The extended plan of the series is designed in response to the changing trends in history examinations at 18 plus, which now demand the study of documentary sources and the testing of historical skills. Each volume, similar in format to the earlier books in the series, concentrates on a particular topic within a narrower time span. A general introduction to the period in question is followed by eight sections dealing with a major theme. Each section consists of an introduction, a series of documents to illustrate the theme (drawn mainly from primary sources) and sets of questions following groups of documents. The student is thus introduced to a wider range of sources than that to be found in the standard textbook.

In 1870 barely one tenth of Africa was under European control. By 1914 only about one tenth – Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Liberia – was not. This book offers a clear and concise account of the ‘scramble’ or ‘race’ for Africa, the period of around 20 years during which European powers carved up the continent with little or no consultation of its inhabitants. In her classic overview, M.E. Chamberlain: Contrasts the Victorian image of Africa with what we now know of African civilisation and history Examines in detail case histories from Egypt to Zimbabwe Argues that the history and background of Africa are as important as European politics and diplomacy in understanding the 'scramble' Considers the historiography of the topic, taking into account Marxist and anti-Marxist, financial, economic, political and strategic theories of European imperialism This indispensible introduction, now in a fully updated third edition, provides the most accessible survey of the ‘scramble for Africa’ currently available. The new edition includes primary source material unpublished elsewhere, new illustrations and additional pedagogical features. It is the perfect starting point for any study of this period in African history.

In 1880 the continent of Africa was largely unexplored by Europeans. Less than thirty years later, only Liberia and Ethiopia remained unconquered by them. The rest - 10 million square miles with 110 million bewildered new subjects - had been carved up by five European powers (and one extraordinary individual) in the name of Commerce, Christianity, 'Civilization' and Conquest. The Scramble for Africa is the first full-scale study of that extraordinary episode in history.

Once marginalized in the world economy, the past decade has seen Africa emerge as a major global supplier of crucial raw materials like oil, uranium and coltan. With its share of world trade and investment now rising and the availability of natural resources falling, the continent finds itself at the centre of a battle to gain access to and control of its valuable natural assets. China's role in Africa has loomed particularly large in recent years, but there is now a new scramble taking place involving a wider range of established and emerging economic powers from the EU and US to Japan, Brazil and Russia. This book explores the nature of resource and market competition in Africa and the strategies adopted by the different actors involved - be they world powers or small companies. Focusing on key commodities, the book examines the dynamics of the new scramble and the impact of current investment and competition on people, the environment, and political and economic development on the continent. New theories, particularly the idea of Chinese "flexigemony" are developed to explain how resources and markets are accessed. While resource access is often the primary motive for increased engagement, the continent also offers a growing market for low-priced goods from Asia and Asian-owned companies. Individual chapters explore old and new economic power interests in Africa; oil, minerals, timber, biofuels, food and fisheries; and the nature and impacts of Asian investment in manufacturing and other sectors. The New Scramble for Africa will be essential reading for students of African studies, international relations, and resource politics as well as anyone interested in current affairs.

"King Leopold of Belgium's exploits up the Congo River in the 1880s were central to the European partitioning of the African continent. The Congo Free State, Leopold's private colony, was a unique political construct that opened the door to the savage exploitation of the Congo's natural and human resources by international corporations. The resulting 'red rubber' scandal—which laid bare a fundamental contradiction between the European propagation of free labor and 'civilization' and colonial governments' acceptance of violence and coercion for productivity's sake—haunted all imperial powers in Africa. Featuring a clever introduction and judicious collection of documents, Michael Rutz's book neatly captures the drama of one king's quest to build an empire in Central Africa—a quest that began in the name of anti-slavery and free trade and ended in the brutal exploitation of human lives. This volume is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in the history of colonial rule in Africa." —Jelmer Vos, University of Glasgow

Global energy consumption will increase rapidly in the next decades. The discrepancy between demand and supply is worrisome within the old and new cores of the world-economy. Sub-Saharan Africa meanwhile possesses vast potential for energy resources to be further exploited. Whilst the Global North is a traditional player in the sub-Saharan energy sector, new actors from emerging economies - especially China’s state-owned enterprises but also Brazilian, Indian and South African giants - have entered what appears to be a scramble for the largely untapped energy resources of the region. This book is the first to bring together comparative perspectives on: · The strategies of state and non-state actors involved in the exploitation of sub-Saharan energy resources. · The potential and pitfalls of new forms of cooperation on energy southwards of the Sahara. · The domestic opportunities and challenges of the present energy resource boom. Dynamics on the international level are brought together with local developments to provide up-to-date insights on the scramble for energy resources in sub-Saharan Africa. This book also advances a materialist approach applicable in geographical and political-scientific research, showing that much insight can be gained by concentrating on the material environment that shapes economic and political phenomena.

In The Ideological Scramble for Africa, Frank Gerits examines how African leaders in the 1950s and 1960s crafted an anticolonial modernization project. Rather than choose Cold War sides between East and West, anticolonial nationalists worked to reverse the psychological and cultural destruction of colonialism. Kwame Nkrumah's African Union was envisioned as a federation of liberation to challenge the extant imperial forces: the US empire of liberty, the Soviet empire of equality, and the European empires of exploitation. In the 1950s, the goal of proving the potency of a pan-African ideology shaped the agenda of the Bandung Conference and Ghana's support for African liberation, while also determining what was at stake in the Congo crisis and in the fight against white minority rule in southern and eastern Africa. In the 1960s, the attempt to remake African psychology was abandoned, and socioeconomic development came into focus. Anticolonial nationalists did not simply resist or utilize imperial and Cold War pressures but drew strength from the example of the Haitian Revolution of 1791, in which Toussaint Louverture demanded the universal application of Europe's Enlightenment values. The liberationists of the postwar period wanted to redesign society in the image of the revolution that had created them. The Ideological Scramble for Africa demonstrates that the Cold War struggle between capitalism and Communism was only one of two ideological struggles that picked up speed after 1945; the battle between liberation and imperialism proved to be more enduring.

Italy's First African War (1880-1896) pitted a young and ambitious European nation against the ancient Empire of Ethiopia. The Least of Europe's Great Powers rashly assailed Africa's most formidable military power. The outcome was humiliating defeat for Italy and the survival, uniquely for any African nation in the years of the European Scramble for that continent, of Ethiopian independence. Notwithstanding Italy's disastrous first experience in the colonial fray, this book argues that the impact of the war went well beyond the battlefields of the Ethiopian highlands and reached into the minds of the Italian people at home. Through a detailed and exhaustive study of Italian popular culture, this book asks how far the First African War impacted on the Italian nation-building project and how far Italians were themselves changed by undergoing the experience of war and defeat in East Africa. Finaldi argues, for the first time in historiography on the subject, that there was substantial support for and awareness of Italy's military campaign and that 'Empire', as has come to be regarded as fundamental in the histories of other European countries, needs to be brought firmly into the mainstream of Italian national history. This book is an essential contribution to debates on the relationship between European national identity and culture and imperialism in the late 19th century.