WEBVTT 1 00:00:20.359 --> 00:00:24.679 Hello, and welcome to Western CIV. Episode five hundred. I'm 2 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:30.879 twenty two the sun never since in the nineteenth century, 3 00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:34.880 Europe didn't simply expand outward, And I think that's the 4 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:43.119 key takeaway from this episode. Accelerated like crazy. Steamships shrank oceans, 5 00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:51.240 railroads suddenly cut huge swaths through continents. Telegraph wires suddenly 6 00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:56.039 carried information and orders faster than armies could ever march. 7 00:00:57.039 --> 00:01:03.560 By mid century, European states as unprecedented power, and with 8 00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:08.879 it came a renewed and dangerous confidence, the belief that 9 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:12.760 they had both the right and the duty to dominate 10 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:17.200 the rest of the world. Look, imperialism wasn't new. I 11 00:01:17.239 --> 00:01:20.200 want to be clear about that, folks, whether we're talking 12 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:24.599 about I don't even know that. The adventurisms of Alexander 13 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:29.640 the Great, the expansion of the Roman Empire, European colonialism 14 00:01:29.719 --> 00:01:36.040 in the centuries before. Europeans had traded, conquered, and enslaved 15 00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:40.719 for centuries, but for millennium. Which changed after the year 16 00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:45.400 eighteen hundred was the scale, the speed, and the justification. 17 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:51.680 Empires were no longer coastal trading networks or scattered colonies. 18 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:58.879 They became vast centralized systems of control, political, economic, and cultural. 19 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:05.680 Nowhere was this transformation more dramatic, or I suppose, more devastating, 20 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:13.680 than in Africa. European imperialism rested on several overlapping foundations 21 00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:16.400 that we have to understand first. The one I want 22 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:18.919 to talk about to begin with, was, of course, what 23 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:23.479 I mentioned a couple episodes ago, industrial capitalism. The rise 24 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:28.960 of industrialism changed the game for European states. Factories required 25 00:02:29.080 --> 00:02:35.039 raw materials rubber, cotton, palm, oil, copper, and of course 26 00:02:35.080 --> 00:02:40.400 also new markets in which to sell manufacture goods. Industrial 27 00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:49.039 economies created both surplus capital and surplus ambition. Colonies promised profits, resources, 28 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:53.800 and strategic advantage. The second factor that you need to 29 00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:59.400 understand is state competition. After the defeat of Napoleon in 30 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:05.159 eighteen fifteen, Europe entered a century of relatively uneasy peace, 31 00:03:05.800 --> 00:03:11.960 punctuated though by major rivalry. Empires quickly became symbols of 32 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:19.159 national strength. A nation without colonies seemed weak, outdated, or irrelevant. 33 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:25.080 As one French politician put it rather bluntly, a great 34 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:33.360 nation is a colonizing nation. And the third issue was ideology. 35 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:38.360 In the nineteenth century, European imperialism was not driven by 36 00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:44.120 power and profit alone. It was also sustained, arguably made respectable. 37 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:47.599 There's differences of opinion here by a dense web of 38 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:52.039 ideas that told Europeans who they were, what history demanded 39 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:55.840 of them, that verbs important, and why domination could be 40 00:03:56.039 --> 00:04:02.120 recast as duty. Imperialism didn't just march behind armies and steamships, 41 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:08.560 also behind sermons, school books, scientific treatises, and of course, 42 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:15.319 patriotic speeches. To understand why the Europeans conquered so much 43 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:18.240 of the world so quickly in this period, I think 44 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:22.639 I have to explain the stories that Europeans told themselves. 