed. The well-armed Stairs expedition was given orders to take Katanga with or without Msiri's consent. Msiri refused,

21280-421: Was already under British control. This "red line" through Africa is made most famous by Cecil Rhodes. Along with Lord Milner , the British colonial minister in South Africa, Rhodes advocated such a "Cape to Cairo" empire, linking the Suez Canal to the mineral-rich South Africa by rail. Though hampered by the German occupation of Tanganyika until the end of World War I, Rhodes successfully lobbied on behalf of such

21432-412: Was complete by the next year. Djibouti gained its independence in 1977, but a referendum was held in 1958 on the eve of Somalia's independence in 1960 to decide whether or not to join the Somali Republic or to remain with France. The referendum turned out in favor of a continued association with France, largely due to a combined "yes" vote by the sizable Afar ethnic group and resident Europeans. However,

21584-434: Was decided not to return Italian Somaliland to Italy. The UN opted instead in 1949 to grant Italy trusteeship of Italian Somaliland for a period of ten years, after which time the region would be independent. Meanwhile, in 1948, under pressure from their World War II allies and to the dismay of Somalis, the British "returned" the Haud (an important Somali grazing area that was presumably "protected" by British treaties with

21736-455: Was eventually recalled and forced to retire. From September 1940, the colony was under an Allied blockade, and many of its inhabitants fled to neighbouring British Somaliland . After the territory's liberation, there were many governors and recovery from the deprivation of 1940–42 was only beginning when the war ended in 1945. In 1934–35, Italo-Ethiopian tensions were affecting the Horn of Africa while in Europe German re-armament weighed on

21888-441: Was exploring the Congo on behalf of Leopold II of Belgium, the Franco-Italian marine officer Pierre de Brazza travelled into the western Congo Basin and raised the French flag over the newly founded Brazzaville in 1881, thus occupying today's Republic of the Congo . Portugal, which also claimed the area because of old treaties with the Kingdom of Kongo, made a treaty with Britain on 26 February 1884 to block off Leopold's access to

22040-479: Was recruited for service in Europe. Late in 1943 he was transferred to become Governor-General of French Equatorial Africa . His replacement, Raphaël Saller , took office on 13 January 1944. Shortly after he took office, a commission was created to examine those civil servants and other collaborators who had remained loyal to Vichy. In general, only their political allegiance during 1940–42 mattered, and Vichyites were dismissed from public service permanently. He too

22192-460: Was shot, and his head was cut off and stuck on a pole as a "barbaric lesson" to the people. The Bia River expedition finished the job of establishing an administration of sorts and a "police presence" in Katanga. Thus, the half million square kilometres of Katanga came into Leopold's possession and brought his African realm up to 2,300,000 square kilometres (890,000 sq mi), about 75 times larger than Belgium. The Congo Free State imposed such

22344-464: Was shuffled along, and began a long career in the colonial service in French West Africa . The next governor, Jean Chalvet , was replaced within a few weeks by Jean Beyries as acting governor. Djibouti began to return to normal in mid-1945 when a sufficient number of natives who had fled to neighbouring countries had returned so that the port could operate again. Provisions were coming in from Ethiopia, Madagascar and French North Africa. The power plant

22496-406: Was sparked by the deployment of the German gunboat Panther to the port of Agadir in July 1911. Germany had started to attempt to match Britain's naval supremacy —the British navy had a policy of remaining larger than the next two rival fleets in the world combined. When the British heard of the Panther ' s arrival in Morocco, they wrongly believed that the Germans meant to turn Agadir into

22648-430: Was supposed to legitimise Italy's imperialism by a mixture of socialism with nationalism: We must start by recognizing the fact that there are proletarian nations as well as proletarian classes; that is to say, there are nations whose living conditions are subject...to the way of life of other nations, just as classes are. Once this is realised, nationalism must insist firmly on this truth: Italy is, materially and morally,

22800-419: Was the foreign policy adopted by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890, intending to transform Germany into a global power through aggressive diplomacy, and the development of a large navy. Germany became the third-largest colonial power in Africa, the location of most of its 2.6 million square kilometres of colonial territory and 14 million colonial subjects in 1914. The African possessions were Southwest Africa, Togoland,

22952-426: Was too brutal for even the authoritarian leaders at Vichy to stand: in September 1942 he was recalled and forced to retire without a pension. In the last week of November 1940, De Gaulle and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in London to discuss a proposed operation to take French Somaliland. Three Free French battalions, including Foreign Legionnaires , under Legentilhomme would establish themselves near

23104-531: Was under political pressure to build up lucrative markets in India, Malaya , Australia and New Zealand. Thus, it wanted to secure the key waterway between East and West – the Suez Canal , completed in 1869. However, a theory that Britain sought to annex East Africa during 1880 onwards, out of geo-strategic concerns connected to Egypt (especially the Suez Canal), has been challenged by historians such as John Darwin (1997) and Jonas F. Gjersø (2015). The scramble for African territory also reflected concern for

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