AP® European History · Unit 7 · Topic 7.6
New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa
New imperialism was the rapid European seizure of almost all of Africa between roughly 1870 and 1914, driven by economic, strategic, nationalist, and religious motives that all pointed toward the same goal: taking territory.
In 1870 Europeans controlled only scattered coastal footholds in Africa. By 1914 the entire continent except Ethiopia and Liberia was divided among European powers. That speed is the puzzle. The answer is that several motives, which did not need to agree with each other, all happened to point the same direction. Industrial economies wanted raw materials like rubber, palm oil, and diamonds, plus captive markets for manufactured goods. Military planners wanted coaling stations, ports, and territory denied to rivals, especially after steamships and the Suez Canal made control of sea routes matter more. Nationalists treated colonies as proof of greatness, something Germany and Italy, newly unified, wanted badly. Missionaries and reformers wanted access to new populations to convert and 'civilize.' None of these groups needed to coordinate. Each pulled toward conquest for its own reason, so together they moved fast.
The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 formalized the scramble. European powers, with no African representatives present, agreed on rules for claiming territory and settled overlapping claims among themselves. Borders got drawn with rulers and little knowledge of the land, cutting straight through existing kingdoms, ethnic groups, and language communities. The Yoruba, for instance, ended up split between British and French territory. Those arbitrary lines outlasted colonial rule itself and shaped conflicts long after independence.
This topic sits next to the unification of Germany and Italy and the wave of nationalism that unit covers, since new nations wanted empires to match older ones. It also sits beside growing doubts about progress: the brutal exploitation in places like the Congo Free State exposed a dark side to the confidence that Europe was civilizing the world.
Key terms
- New Imperialism
- The intense wave of European colonial expansion, especially into Africa and Asia, from roughly 1870 to 1914.
- Berlin Conference
- An 1884-85 meeting where European powers set rules for dividing Africa without any African representatives present.
- Scramble for Africa
- The rapid partition of nearly the entire African continent among European powers between 1870 and 1914.
- Congo Free State
- The personal colony of Belgium's King Leopold II, notorious for forced labor and mass death among Congolese workers.
- Strategic motive
- The desire for naval bases, ports, and territory to secure trade routes and deny them to rival powers.
Watch it explained
- How it worksShow me Africa in 1870 and in 1914 with every colonial claim filling in between them.
- How it worksWalk me through the Berlin Conference dividing a continent among men who had never been there.
- How it worksHow do economic, strategic, nationalist, and religious motives each pull toward the same conquest?
- Worked exampleTrace where colonial borders cut across existing ethnic and language regions.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't new imperialism explained by European countries needing markets they could not find at home?
Check yourself
End of topic.