By the turn of the 20th century, the map of Africa looked like a

huge jigsaw puzzle, with most of the boundary lines having been drawn in a sort of game of give-and-
take played in the foreign offices of the leading European powers. The division of Africa, the last
continent to be so carved up, was essentially a product of the new imperialism, vividly highlighting its
essential features. In this respect, the timing and the pace of the scramble for Africa are especially
noteworthy. Before 1880 colonial possessions in Africa were relatively few and limited to coastal areas,
with large sections of the coastline and almost all the interior still independent. By 1900 Africa was
almost entirely divided into separate territories that were under the administration of European nations.
The only exceptions were Liberia, generally regarded as being under the special protection of the United
States; Morocco, conquered by France a few years later; Libya, later taken over by Italy; and Ethiopia.

The second feature of the new imperialism was also strongly evident. It was in Africa that Germany
made its first major bid for membership in the club of colonial powers: between May 1884 and February
1885, Germany announced its claims to territory in South West Africa (now South West Africa/Namibia),
Togoland, Cameroon, and part of the East African coast opposite Zanzibar. Two smaller nations, Belgium
and Italy, also entered the ranks, and even Portugal and Spain once again became active in bidding for
African territory. The increasing number of participants in itself sped up the race for conquest. And with
the heightened rivalry came more intense concern for preclusive occupation, increased attention to
military arguments for additional buffer zones, and, in a period when free trade was giving way to
protective tariffs and discriminatory practices in colonies as well as at home, a growing urgency for
protected overseas markets. Not only the wish but also the means were at hand for this carving up of
the African pie. Repeating rifles, machine guns, and other advances in weaponry gave the small armies
of the conquering nations the effective power to defeat the much larger armies of the peoples of Africa.
Rapid railroad construction provided the means for military, political, and economic consolidation of
continental interiors. With the new steamships, settlers and materials could be moved to Africa with
greater dispatch, and bulk shipments of raw materials and food from Africa, prohibitively costly for
some products in the days of the sailing ship, became economically feasible and profitable.

Penetration of Islāmic North Africa was complicated, on the one hand, by the struggle among European
powers for control of the Mediterranean Sea and, on the other hand, by the suzerainty that the
Ottoman Empire exercised to a greater or lesser extent over large sections of the region. Developments
in both respects contributed to the wave of partition toward the end of the 19th century. First, Ottoman
power was perceptibly waning: the military balance had tipped decisively in favour of the European
nations, and Turkey was becoming increasingly dependent on loans from European centres of capital (in
the late 1870s Turkey needed half of its government income just to service its foreign debt). Second, the
importance of domination of the Mediterranean increased significantly after the Suez Canal was opened
in 1869.
France was the one European nation that had established a major beachhead in Islāmic North Africa
before the 1880s. At a time when Great Britain was too preoccupied to interfere, the French captured
the fortress of Algiers in 1830. Frequent revolts kept the French Army busy in the Algerian interior for
another 50 years before all Algeria was under full French rule. While Tunisia and Egypt had been areas of
great interest to European powers during the long period of France’s Algerian takeover, the penetration
of these countries had been informal, confined to diplomatic and financial maneuvers. Italy, as well as
France and England, had loaned large sums to the ruling beys of Tunisia to help loosen that country’s
ties with Turkey. The inability of the beys to service the foreign debt in the 1870s led to the installation
of debt commissioners by the lenders. Tunisia’s revenues were pledged to pay the interest due on
outstanding bonds; in fact, the debt charges had first call on the government’s income. With this came
increased pressure on the people for larger tax payments and a growing popular dissatisfaction with a
government that had “sold out” to foreigners. The weakness of the ruling group, intensified by the
danger of popular revolt or a military coup, opened the door further for formal occupation by one of the
interested foreign powers. When Italy’s actions showed that it might be preparing for outright
possession, France jumped the gun by invading Tunisia in 1881 and then completed its conquest by
defeating the rebellions precipitated by this occupation.

The Europeans in North Africa

The course of Egypt’s loss of sovereignty resembled somewhat the same process in Tunisia: easy credit
extended by Europeans, bankruptcy, increasing control by foreign-debt commissioners, mulcting of the
peasants to raise revenue for servicing the debt, growing independence movements, and finally military
conquest by a foreign power. In Egypt, inter-imperialist rivalry, mainly between Great Britain and
France, reached back to the early 19th century but was intensified under the circumstances of the new
imperialism and the construction of the Suez Canal. By building the Suez Canal and financing Egypt’s
ruling group, France had gained a prominent position in Egypt. But Britain’s interests were perhaps even
more pressing because the Suez Canal was a strategic link to its empire and its other Eastern trade and
colonial interests. The successful nationalist revolt headed by the Egyptian army imminently threatened
in the 1880s the interests of both powers. France, occupied with war in Tunisia and with internal
political problems, did not participate in the military intervention to suppress the revolt. Great Britain
bombarded Alexandria in 1882, landed troops, and thus obtained control of Egypt. Unable to find a
stable collaborationist government that would also pay Egypt’s debts and concerned with suppressing
not only the rebellion but also a powerful anti-Egyptian Mahdist revolt in the Sudan, Britain completely
took over the reins of government in Egypt.