Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Africa on the Eve of Partition
- 2 The European Partition of Africa: Origins and Dynamics
- 3 North Africa
- 4 Western Africa, 1870–1886
- 5 Western Africa, 1886–1905
- 6 Western Equatorial Africa
- 7 Southern Africa, 1867–1886
- 8 Southern and Central Africa, 1886–1910
- 9 Portuguese Colonies and Madagascar
- 10 East Africa 1870–1905
- 11 The Nile Basin and the Eastern Horn, 1870–1908
- 12 The European Scramble and Conquest in African History
- Bibliographical Essays
- Bibliography
- Index
- Map 9 West Africa, c. 1870">
- Map 10 West Africa, c. 1905
- Map 13 The Congo Independent State
- Map 26 Ethiopia, the Nile Valley and the Horn in the era of Menelik II
- References
5 - Western Africa, 1886–1905
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Africa on the Eve of Partition
- 2 The European Partition of Africa: Origins and Dynamics
- 3 North Africa
- 4 Western Africa, 1870–1886
- 5 Western Africa, 1886–1905
- 6 Western Equatorial Africa
- 7 Southern Africa, 1867–1886
- 8 Southern and Central Africa, 1886–1910
- 9 Portuguese Colonies and Madagascar
- 10 East Africa 1870–1905
- 11 The Nile Basin and the Eastern Horn, 1870–1908
- 12 The European Scramble and Conquest in African History
- Bibliographical Essays
- Bibliography
- Index
- Map 9 West Africa, c. 1870">
- Map 10 West Africa, c. 1905
- Map 13 The Congo Independent State
- Map 26 Ethiopia, the Nile Valley and the Horn in the era of Menelik II
- References
Summary
THE LINES OF SIEGE, 1886–89
The outlook from the savanna
Although in retrospect the flurry of European diplomacy which attended the Berlin Conference of 1884–5 seems clearly designed to prepare for the European invasion of West Africa, economic and political uncertainties in Europe and indications of stiff resistance in Africa inhibited the formation of aggressive policies. In the immediate aftermath the European siege lines were strengthened, but the scale of the impending threat to African independence was still not generally predictable. Even if in retrospect it appears that external and internal pressures were producing a general crisis of authority, its local manifestations varied greatly in nature and in intensity, and it is not easy to trace this crisis to common causes. Obviously, the impact of the European economy and European power was strongest in coastal regions. Many inland kingdoms of the savanna and Sahel still knew Europeans only as isolated and powerless travellers, and they retained the preoccupations and priorities which their historical experience suggested. Bornu, for example, though affected by fluctuations in European demand for ivory and ostrich-feathers, had more urgent problems at home; the challenge which eventually in 1893 overthrew the al-Kānamī dynasty came from Rabah al-Zubayr, a well-armed state-builder from the Nilotic Sudan, who proved capable of mobilising support among over-mighty subjects of Kukawa.
'Umar b. 'Alī, Caliph of Sokoto, 1881–91, also faced difficulties in maintaining administrative control over the empire founded by Usuman dan Fodio and in enforcing the theocratic standards which justified its existence; but these were largely inherent in the attempt to hold together territories which it took four months to traverse from east to west, once the capital of charisma accumulated by the founders had become attenuated.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Africa , pp. 257 - 297Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985
References
. ‘Islam in Ijebu-Ode’, paper presented to 16th Congress, Historical Society of Nigeria, Dec. 1970.
Topics in Sierra Leone history; a counter-colonial interpretation. Freetown, 1976.
Topics in Sierra Leone hiStory (Freetown, 1976).
and ‘Who were the French Colonialists? A reassessment of the Parti Colonial’, Hist. J., 1976, 19, 3.Google Scholar
Power and diplomacy in northern Nigeria, 1804–1906. London, 1971.
‘The Ijebu Expedition 1892’, in Historians in tropical Africa: proceedings of the Leverhulme Inter-collegiate History Conference, held at the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, September 1960.Google Scholar
The warrant chiefs: Indirect rule in south-eastern Nigeria, 1891–1929. London, 1972.
. ‘The continuity of African institutions under colonialism’, in (ed.), Emerging themes in Afican history in Proceedings of the International Historical Conferencre held at Dar es Salaam, 1961 (Nairobi. 1968).Google Scholar
and Contribution à l' étude de l'histoire de l' ancien royaume de Porto Novo (Memoires de l'I.F.A.N.), Dakar, 1953.
Revolution and power politics in Yorubaland 1840–1893. London, 1971.
and France overseas: the Great War and the climax of French imperial expansion. London, 1981.
‘The French colonialist movement during the Third Republic; the unofficial mind of imperialism’, Transactions Royal Hist. Soc., 5th series 26, 1976.Google Scholar
(ed.), The papers of George Ekem Ferguson, African Social Research Documents. 7 (Leiden and Cambridge, 1974).
Western Yorubaland under European rule, 1889–1945;. A comparative analysis of French and British colonialism. London, 1976.
The new Oyo empire: indirect rule and change in western Nigeria, 1894–1934. London, 1973.
‘The ideological ferment in Ijebuland, 1892–1943’, African Notes (University of Ibadan), 1970, 5, 3.Google Scholar
The missionary impact on modern Nigeria, 1842–1914. London, 1966.
‘The Porto Novo incidents of 1923 ; politics in the colonial era’, Odu, July 1965, 2, 1.Google Scholar
‘Ethiopia stretching out her hands unto God; or, Africa's service to the world’. Discourse delivered before the American Colonization Society, May 1880, in Christianity, Islam and the Negro race. 1887; reprinted Edinburgh, 1967.Google Scholar
The Shehus of Kukawa: a history of the al-Kanemi dynasty of Bornu. Oxford, 1973.
