Transcript History 247-20th Century Africa

The Nineteenth Century (1):
Polity, Society, Economy
Main Themes:
- Impact of European Abolition of Slave
Trade and Slavery
- Changing State Structure, Power
- Role of Africa in Global Economy
All are interrelated.
Africa in Pre-Colonial World Systems
-Mediterranean & Middle East
-Indian Ocean
-Atlantic
Pre-colonial Slave Trades
Trans-Saharan:
-Movement slaves from medieval African
sub-Saharan states (9th-15th centuries)
-Some use in Sahara, most brought in
caravans to north Africa, Bornu, Egypt
-Moved into Middle East
-Rise of empires (Moroccan, Ottoman)
major impact from 15th century
Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
Africa and Ottoman Empire
Pre-Colonial Slave Trades
Indian Ocean:
-early trade part of growth Swahili Coast,
trade in range of commodities Red Sea,
Persia, India
-growth of trade into Ottoman Empire
encouraged development trade into
Egypt
-major developments 18th-19th centuries
East Africa – Indian Ocean
Atlantic Ocean Trade
Atlantic Trade:
-tied to Europe’s ‘voyages of discovery’
-initial importation to Europe, use in
Africa itself
-began to feed Caribbean development,
Brazil
-move from indentured labour to slave
labour in American Colonies
-peak of trade 18th century
Atlantic Slave Trade
From: http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/geography/slave_trade.htm
Impact of Slave Trades
Impact varied according to region and
era:
-Demographic: stunted African growth?
-Economic: growth or impediment?
-Political: centralization of states – good
or bad?
-Social: new elites, military classes,
slavery – increase in exploitation?
Nineteenth Century Changes
Complex intersection developments:
- within
- outside
Nineteenth Century Changes
Within Africa:
- Islamic Reformist movements (West)
-Nguni state-building (Southern)
-Zanzibar empire (East)
-Egyptian expansion (East/Central)
- rise of slave-based, military states (in
response to all of above)
- growth ‘legitimate commerce’ (West
and East)
Ninteenth Century Changes
External to Africa:
-European Abolitionist Movement
-transformations Ottoman Empire
-European imperialism in Middle East –
Oman
-Islamic Reformism (Middle East)
Slave Trading: Contradictory Trends
Trans-Saharan trade influenced by:
- European Abolition & ending Atlantic
Slave Trade
- Pressure on Ottomans to close NorthAfrican markets
- Resulting Clandestine traffic (egTripoli)
-Development East African – Hijaz
networks
- Shift into Morocco
Trans-Saharan (cont.)
Consequences:
- closing of Atlantic ports shifted trade
across Sahara-Sahel
- Encouraged domestic slave use
- Saharan traders ‘key’ in softening blow
of abolition
- overall appears to have been growth in
slave use and slave trading in and around
Sahara-Sahel
Trans-Saharan (cont.)
Darfur (from a Tunisian traveller):
“Certain rich people living in the town have installed
these blacks [from the neighboring mountains] on
their farms, to have them reproduce, and, as we sell
sheep and cattle, so they, every year, sell those of their
children that are ready for this. There are some of
them who own five or six hundred male and female
slaves, and merchants come to them at all times, to
buy male and female slaves chosen to be sold."
End part 1.
Ottoman Trade & Abolition
Mecca became important centre as
abolition took effect in Ottoman Empire:
1877 report:
“Having brought to the notice of the new Governor
General, Zia Pasha, the practice of importing African
slaves from the markets of Mecca, with the [Pilgrim]
Caravan, for sale in Syria, His Excellency informed me
that he had already given very strict orders to prevent
such abuses. His Excellency's orders have not,
however, met with the success which he stated to me
he expected, as slaves were brought as usual."
