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Ethiopia
Population in 1860-18,434
Liberia
Population in 1867- around 10,000
Imperialism is a policy or ideology of extending a country's rule over foreign nations, often by military force or by gaining political and economic control of other areas.
Scramble for Africa
The Scramble for Africa was a process of invasion, occupation, and colonization of African territory by European powers. It took place during the New Imperialism period, between 1881 and World War I in 1914.
Ethiopia and Liberia escaped Imperialism during the African Scramble
Ethiopia
Liberia
When Italy cut the Ethiopians off from the sea, it led to skirmishers occurring between the Italians and local Ethiopians. After a battle in which an Italian Column was ambushed , The Battle of Galley, The Italians were determined to defeat and take control of Ethiopia. They saw their chance when Ethiopian's Emperor died and the throne was claimed by Italian supported Menelik II.
Menelik II
In 1889 Menelik signed the Treaty of Wuchale which gave Italy the recognition for their colonial territories, while Ethiopia received military aid and weapons. However one version of the treaty was written in Italian and the other Amharic (the language of Ethiopia), and each one had different terms. Part of the Italian treaty was that Ethiopia would have to go through Italy in order to communicate with other countries. In 1893 Menelik tried to take that part off of the treaty resulting in war.
Relationships
Menelik II's overall goal was to make sure Ethiopia was and stayed an Independent nation. He wanted to do this by forming diplomatic relations with other countries. However, almost all European nations refused to recognize Ethiopia's independence. Russia though was supportive of Menelik's ambitions, as they were both Orthodox Christian countries.
Weapons
The Russians gave Ethiopia modern rifles. These rifles were much better than the ones Italy had. Plus Menelik had also been stockpiling modern weaponry after Ethiopia was devastated by a British invasion in 1868.
War began in December 1894. At first Italy was successful in defeating some of the local kings in Ethiopia, but things changed when Menelik assembled an army of 200,000 men (Italy had about 20,000). Menelik did this in September 1895. About half of the army were armed with Russian modern rifles, others armed with spears and swords. Ethiopia had better weapons than the Italians. The Italians didn't know this because, Menelik led the Italians to believe Ethiopia was a primitive country on the brink of collapse.
When the Italians encountered the Ethiopians in the mountains of Adwa, they were already low on water, ammunition, and morale. With this encounter, Menelik's army, which had 120,000 there at the time, were able to kill and defeat the Italian Army. The Ethiopians lost 10% of their army, the Italians, 60%.
Italy Ethiopia
60%
30%
After negotiation the two nations signed the Treaty of Addis Ababa. It demanded little from the Italians, except recognition of Ethiopia's Independence.
Italy lost because they were ill prepared for a war. They didn't have the numbers Ethiopia did (population), or the good weapons which Ethiopia did.
One of the main reasons why Ethiopia was able to stay away from being imperialized during the Scramble for Africa, was because they had strong rulers/leaders.
During the Scramble of Africa, Ethiopia was split up into kingdoms. Tewodros II was the ruler of the Shewa Dynasty in Ethiopia, which was the Dynasty most of Ethiopia revolved around.
He failed on most of his aims, but his example was ultimately followed by his successors!
Ethiopian Empire flag
One of Ethiopia’s greatest rulers, Menelik II, expanded the empire almost to its present-day borders. He also repelled an Italian invasion in 1896, and carried out a wide-ranging program of modernization.
He was also really intelligent. He tricked other countries, such as Italy, into believing Ethiopia was falling apart. In all reality though, Ethiopia was more together than ever, and they were ready for Italy's battles to come their way.
The full term for the American Colonization Society is the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States. The people in the ACS were dedicated to transporting freeborn blacks and emancipated slaves to Africa.
The society’s program focused on buying and freeing slaves to the west coast of Africa. In 1821 The American Colonization Society acquired Liberia, this became where they would send the free slaves. Due to slave debate and a shortage of money, the society fell apart after 1840.
In 1847 Liberia declared its independence from America. Under pressure from Britain, the United States hesitantly accepted Liberian sovereignty. Within and between the years 1821 and 1867, about 10,000 black Americans and several thousand Africans from interdicted slave ships, were settled in Liberia by the ACS. It's involvement transporting people to Liberia ended after the American Civil War.
"Some saw colonization as a humanitarian effort and a means of ending slavery, but many antislavery advocates came to oppose the society, believing that its true intent was to drain off the best of the free black population and preserve the institution of slavery. "(Encyclopedia Britannica)"
Liberia was a home for former,now free, slaves. Liberia was where former slaves who were originally kidnapped from Africa went back to for freedom and Independence. The earliest settlers were freed blacks from the Upper South who had already gained literacy and work skills. These founding families would become the ruling class who dominated Liberian politics and its economy, especially after Liberia declared itself independent in 1847 under an American-style constitution.
“By 1860, almost 11,0000 African Americans had emigrated. More would do so when post–Civil War promises remained unfulfilled.”(Encyclopedia of the Age of Revolution and Empire)
Other countries did not try to take the land away from Liberia or intrude on the people living there. They didn't do these things, because due to it being where the American Colonization Society sent freed slaves, Liberia was viewed as the United States land to other countries. This meant to the other countries that it had already been occupied by the Americans during the Scramble of Africa, even though the ACS just sent people there and didn't completely control the land(in a few ways they did until the independence deceleration was signed). Liberia always had American support and safety.
This kept Liberia free from imperialist efforts!!!
Ethiopia had powerful weapons, a connection to Russia, and smart powerful rulers.
Liberia was a home for slaves set up by the American Colonization Society. This led countries to believe the land was already under imperialism by the United States, although that was not completely factual.