‘Paramountcy and protection in the Cameroons; The Bali and the Germans, 1889–1913’, in and Britain and Germay in Africa (New Haven. 1967).Google Scholar
Modern and traditional élites in the politics of Lagos. Cambridge, 1975.
. ‘De la traite des ésclaves a l'exportation de l'huile de palme et des palmistes au Dahomey’, in The development of indigenous trade and markets in West Africa (1970).Google Scholar
'A short description of the natives of the Niger Coast Protectorate, with some account of their customs, religion, trade. App. 1 to West African studies, 1st edn, London, 1899.Google Scholar
A church between colonial powers: a study of the Church in Togo. London, 1965.
‘The rubber trade of the Gold Coast and Asante in the nineteenth century’, J. Afr. Hist., 1971, 12, 1.Google Scholar
The evolution of Ibadan (Ibadan, 1914).
The Kano civil war and British over-rule, 1882–1940 (Ibadan, 1978), Ch. 3.
Sir George Goldie and the making of Nigeria. London, 1960.
A history of Sierra Leone. Oxford, 1962.
‘Archives et tradition orale. A propos d'une enquête sur la politique du royaume de Danhomé à la fin du 19e siècle’, Cahiers d'études africaines, 1976, 16.Google Scholar
‘Commercial organisation on the Niger coast, 1852–1891’, Historians in Tropical Africa (Leverhulme Foundation). Salisbury (Harare), 1962.Google Scholar
Custom and conflict in Africa (Oxford, 1959).
A history of the Gambia. Cambridge, 1940.
Itinéraire africain (Paris. 1966).
The prophet Harris: a study of an African prophet and his mass movement in the Ivory Coast and the Gold Coast, 1913–1915. London, 1971.
‘British and French imperialism in West Africa’, in and (ed.), France and Britain in Africa (New Haven, 1971).Google Scholar
West Afrira partitioned, I : The loaded pause (London 1974).
Deutsche Kolonialherrschaft in Afrika. Wirtschaftinteressen und Kolonialverwaltung in Kamerun vor 1914. Zurich, 1971.
2 April 1891 (J. D. Hargreaves, Frame and West Africa, 1969).
‘Economic imperialism in West Africa: the case of Lagos, 1880–92’, Econ. Hist. Review, 1968, 2nd series, 21.Google Scholar
An economic history of West Africa. London, 1973.
‘Western Ibo society and its resistance to British rule: the Ekumeku movement, 1898–1911’, J. Afr. Hist., 1971, 12.Google Scholar
A history of the Igbo people. London, 1976.
The emergence of black politics in Senegal: the struggle for power in the four communes, 1900–1920. Stanford, 1971.
‘Lagos past’: Proceedings of the Lagos Institute, 20 November 1901.
A political history of Ghana, 1850–1928. Oxford, 1963.
. Political history of Ghana, chap. 9: for public statement of April 1897.
The Sokoto caliphate. London, 1967.
Asante before the British: the Prempean years, 1875–1900. Kansas, 1978.
Slavery, colonialism and economic growth in Dahomey, 1640–1960., Cambridge, 1982.
and ‘The treaty between Germany and the Sultan of Gwandu’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, 1967, 4, 1.Google Scholar
‘Fula resistance to French expansion into Futa Jallon, 1889–1896’, J. Afr. Hist., 1981, 22, 2.Google Scholar
Les pionniers du soudan: avant, avec et après Archinard, 2 vols. Paris, 1931.
Great Britain and Ghana: Documents of Ghana history, 1867–1937. London, 1964.
L'appel à l' Afrique (Paris, 1982).
Esquisses Sénégalaises (Dakar. 1966).
‘The West African operations of the British Cotton Growing Association, 1904–1914’, Afr. Hist. Studies, 1971, 4.Google Scholar
The Mourides of Senegal (Oxford 1971). part I.
Lugard, vol. 11: The years of authority 1898–1945. London, 1960.
Samori: une Révolution Dyula, 3 vols. Dakar, 1968, 1970, 1975.
Chiefs and clerics: the history of Abdul Bokar Kan and Futa Toro, 1853–1891. Oxford, 1975.
. ‘Non-European foundations of imperialism: sketch for a theory of collaboration’, in and (ed.), Studies in the theory of imperialism (London, 1972).Google Scholar
. ‘The European partition of Africa: coincidence or conjuncture?’ in (ed.), European imperialism and the partition of Africa (London, 1975).Google Scholar
cf. . ‘Western Ibo society and its resistance to British rule : the Ekumeku movement. 1898–1911’, Journal African Hist., 1971, 12.Google Scholar
‘Forced labour in British West Africa: the case of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, 1906–1927’, J. Afr. Hist., 1973, 14.Google Scholar
‘George Ekem Fcrguson: civil servant extraordinary’. Trasactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, 1972.Google Scholar
Ashanti under the Prempehs 1888–1935. London, 1965.
[], Africa and the Gospel (Sierra Leone and Lagos, n.d.), Sermon in Bamboo Chapel, Lagos, 7 April 1889.
The African churches among the Yoruba, 1888–1922. Oxford, 1964.
French colonial rule and the Baule peoples: resistance and collaboration 1899–1911. Oxford, 1980.
Asante in the nineteenth century. Cambridge, 1975.
- 1
- Cited by