Hijaz Slave Trade
Persia
Darfur
19th century trade Hijaz Trade
Muhammad Pasha - Egypt
Nominally Ottoman, Muhammad Pasha
built own empire into Upper Nile
-used slave armies
-fed slave trade into Hijaz
Indian Ocean Trade - Zanzibar
Hijaz trade also from East Africa:
-British in Oman influenced Sultan
Sayyid Said to move capital to Zanzibar
(1840)
-focus on economic development
-drew on Indian networks for finance
-slaves from East African interior for
plantation development
Indian Ocean Trade - Zanzibar
-grain plantations on mainland
-clove plantations on island
-Indian credit financed inland trade
-Led to new settlements
-‘Swahili’ traders operated caravans [eg
Tippu Tib, Mirambo]
-Swahili language, culture, Islam spread
with network with them
Indian Ocean Trade - Zanzibar
Indian Ocean Trade - Zanzibar
Famous ‘Tippu Tip’ epitomized
system at most effective
Tippu Tip (Muhammad bin Hamid
c.1830-1905) ruled a commercial
empire in Equatorial Africa from the
1860s to 1890.
Born in Zanzibar of a Swahili
merchant and a Nyamwezi (African)
mother, he began his ventures in the
early 1860s south of Lake
Tanganyika
Expanded as far as Congo (1875)
establishing his own ‘state’
Both traded in slaves (to the coast),
used slave labour in plantations and
built slave-army
Indian Ocean Trade - Zanzibar
East African trade also
supplying slaves to Qajar
Persia (1800-1907), though
this was gradually
reduced in the course of
the century
Indian Ocean Trade - Zanzibar
Rise of slave-based, military states linked
to both Zanzibar empire and Nguni
movements South Africa
-stories of Mirambo, Tippu Tib, Msiri
-early 19th century state-building among
Nguni: Zulu
-impact in central-eastern Africa: story of
Rashid bin Hassani
[see ‘Rashid bin Hassani’, Additional Readings]
Atlantic Trade – West Africa
Story of Olaudah
Equiano (late 18th
century):
-shows degree to
which ‘slaving’ and
‘slavery’ part of West
African societies
Atlantic Trade – West Africa
Abolition Trade (1807 Britain, 1817
France): Impact?
-African elites
-state structure
-economy
-social structure
Atlantic Trade – West Africa
African Elites:
-dependent on taxing trade
-slaves central to tribute payments
-large slave-raiding armies a threat
“why is trading in slaves suddenly
‘wrong’ when it has been ‘legitimate’ for
centuries?”
Atlantic Trade – West Africa
State Structure:
-large states organized around acquisition
and trade in slaves (eg Dahomey, Oyo)
forced to adjust
-loss of monopoly depletes state coffers
-ability to maintain control extensive
‘empires’ undermined
-rise of smaller, regional chiefdoms
-rise of Islamic states across Sahel,
challenging older ‘empires’
Atlantic Trade – West Africa
Economy:
-’legitimate commerce’
-changing products, changing production
areas
-rise new groups producers, merchants
-changing nature slavery
Atlantic Trade – West Africa
Social Structure:
-rising importance merchant class
-small(er) scale producer
-both drawn into ‘global economy’
-growth in domestic slavery: varied
impact on slaves’ lives
-many opportunities for slaves in new
economies (eg Niger Delta – palm oil)
Atlantic Trade
Overall impact of changes complex:
-’external’ decision to end slave trade,
demand ‘legitimate’ products hugely
disruptive
-new competition (between Africans and
with Europeans) led to new conflicts
-increasing pressure by European
merchants for government intervention
-conflicts increasingly military, producing
slaves, feeding new markets
Atlantic Trade
-new sources slaves, markets generated
more outcry from abolitionists,
missionaries
-connection: commerce + christianity =
civilisation
-calls for conquest
-echoed in East and Southern Africa,
generated by same groups
Atlantic Trade
Arms and Ammunition:
-long been used by Africans in West
Africa but always inferior to those
available to Europeans
-grew in numbers in nineteenth century
-would play role in ‘conquest’
-increasingly central to actual statebuilding in interior of both West and East
Africa
Atlantic Trade
Impact of Legitimate Commerce:
-multifaceted
-shifted sources and pattern slave trade
and use
-new wealthy classes challenge
traditional authority
-dependence on exporting raw materials
(oils, cocoa, rubber, cloves [east])
-dependence on global market
-interdependent relation Africa-Europe