History

    The history of West Africa from the last decades of the 19th century was very crucial in determining the later social political and economic outset of the region, its relation with the colonialists and impact to the new lands.  This paper intrinsically analyzes the West Africa history since 1880.

Question one
What are the factors that contributed to British and French penetration and colonization of West Africa during the nineteenth century, and what policies did they use to govern and administer their colonies
    Erik (2005) explains that, West Africa had a complex system of social political organization that was indeed hard to easily concur.  To effectively penetrate in this region, French and British used their superior weapons compared to the natives of the region who had primitive weapons.   Taking into consideration that indeed some of the communities especially the Islamic resistant groups were very strong, Toyin (2004) argues that it could indeed have been impossible to reach the hinterland.  According to Ronald (2002), missionary and trade were also used as factors to create greater interaction and acceptance by the local communities from the coastal towns to the hinterland.  Through trade, the relationship was considered to be mutual and therefore acceptable to majority of the trading communities.  French mostly traded on groundnuts, cocoa and cotton while British traders were largely involved in gold trade (Erik, 2005).  In addition, there was great collaboration between kingdoms in the hinterland that traded in slaves with British and French.  It is important to note that respective British and French governments supported the penetration by pushing for the regional division in the Berlin Charters and therefore reducing conflict between the British, French, Portuguese and other interested European countries (Erik, 2005).  To effectively administer its colonies in West Africa, French used the assimilation policy which was based on expanding its culture to all of its colonies in West Africa.  Under this mechanism, the natives were considered to be French citizens as they assimilated its language, customs and other aspects of its culture (Rozbicki, 2001).  On the other hand, British employed an imperial policy where it sought to take full control of the regions it sought to colonize by force.  As a result, British government was only interested in creating a strong base that could provide it with the necessary resources for trade and slaves as opposed to expanding its territory to the region (Catherine, 2005).    

Question two  Following the abolition of the slave trade, Europeans on the West African coast sought to find a substitute for the trade in slaves.  What was the nature of European efforts in developing an alternative trade  What role did European and African merchants and African middlemen play in this transformation
    To continue with their rule and colonies in the West African states, the Europeans had to change their mechanisms.  Therefore, Ronald (2002) argues that they shifted to key legitimate commerce that focused on generating larger quantities of resources for their home industries.  Their efforts therefore entailed greater quest for land that was mainly used for growing agricultural products in the rich West African countries.  Besides, they further sought to consolidate labor from the local communities in attending and taking care of the agricultural crops such as wheat and cotton (Erik, 2005).  The British was particularly aggressive in colonizing and guarding their key goldfields in Gold Coast.  Notably, the new alternative further facilitated greater interaction between the black middle men and Europeans that ruled the hinterland kingdoms.  The transformation period after abolition of trade has been credited for the latter effectiveness of the colonial rule in the 20th century.  Europeans were credited for introducing the new technology which was to be employed in agriculture and other developments.  As Catherine (2005) argues, the Europeans were the driving forces for this technology and its application.  The African merchants and middle men on the other hand contributed in communication between Europeans and the hinterland communities.  They particularly facilitated a business environment taking into consideration that their relation with locals was highly polarized.  In addition to this, they formed the key transit for the different trade products from hinterland to the coast (Rozbicki, 2001). This was linked to the poor infrastructural communication network in the region.  Rozbicki (2001) adds that owing to the fact that European traders knew very little about Western Africa hinterlands, their penetration to interior areas such as Futa Jalon and Ashanti was affected by the African middle men and the merchants.     

Question three  What were the origins and the course of settlements of Sierra Leone and Liberia What contributions did they make to trade, propagation of Christianity and education in nineteenth century West Africa

    According to Toyin (2004), Sierra Leone and Liberia settlements form some of the key reminders of the slave trade and its impacts to the West African regions.  The origins of these settlements can be traced to the massive slave trade between West African countries and America to work in the new lands.  Though slave trade was rampant between the western African countries and America, there was a large number of Americans not contented with it.  In addition to that, more black Africans after helping the British in its different quests during the century had to be resettled.  As a result, Liberia and Sierra Leone were bought for settling some of the African American slaves (Erik, 2005).  It is worth noting that this settlement was supported by great politicians such as Thomas Jefferson, Monroe James and James Madison.  With this massive support, the implications went beyond the local boundaries of Liberia and Sierra Leone.  Notably, the new settlers had acquired key skills in farming and other production technologies either in the army or at new lands.  As a result, Toyin (2004) explains that with the help of the United States charity donations and the government, they easily engaged in key production at the settlement which further led to trade with neighbors and overseas traders.  In addition to that, the missionaries who mainly brought Christianity soon spread it to other western African communities well beyond Sierra Leone and Liberia.  In her view, Catherine (2005) indicates that the Americans further supported a strong system of education during the time which was considered to be critical in creating a new effective system to help the settlers effectively establish themselves in their new homes.  Taking into consideration that most of the Western African States by the time of resettlements suffered high illiteracy rates due to oppression both by the colonialists and  or their local rulers the new education system provided a new outlook for them.  Toyin (2004) explains that its easy spread was particularly facilitated by the Christian missionaries.       
Question four
The area of West African underwent a number of Islamic revolutions in the nineteenth century trace the origins of two these jihads, their consequences on traditional society, the coming of colonial rule and the persistence of the slave trade during that period.

    Notably, the leadership of Western African States was mainly through Muslim kingdoms that constantly went into holy wars with their neighbors.  One of these jihads was the jihad of Umar Tar which was ignited by their leader, Umars quest to expand his territory to the neighboring communities such as Bambara kingdoms, the Segu and Fulani (Omar, 2000).  Unlike the Umar Tar, Fulani Jihad was invoked by oppression of the Fulani communities who were pastoralists by the rulers of the Muslim empires in the south.  As a result, the Fulanis organized strong rebellions against the empires which culminated to a widespread war between most of the pastoral communities and their neighboring empires (Allan, 2001).  It is worth noting that both jihads resulted form the need to control the resources in the areas especially to benefit from the emergent trade with outsiders in the 19th century.   According to Toyin (2004), these two jihads had great implications to the local communities by destabilizing their previous harmonic relationship by creating long lasting enmity among them.  On the case of the Fulani jihad, the involved empires and communities such as the Kano and Sokoto were easily divided between the British and the French (Allan, 2001).  Besides loosing their leadership styles, the communities which were primarily pastoralists were forced to assimilate crop farming.  Notably, the colonialists got a much easier route in their conquest for further penetration in that they easily supported one side to fight against the other.  It particularly became easier for the colonial rulers to generate further impetus for selling the slaves to the new land.  Notably, Catherine (2005) indicates that each group sought to increase the number of captives from their opponents to sell to slave traders at the coast.  Indeed, these wars have been the largest blame for the long period that slave trade lasted in West Africa.