Scramble for Africa

The Scramble for Africa was a time in the late 19th century and early 20th, were European nations saw the uncivilized potential of the African Continent. This time saw large migrations from countries like Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia to Africa in hopes of exploiting the resources and people in these areas and to set up colonies. Indirect rule, a method to control a tribe using the already in place leaders and a treaty, was the method which Great Britain ruled with. However, a much harsher German direct rule resulted in scraping old leaders to place new foreigners in power. Most of these tribes fell easily, but some such as Ethiopia refused to be defeated.

The Niger River delta experienced rule by way of indirect rule from Great Britain. Document 1 shows exactly how these indirect rules worked, but of course the contract was used by the British in order to convey the idea that joining them would protect and benefit the tribe and is therefore very biased. The contract states that "The said Royal Niger Company bind themselves not to interfere with any of the native laws or customs of the country," meaning that the British government's goal is to develop and better the tribes in the area. Upon signing, chiefs of tribes received compensation of native money and land. The only time that Britain would interfere would to maintain order and a good government.

Most places weren't as lucky as the Niger River delta region and were forced into being overpowered by German, Italian, and Russian forces. Samuel Maherero mentions the state of South-West Africa in Document 7 in which, "They [Germans] shoot someone dead for no reason at all." This tactic of direct rule may be comparable to Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games in which the Capital selects at random children to fight for the death as a way to show how the Districts are under their rule. Maherero is working to rally and fight off the Germans stating how they should die fighting and not via maltreatment and imprisonment. In East Africa, a German officer reflects on the odd customs of the natives he experienced. Document 8 explains how an African medicine man created a mixture of water, maize, and sorghum grains that during the Maji Maji Rebellion of 1905 supposedly protected fighters from bullets and made women and children protected "from being seized by the victorious attackers." Amongst a crazed group of people hoping to escape German rule, a simple mixture could protect people in an impossible magical way. Even the British exhibited traits of direct rule especially along the Congo River during a battle between British and African mercenaries. Mojimba, an African chief, depicts the scene of "our brothers, dead, bleeding, our village plundered and burned, and the river full of dead bodies," within Document 9. The situation goes against the contact exemplified in Document 1, as killing and destroying do not aid in