45 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:28.959 The first one of these stories is progress. Nineteenth century 46 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:31.759 Europe lived in the shadow of the Enlightenment and in 47 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:37.120 the glow of the Industrial Revolution. Railroads cut across continents, 48 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:43.920 and factories reshaped cities. But most importantly, science now seemed 49 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:48.319 to explain everything from disease to the origins of life itself. 50 00:04:49.079 --> 00:04:53.040 History was increasingly imagined as a ladder, one in which 51 00:04:53.079 --> 00:04:58.879 societies climbed from primitive to civilized. Of course, Europeans conveniently 52 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:01.879 were already at the top of the latter, at least 53 00:05:01.959 --> 00:05:07.439 that's where they placed themselves. This worldview transformed imperial expansion 54 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:12.560 from naked conquest into more of a historical inevitability. If 55 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:16.240 Europe represented the most advanced stage of human developments, then 56 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:22.040 expansion was not theft. It was transmission. Railways, schools, Christianity, 57 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:26.319 modern medicine, and law were framed as gifts carried outward 58 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:31.759 to stagnant societies. Empire became, in this telling, less about 59 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:35.079 what Europe took and more about what it claimed to give. 60 00:05:36.279 --> 00:05:42.279 Now few ideas fused science and superiority more intrinsically and 61 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:47.800 more powerfully than the idea of social Darwinism. Drawing loosely 62 00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:52.439 and generally incorrectly on Charles Darwin's theories of natural selection, 63 00:05:53.199 --> 00:05:58.680 social Darwinists argued that competition between races and nations mirrored 64 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:03.720 the struggle for survive in nature. Strong peoples, they insisted, 65 00:06:04.040 --> 00:06:07.199 were simply meant and designed to dominate weak ones. By 66 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:09.199 the way, that's an argument that would have made perfect 67 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:12.279 sense to people who lived in classical Athens or people 68 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:15.639 who lived in Imperial Rome. So sometimes, again the old 69 00:06:15.639 --> 00:06:19.720 adages history doesn't necessarily repeat itself, but it definitely rhymes, 70 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:25.279 And here it's rhyming. Empires under this theory weren't moral failures. 71 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:28.920 They were proof of biological and cultural fitness. Now, I 72 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:32.160 want to be totally clear here, by the way, this 73 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:39.000 was not fringe outside conspiratorial, crazy thinking. This was mainstream. 74 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:43.639 These ideas were taught, they were published, and they were respected, 75 00:06:44.279 --> 00:06:48.240 and it reassured Europeans that conquest itself was not only 76 00:06:48.439 --> 00:06:52.959 justified but natural. To resist empire in this framework was 77 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:57.519 to resist the laws of nature itself. When Africans, Agans, 78 00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:02.079 or indigenous peoples were conquered explained not as violence, but 79 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:06.079 as evidence that they were destined to be ruled. These 80 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:10.920 ideas blended easily with racial theories that classified humanity into 81 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:17.680 hierarchies of worth, pseudoscientific measurements of skulls, skin colors, and 82 00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:22.000 even the angles of people's faces. They gave racism a 83 00:07:22.120 --> 00:07:27.279 veneer of objectivity. Europeans increasingly believed not only that they 84 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:31.959 were just culturally different, but biologically that they were superior. 85 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:37.439 Imperial rule thus became framed as necessary because quote unquote, 86 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:42.800 lesser races were simply presumed incapable of self government. Evidently, 87 00:07:42.839 --> 00:07:45.720 this was a ladder that only some people could climb. 