In the early 80s of the 19th century, European countries had relatively weak control over the rest of the world

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preface

In the early 80s of the 19th century, European countries had relatively weak control over the rest of the world. Many leaders still believed that the gains of maintaining the colonies were not worth the cost. Although British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli later spoke out in support of imperialism, in 1852 he considered the colonies "despicable" and "millstones tied around the neck." Disraeli's counterpart, William Gladstone, asserted that "the love and desire for territory is one of the greatest curses of mankind", reflecting the prevailing liberal views of the time.

"New imperialism" and the partition of Africa

Those distant and uncivilized lands still seemed to have little to do with Europe's immediate interests, but the situation soon changed. Before the advent of imperialism, the well-known Zulu leader Chaka, who had founded one of two illustrious African kingdoms in what is now South Africa, predicted in 1828 that his people would be conquered by "swallows"—white men who built mud houses. This prophecy later became a reality. The Second Industrial Revolution stimulated major countries to explore new sources of raw materials and new markets for manufactured goods.

The realization of large-scale industrialization, which allowed the production of large quantities of goods, and the rapid spread of competitive nationalism, contributed to the new imperialism. Despite the competition among the great powers, there was no war between them during this time, allowing them to focus their energies and resources on the expansion of the empire, a process accelerated by advances in new technologies. Empires such as Britain, France, Germany, and Italy no longer necessarily tried to maintain the balance of power on the continent, preferring to develop their respective national interests.

In 1891, a British foreign secretary recalled: "When I left the Foreign Office in 1880, no one thought about Africa. When I returned in 1885, European countries were almost quarreling over the belonging of different parts of Africa. Another British diplomat doubted that his homeland would "occupy all navigable rivers and every commercial street in the world so that other countries do not preempt." The colonial race even reached the Arctic, where American Robert Edwin Piri (1856-1920) first arrived in 1909.

A French colonial fanatic described the "partition of Africa" that began in the 80s of the 19th century: "We witnessed something unprecedented in history: the real partition of an unknown continent by some European countries. And France got the lion's share in the process. "Africa has a quarter of the world's land area and a fifth of its population. The explorers entered the interior of Africa almost blindly, which had not yet been mapped. In 1862, the source of the Nile, the lifeline of Egypt, was discovered in present-day Uganda; Much of the interior of Africa was blank on most maps in the West.

Europeans discovered that the continent contained some 700 different autonomous societies, with vastly different political structures and a dizzying level of complexity. Some of the motives that triggered new imperialism can be seen in France's imperial ambitions. France suffered a crushing defeat to Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, and the pain of losing Alsace-Lorraine has gripped the country ever since. German Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck cunningly encouraged the French government to go to distant colonies to gain profits, hoping that France would no longer think of recovering Alsace Lorraine.

The tendencies of French colonialism during the neo-imperialist period

In fact, the tendency of French colonialism during the neo-imperialist period was largely derived from the nationalist idea of revenge against Germany. At the Berlin Conference in 1878, France agreed to abandon the battle for the island of Cyprus, and Britain gave up the fight for Tunisia. In 1881, the French ambassador to Germany warned the French government that if it did not launch a brave battle in Tunisia, France was in danger of weakening and could "end up in the same way as Spain." In March 1881, the French government declared that Tunisian attackers had harassed French troops in Algeria. The French then invaded Tunisia, and two months later Tunisia became a French protectorate.

Between 1895 and 1896, France also occupied the island of Madagascar, east of Africa's east coast, and turned it into a colony, with French merchants and nationalists dreaming of their empire being able to cross the continent. In the 40s and 50s of the 19th century, railways had already crossed the entire European continent. These railroads, like the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States, became symbols of modernity and conquest. The railway unsurprisingly sparked the imagination of the imperialists. British entrepreneur and colonialist Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) believed that railroads extended farther and less expensive than bullets flew.

France plans to build a railway network that will cross the Sahara Desert and connect Algeria and Senegal. Most of the lines in this plan were never built, because they could not have enough tax revenue to cover such a high expense anyway. The huge French expenditure was only exchanged for a series of fortresses. But British merchants on Africa's west coast feared that French expansion would cost them a lot, including products such as palm oil and potential markets for British goods in the interior of Africa. Competition between Britain and France in Africa began to intensify. Immediately afterwards, France occupied western Sudan and made progress.

Egypt is the gateway to the Middle Eastern market and Middle Eastern products, where the competition between Britain and France dates back to the French Revolution in the late 90s of the 18th century. In 1869, the French engineer and industrialist Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894) built a canal through the Isthmus of Suez, connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. The Suez Canal cut the journey from London to Mumbai in half and allowed ships to avoid the dangerous Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.

Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire at the time, and its ruler (Egyptian governor) Ismail Pasha faced severe financial difficulties, and the British took advantage of his situation to make a windfall. In 1875, Britain provided financial assistance to the bankrupt Ismail Pasha by buying a considerable stake in the canal. Under British governance, the number of ships passing through the canal increased from 486 in 1870 to 3,000 in 1882.

The British government supports the Islamic countries of the Middle East

Britain owns far more shares in the canal than any other country. In order to protect sea and land access to India, the British government supported the Islamic Middle Eastern countries, especially the Ottoman Empire, from Russian aggression. As the continuing socio-political upheaval in Egypt threatened the interests of British shareholders, in 1882 the British fleet bombarded the Mediterranean seaport city of Alexandria. The British then made Egypt a protectorate, even though it was nominally part of the Ottoman Empire. After that, the governor of Egypt obeyed the British.

Over the next 40 years, the British government assured other powers that its protective policies for Egypt were temporary. The French lent the Egyptian governor as much money as the British, and were therefore particularly indignant that the British had been occupying Egypt. Central Africa became the next focus of European expansion. In 1869, the New York Herald hired Henry Stanley in hopes of finding David Livingstone (1813-1873), a missionary and explorer who had been unknown for nearly four years.

In January 1871, after 15 months of traveling, he found the missionary on the shores of Lake Tanganyika and gave him a Victorian greeting with an understatement: "Dr. Livingstone, right?" Then, in 1879, Henry Stanley made a long journey up the Congo River to sign a series of treaties for King Leopold II of Belgium, a move that pulled the interior of Africa into the vortex of great power competition. In 1880, French naval officer Savognan de Brazza (1852-1905) arrived at Lake Stanley, a large lake that Stanley "discovered" in 1877.

Brazza brought back a piece of paper signed "Χ" by a king, claiming that France had the right to protect land on the right bank of the Congo River. Although the French government began to show little interest, French nationalists were concerned about the ratification of Brazza's "treaty". Portugal then declared control of the mouth of the Congo River. The British government also claims trading rights in the region. Leopold of Belgium opposed any French action near his private Congolese territory. France remained unhappy with British control of Egypt, and at the same time, the House of Commons eagerly ratified Brazza's treaty. French colonization in West Africa remained very active. Between 1880 and 1914, the French Empire increased tenfold, from 350,000 square miles to 4.6 million square miles.

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