Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Africa and How it was Divided Up
While looking at the map of how Africa was divided up, I was curious as to why countries like France and the British were able to get the majority of Africa, and the central points. France even though they got mostly the Sahara desert in the central part of Africa, they did get and control access to the Red Sea, which was a majory port because of the fact that trading with the Muslim Empires could be accessed through that area. Also the British had control of Egypt and South Africa, both had major trade cities in both of these regions. Then there were nations like the Germans and Spanish, who were left with almost nothing. I was just curious about the process of how Africa was divided up, and why certain countries were able to get most of the major ports and parts of Africa.
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Africa was mostly divided up in terms of power. France and Britain had most of the power of any of the European countries when Europe decided to go into Africa. Therefore, none of the countries like the portugues wanted to challenge the European challenge over, at the time, looked like a barren wasteland.
ReplyDeleteBut what about the key ports like in Girbralter, the one in French Somalia, and Cape Town. The Europeans knew these ports were very important in terms of trade and had a very big impact on them too. Did countries like Germany just let the British have Cape Town, or did they fight over it?
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