88 00:07:47.040 --> 00:07:52.600 Religion added another powerful layer to this ideology. Christian missionaries 89 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:58.120 would fan out across Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, convinced 90 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:03.639 that salvation and civilization traveled together. Now, conversion was rarely 91 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:09.160 just about faith. It was about reshaping entire societies, family structures, 92 00:08:09.399 --> 00:08:15.720 gender roles, labor, habits, and morals. Missionaries often condemned local 93 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:20.959 customs as barbaric, reinforcing the idea that European values were 94 00:08:21.079 --> 00:08:26.399 universal truths rather than cultural choices. The moral language of 95 00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:31.879 empire reached its most famous expression in Reared Kipling's in 96 00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:38.399 eighteen ninety nine work The White Man's Burden. Kipling urged Europeans, 97 00:08:38.759 --> 00:08:45.200 especially Americans, to take up imperial rule as self sacrificing obligation. Empire, 98 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:50.279 he would argue, was thankless work civilizing quote half devil, 99 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:55.039 half child end quote peoples who would never fully appreciate 100 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:59.960 the effort. Now, this poem captured a central imperial paradox. 101 00:09:00.759 --> 00:09:05.720 Europeans ruled brutally, but insisted that they did so reluctantly, 102 00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:12.120 perhaps altruistically. This idea that empire was a burden rather 103 00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:17.320 than a benefit, proved extraordinarily useful. It allowed imperial powers 104 00:09:17.320 --> 00:09:23.279 to deflect criticism and recast resistance as ingratitude as spoiled 105 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:27.879 children not being able to understand the gifts they were 106 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:32.759 being given. Anti colonial uprisings weren't cry for freedoms. They 107 00:09:32.759 --> 00:09:35.519 were signs that colonized people just weren't mature yet enough. 108 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:38.679 They weren't high enough on that ladder to enjoy their 109 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:45.799 own autonomy. Nationalism also fueled imperial ideology in an era 110 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:50.039 of newly unified states like Italy and Germany. We will 111 00:09:50.039 --> 00:09:53.559 come back to those stories, don't worry. Empire became a 112 00:09:53.639 --> 00:09:58.600 measure of national greatness. Colonies were symbols of prestige, proof 113 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:02.039 that a nation had arrived on the world stage if 114 00:10:02.039 --> 00:10:05.840 you lacked an empire that was humiliating. Imperial competition thus 115 00:10:05.879 --> 00:10:10.080 became intertwined with European rivalries, as I mentioned before, feeding 116 00:10:10.120 --> 00:10:13.759 the arms race and diplomatic tensions that's later eventually going 117 00:10:13.799 --> 00:10:18.799 to explode into World War One. Yet, even as imperial 118 00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:25.519 ideology dominated European culture, cracks appeared. Critics like Ja Hobson 119 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:31.080 argued that empire primarily served the financiers and industrial elites, 120 00:10:31.639 --> 00:10:37.600 not the ordinary citizens. Hobson insisted that moral justification was 121 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:42.120 just a mask for economic exploitation, that imperialism was a 122 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:45.600 lot less about civilization and a lot more about markets, 123 00:10:45.960 --> 00:10:51.200 raw materials, and investment opportunities. His critiques, though marginal at 124 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:55.279 the time, would later influence anti imperialists and socialist movements 125 00:10:55.279 --> 00:10:59.879 throughout Europe. Still, throughout most of the nineteenth century, in 126 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:05.399 imperial ideology remained powerful, precisely because it blended morality, science, religion, 127 00:11:05.720 --> 00:11:09.480 and nationalism into one unified story. And that's really the key. 128 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:12.679 It's not any of these one stories, any of these 129 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:17.960 one justifications that make imperialism powerful and such a driving 130 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:21.840 force for Europe and then eventually for America after the 131 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:27.240 Civil War. It's how all of these ideas come together 132 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:32.480 in one powerful narrative. Now, this story told Europeans that 133 00:11:32.519 --> 00:11:37.600 they were advanced, benevolent, and destined to rule. It reassured 134 00:11:37.639 --> 00:11:43.320 them that domination wasn't cruelty, it was responsibility. In the end, 135 00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:48.159 the ideological underpinnings of European imperialism mattered because they shaped 136 00:11:48.200 --> 00:11:53.080 actions on the ground. They justified violence, silence, doubt, and 137 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:57.960 made empire feel not just profitable but righteous. And when 138 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:00.759 those ideas finally started to unravel later in the twentieth 139 00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:04.360 century under the weight of course of world wars. They 140 00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:08.399 left behind empires that couldn't explain themselves, even to those 141 00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:16.919 who once believed in them the most. Now, contrary to 142 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:21.720 imperial myth, Africa was not a blank space waiting to 143 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:26.080 be discovered. Europeans had traded along its coast for centuries. 