The Result of Imperialism European power.

 

In 1800, just over 50 per cent of the world land surface was in the hands of Europe’s empires. By 1914 this per cent had risen to 85 per cent. The British empire the controlled 32 million square kilometers and 10 millions square kilometer and 60 million people.

Rivalry between the European power.

Despite the scramble for colonies on Africa and the rivalries of the European power there was no war between them over their colonies and empire. The colonial war and there were many of them, were almost always fought against local people, ill-equipped and inadequately armed to fight trained professional soldiers, armed with machine guns and modern rifles.

But there were many disputes. Some were ‘storms in a teacup’, other were important matters of principle. Many were extension of the long-standing quarrel between nations. When the Kaiser congratulated Kruger on supporting the Jameson Raid, he knew he was bound to annoy British public opinion even though it satisfied the Germans, who supported the Boers.

British and French rivalry in Egypt.

Britain and French had been rivals in Egypt, ever since the Battle of the Nile in 1798.in the 1820s, Mehmet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, employed French advisers and between 1859 and 1869, a French engineer, de Lesseps, built the Suez Canal with French encouragement and in the teeth of British opposition.

Benjamin Disraeli, saw clearly its significance to India. By a stroke of luck, he was able to get a large shareholding in the Canal in 1875, when the near bankrupt Khedive of Egypt sold his shares to raise money. Even this was not enough to enable him to pay off all his debts and he was forced to accept the appointment of British and French ministers to guide Egypt’s affairs, to ensure that the money he owed was repaid.

The British occupation of Egypt.

The Khedive was deposed in 1879 and his successor faced a rebellion by Egyptian nationalists. An antiforeigner riot in Alexandria, in June 1882, in which several Europeans were killed, agreed the British Gladstone’s Liberal Government did not respond immediately, but British public opinion did. A senior British official (Sir Edward Hamilton) quoted people as saying,

‘The British flag is being trailed still further in the dust’ ‘We are the laughing stock for Europe;

In July, Gladstone’s took action. British warship bombarded Alexandria whilst those of France stayed silent. Later a British army defeated the rebel at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir.

British forces went on to occupy Egypt ‘to protect the canal ‘and although it was still technically part of the Ottoman Empire, proceeded to modernize the country – with the Khedive’s encouragement.

In 1884, the fanatical followers of the Mahdi threatened British interest in the Sudan, a country which controlled the headwaters of the River Nile. British citizen was advised to leave, but General Gordon, the officer in charge of the evacuation, was killed during the siege of Khartoum.

The Fashoda Incident.

Fourteen years later, Lord Kitchener was sent to regain control of the Sudan, in order to prevent it being taken over by any other power in the scramble for colonies. In 1898, he defeated the ‘Dervishes’ at the battle of Omdurman, and then went further upstream towards Fashoda.

By this time, Cecil Rhodes had promoted grandiose idea of a British railway, running all the way from cape town in the south to Cairo in the north. The French, however had conflicting aspirations, of straddling the continent from east to west from the Red sea to the Atlantic. The British north-south axis crossed the French east-west axis in the Sudan.