The Hubris of Europe
Character of Europe Idea of noblisse
oblige Unequal society Social Ranks Hierarchy of
monarchial society Strong adherence
to natural aristocracy
People seen as subjects, strong patronage system
Europe around 1870 Great Britain- Queen
Victoria France- Emperor
Napoleon III Italy-King Victor
Emmanuel II Austro-Hungarian-
Emperor Francis Joseph
Germany-Kaiser William I
Belgium- King Leopold II
Portugal-King Luis I Spain-King Alphonse
XII
Scramble for Africa Begins in 1876 with Leopold Livingston’s ‘3 Cs’ Commerce, Christianity, Civilization Africa was the lottery ticket for
European countries
A place for new markets Prestige of an overseas empire
where the cards could be played in the halls of Europe
A place for emigrants Africans- there is a fourth ‘C’ Conquest
The New Maxim of the Scramble
The gun, not trade or the cross
African resistance-the Zulu, Mahdi of
Sudan, Abyssinians, Ndebele
Battles were mainly one-sided and brutal
British against the Boers or Italians against the Abyssinians
What the Scramble Gave! Virtually the
whole continent Thirty new
colonies and protectorates
10 million square miles of territory
(Europe is 4 million sq. miles)
110 million new subjects
Finality of Hubris Hubris denied -Liberia and
Ethiopia Leopold dies in
1909 By 1912 the
Scramble is over Squabbles
between France and Germany in the Congo, France and Spain in West Africa end
Italy takes Libya