144 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:31.519 As we know, African states the Ashanti, Ethiopia, Zulu Soukoto 145 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:37.519 governed themselves. They fought wars, conducted diplomacy, and controlled commerce. Now, look, I, 146 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:41.120 by the way, wish that I had some time to 147 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:44.279 go into a lot of these indigenous cultures in a 148 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:48.480 lot more detail, because some, especially West African kingdoms, were 149 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:54.120 incredibly sophisticated and well connected. Some, especially if we go 150 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:57.639 back to the Late Middle Ages, were much much wealthier 151 00:12:58.039 --> 00:13:02.440 and to some extent technologically advanced than some European states. 152 00:13:02.919 --> 00:13:05.279 But we don't have time. So as much as I 153 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:07.320 would love to do that, I would push you elsewhere 154 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:10.960 for that information. Now, what we want to understand is 155 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:14.480 returning to our current age. What Europeans lacked before the 156 00:13:14.519 --> 00:13:19.720 eighteen hundred wasn't necessarily knowledge of Africa, but access and power. 157 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:26.480 Malaria difficult terrain and strong African resistance limited inland expansion. 158 00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:31.879 Now that changed with medical advances like quinine, new weapons 159 00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:36.679 like the Maxim gun, and steam powered transport. By the 160 00:13:36.759 --> 00:13:41.279 late nineteenth century, conquest was no longer dangerous. It was 161 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:46.879 now efficient. The race for Africa, sometimes called the Scramble 162 00:13:46.919 --> 00:13:51.440 for Africa, accelerated rapidly after the year eighteen eighty. In 163 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:56.360 just three decades, basically the entire continent almost was carved 164 00:13:56.360 --> 00:14:01.279 into European colonies. The turning point came the ambitions of 165 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:08.159 King Leopold. Leopold was never interested in national glory. He 166 00:14:08.279 --> 00:14:14.840 wanted personal profit. Leopold was the ruler of Belgium, but 167 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:18.840 wouldn't end up ruling a vast African territory, though not 168 00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:22.159 as a colony of Belgium, but as his personal property, 169 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:27.960 where his reign there would cost millions of lives. Leopold 170 00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:31.480 was born in eighteen thirty five, heir to a young 171 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:36.360 and modest European kingdom. Belgium had existed for barely five 172 00:14:36.440 --> 00:14:40.480 years when he arrived, and Leopold grew up obsessed with 173 00:14:40.600 --> 00:14:44.879 the one thing Belgium lacked, an empire. In the mid 174 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:51.279 nineteenth century, Imperial possessions were the currency of prestige. Blocked 175 00:14:51.279 --> 00:14:54.879 repeatedly by the Belgian Parliament, which had little interest in 176 00:14:54.960 --> 00:15:00.559 funding imperial adventures, Leopold changed tactics. Instead of a acquiring 177 00:15:00.679 --> 00:15:05.399 a colony for Belgium, he would acquire one for himself. 178 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:12.159 Through deception and diplomacy, he secured international recognition for his 179 00:15:12.360 --> 00:15:17.919 private control of the Congo basin. Under the guise of humanitarianism, 180 00:15:18.360 --> 00:15:23.000 he created the Congo Free State, a regime of forced labor, 181 00:15:23.639 --> 00:15:28.559 mutilation and terror. It will become the inspiration for Heart 182 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:33.360 of Darkness. A British missionary would report, quote, the rubber 183 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:40.440 has cost lives by the thousands, Villages swept away, families destroyed. 