Title:
Empires in the sun : the struggle for the mastery of Africa / Lawrence James.
ISBN:
9781681777313
Personal Author:
Edition:
First Pegasus books paperback edition.
Publication Information:
New York : Pegasus Books, 2018.
©2017
Physical Description:
xvii, 391 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm
Contents:
Part one: 1830-1881 -- Mission civilisatrice: Europe and Africa in 1830 -- ʻSold just like chickensʼ: slavery and the slave trade -- ʻEthiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to Godʼ: missionaries -- White Man's countries I: Razzia: the conquest of Algeria -- White Man's countries II: ʻI am a chief and masterʼ: South Africa -- ʻUn vaste plan d'occupationʼ: exploitation and exploration -- Part two: 1882-1918 -- ʻBring on a fightʼ: regime change in Egypt and the Sudan 1882-1889 -- ʻWill and forceʼ: partition 1882-1914 -- ʻIt'll all be pink soonʼ: the struggle for southern Africa 1882-1914 -- ʻIf you strike, strike hardʼ: pacification 1885-1914 -- ʻWhite savagesʼ: hearts of darkness -- ʻWe go where we are ledʼ: missions and their enemies -- ʻToxic is the gift of Christiansʼ: Islam and empires -- ʻPalm trees, enormous flowers, Negroes, animals and adventuresʼ: the impact of Africa on Europe -- ʻThe honour of the ruling raceʼ: racial attitudes, sexual encounters and Africa's future -- ʻLloyd Georgeʼ, ʻKitchenerʼ, ʻSamboʼ and ʻCoolieʼ: Africa at war 1914-1918 -- Part three: 1919-1945 -- ʻContagious excitementʼ: the rise of nationalism -- ʻForce to the uttermostʼ: more wars 1919-1939 -- ʻUnable to stand aloneʼ: Africa on the eve of war -- ʻWait and seeʼ: Italian disasters and French traumas 1940-1945 -- ʻBlack tarantulasʼ: Africans at war -- Part four: 1945-1990 -- ʻCan Russians speak Swahili?ʼ: nationalist agitation and Cold War phantoms in British Africa 1945-1957 -- ʻComrade Nasser, don't worry!ʼ: Egypt and the Cold War 1945-1980 -- A ʻhorde of ratsʼ: the Algerian War and its memories -- ʻInsatiable greedʼ: decolonisation and the Cold War -- ʻMaelstromʼ: the Congo and Rhodesia -- ʻThey have left us in the lurchʼ: the last days of White Africa.
Summary:
In this compelling history of the men and ideas that radically changed the course of world history, Lawrence James investigates and analyzes how, within a hundred years, Europeans persuaded and coerced Africa into becoming a subordinate part of the modern world. His narrative is laced with the experiences of participants and onlookers and introduces the men and women who, for better or worse, stamped their wills on Africa. The continent was a magnet for the high-minded, the philanthropic, the unscrupulous and the insane. Visionary pro-consuls rubbed shoulders with missionaries, explorers, soldiers, adventurers, engineers, big-game hunters, entrepreneurs and physicians. Between 1830 and 1945, Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Italy and the United States exported their languages, laws, culture, religions, scientific and technical knowledge and economic systems to Africa. The colonial powers imposed administrations designed to bring stability and peace to a continent that seemed to lack both. The justification for occupation was emancipation from slavery - and the common assumption that late nineteenth-century Europe was the summit of civilization. By 1945 a transformed continent was preparing to take charge of its own affairs, a process of decolonization that took a mere twenty or so years. There remained areas where European influence was limited (Liberia, Abyssinia) - through inertia and a desire for a quiet time, Africa's new masters left much undisturbed. This magnificent history also pauses to ask: what did not happen and why?
OCLC Number:
on1005686269
Availability:
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