topic 5 economy

• Brussels Conference, 1876:


  King Leopold I of Belgium hosted a conference of explorers and geographers. It concluded that:

  •Africans were ‘incapable’ of developing the extraction of resources, and European intervention was necessary

  •The routes to the Africa’s great lakes needed to be developed

  •An International African Association should be established to coordinate European efforts

  Sneaky Leopold was hoping to use this International African Association to develop his own interests/territory in Africa though.
• Berlin conference 1884 – Held by Bismarck


  Britain desired a ‘Cape to Cairo’ collection of colonies – took control of – Egypt, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and Bechuanaland

  France took much of Saharan West Africa

  Belgium controlled the Congo

  Germany took Tanganyika and South West Africa (Namibia)

  Italy – Part of Ethiopia and Somalia

  Portugal took Mozambique and Angola
• 18th century trade and commerce had been strictly regulated in a system of mercantilism (a system of regulations governing trade) where colonies had to send most of their produce to Britain, to buy British manufactured goods and use British ships for their imports and exports.
• The first half of the 19th century, the highly regulated protectionist system (using tariffs on imported goods to regulate trade) was dismantled and free trade took its place.
• This introduction of free trade saw imperial trade and investment grow enormously and created an “industrial empire” where the colonies supplied both the foodstuffs and raw materials which British industry converted into finished goods for exports and which, very often, the colonies bought back