184 00:15:41.879 --> 00:15:48.639 Estimates suggest millions died under Leopold's rule. The scandal shocked Europe, 185 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:53.080 but it did not stop imperialism. In fact, if anything, 186 00:15:53.559 --> 00:15:58.360 it normalized it. Between eighteen eighty four and eighteen eighty five, 187 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:03.840 European power gathered at the Berlin Conference, hosted by Auto 188 00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:10.879 von Bismarck. No African representatives whatsoever were invited. The conference 189 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:17.320 did not divide Africa outright, but it established rules effective occupation, 190 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:22.879 justified ownership. Rivers were opened to trade, borders could be 191 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:28.360 drawn by diplomats. It transformed conquest now into simple bureaucracy. 192 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:33.360 As one delegate observed privately, quote, we are dividing a 193 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:37.720 cake we have not yet baked. What followed was a 194 00:16:37.720 --> 00:16:45.080 frenzy of treaties, expeditions, and military campaigns. Flags were planted everywhere, 195 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:51.200 Borders were drawn, often with rulers and straight lines, ignoring ethnic, 196 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:57.320 linguistic and cultural realities. Britain saw a global empire that 197 00:16:57.360 --> 00:17:01.000 would be tied together by trade and naval supremacy. Its 198 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:05.960 possessions stretching from Egypt to South Africa, India to Australia, 199 00:17:06.839 --> 00:17:10.680 and control of the Suez Canal made Egypt vital to 200 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:15.200 this imperial strategy. France, on the other hand, built an 201 00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:19.759 empire across West and North Africa, driven by a mission 202 00:17:19.960 --> 00:17:25.119 to spread French culture and language. The French spoke of assimilation, 203 00:17:25.799 --> 00:17:31.640 though in practice, of course, power remained firmly European. Germany, 204 00:17:31.880 --> 00:17:34.880 who we haven't talked about much here, and we will. 205 00:17:34.920 --> 00:17:37.720 We'll get to German unification. But they had unified by 206 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:43.359 eighteen seventy one. Germany entered the imperial race late but aggressively, 207 00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:48.200 claiming territories in East and Southwest Africa, its rule was 208 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:52.799 often brutal. The Herrero and Noma genocide in German Southwest 209 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:59.960 Africa revealed how racial ideology could translate into extermination. Portugal meanwhile, 210 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:04.519 clung to older colonies. Italy pursued empire to prove itself 211 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:08.960 a great power, suffering humiliating defeat at Adwa in eighteen 212 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:13.960 ninety six, one of the rare African victories against European invasion. 213 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:21.319 Only Ethiopia in Liberia remained independent. Ethiopia's victory over Italy 214 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:27.880 demonstrated that imperialism was not inevitable, but it was relentless. Now. 215 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:30.480 The race for Africa was a part of a broader 216 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:36.839 imperial movement. Britain tightened control over India, France expanded into 217 00:18:36.839 --> 00:18:42.160 Indo China, the Dutch still ruled Indonesia, and Russia expanded 218 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:46.319 ever eastward, as we'll talk about in future episodes. The 219 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:50.200 United States would join the imperial club after eighteen ninety eight, 220 00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:55.920 taking the Philippines and projecting power overseas, becoming then entangled 221 00:18:56.160 --> 00:19:00.480 in affairs far from home for the first time. Perialism 222 00:19:00.599 --> 00:19:06.440 quickly became global, and so did its consequences. Imperial rule 223 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:13.680 was never uncontested. Africans resisted through diplomacy, rebellion, and war. 224 00:19:15.880 --> 00:19:21.519 Leaders like Samurai Torre fought prolonged campaigns against French forces. 225 00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:25.599 Samurai Torre was not born a king, a prince, or 226 00:19:25.640 --> 00:19:29.519 even a soldier. He was born in eighteen thirty or 227 00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:32.359 around then, in a small village in what is today 228 00:19:32.440 --> 00:19:37.160 southeastern Guinea. In West Africa, it was a world already 229 00:19:37.480 --> 00:19:41.200 trembling under the approach of European Empire. By the time 230 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:43.680 he died in exile at the hands of the French 231 00:19:43.720 --> 00:19:46.920 in the year nineteen hundred, Samurai Torre had built one 232 00:19:46.920 --> 00:19:49.720 of the most powerful African states of the nineteenth century 233 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:53.400 and fought one of the longest, most sophisticated wars of 234 00:19:53.440 --> 00:19:59.559 resistance against European imperialism anywhere. Samurai's early life was shaped 235 00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:03.279 by violent its instability. It's a really interesting tale because 236 00:20:03.319 --> 00:20:06.279 West Africa in the mid nineteenth century was a region 237 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:11.240 of fractured states, long distance trade networks, Islamic reform movements, 238 00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:16.559 and endemic warfare. The Atlantic slave trade had officially ended, 239 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:21.759 but internal slavery, rating and coercion remained central to political power. 