AD 1850-1950

During this period much of Africa came under European colonial rule. From around 1850 European nations struggled with each other for control of vast swaths of the continent – a competition known as ‘the scramble for Africa’ – which led to numerous bloody wars.

In 1869 the Suez Canal opened in Egypt. Before long, financial control of the highly profitable canal was handed over to European bankers. After a nationalist rising in 1882 the British, defending their financial interests, bombarded Alexandria and Egypt became a British Protectorate until 1922. The 1884 Berlin conference carved up east Africa between various European powers. Ethiopia managed to retain its independence until an Italian invasion in 1936.

In central and western Africa, trade in natural commodities replaced the slave trade, which had been the major economic activity for centuries. However, European presence in the area increased with missionaries, explorers, and traders settling in the region in large numbers. Most of central and west Africa was colonised by 1900. The British began annexing Dutch (Boer) territories in southern Africa which lead to a series of conflicts, culminating in the 1902 Boer War and the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. In 1948 the Afrikaner National Party took power and brought in the brutal age of apartheid.