240 00:20:22.359 --> 00:20:25.440 When Samurai was still a young man, his mother was 241 00:20:25.480 --> 00:20:28.759 captured by a rival group, and to secure her release, 242 00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:32.359 he entered their service as a warrior, and that moment 243 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:37.759 changed his entire life. Samurai proved himself ruthless, disciplined, and 244 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:42.519 intelligent on the battlefield. He learned how power worked not 245 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:48.519 through lineage, but through force, loyalty, and specifically organization. After 246 00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:52.000 securing his mother's freedom, he did not return quietly to 247 00:20:52.079 --> 00:20:56.839 village life. Instead, he gathered followers, he armed them, and 248 00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:00.920 he began conquering territory of his own. The eighteen sixties 249 00:21:00.920 --> 00:21:04.680 and eighteen seventies, Samurai Torre was no longer just a 250 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:08.960 simple local strongman. He was building a state. At the 251 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:13.079 heart of Samurai's power was the Wassulu Empire, a centralized 252 00:21:13.119 --> 00:21:17.079 polity that stretched across parts of modern day Guinea, Mali, 253 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:22.559 Cote Devor, and Burkina Fasso. Unlike many African states encountered 254 00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:27.799 by European imperialists, Wassolu was not loose or decentralized. Samurai 255 00:21:27.880 --> 00:21:33.880 imposed direct rule, appointed governors, standardized taxation, and crucially created 256 00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:38.920 a standing army. The army was Samurai's masterpiece. He drilled 257 00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:43.960 his soldiers relentlessly in four strict discipline and adapted military 258 00:21:44.039 --> 00:21:48.519 techniques from the Europeans. When firearms became essential to survival, 259 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:53.000 Samurai always ensured that his men had them. He purchased 260 00:21:53.079 --> 00:21:56.960 rifles through coastal trade networks and eventually established workshops to 261 00:21:57.039 --> 00:22:01.799 repair and even manufacture weapons locally. His cavalry and infantry 262 00:22:02.039 --> 00:22:05.960 worked in coordinated set peace battles. Command structures were clear 263 00:22:06.319 --> 00:22:10.319 and orders were always obeyed, and religion became another tool 264 00:22:10.359 --> 00:22:14.319 of his state building. Samurai embraced Islam not only as 265 00:22:14.359 --> 00:22:18.319 a personal faith, but as a unifying ideology. He declared 266 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:22.000 jihad against rivals, framed obedience to the state as a 267 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:25.839 religious duty, and used Islamic law to legitimize his authority. 268 00:22:26.839 --> 00:22:31.279 Yet this was not purely a spiritual project. It was political, pragmatic, 269 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:36.960 and often brutal. Resistance was crushed, populations were relocated, and 270 00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:41.039 entire regions were reorganized to serve the war effort. But 271 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:45.079 as I mentioned earlier, then came the French. By the 272 00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:49.880 eighteen eighties, France was expanding aggressively inland from Senegal. Determined 273 00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:53.279 to link its West African possessions in a single imperial block. 274 00:22:54.160 --> 00:22:59.039 French officers expected African resistance to collapse quickly, as it 275 00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:04.720 had elsewhere, but Samurai Tori shattered that assumption. For nearly 276 00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:09.559 two decades. He fought the French with remarkable adaptability. When 277 00:23:09.559 --> 00:23:14.680 out gunned, he avoided direct confrontation. When cornered, he retreated eastward, 278 00:23:14.920 --> 00:23:17.839 burning crops and villages behind him to deny supplies to 279 00:23:17.880 --> 00:23:21.920 the enemy, a scorched earth strategy that horrified the French 280 00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:27.319 but slowed their advance. When diplomacy seemed useful, Samurai signed 281 00:23:27.319 --> 00:23:30.920 treaties he never intended to honor, buying time to arm 282 00:23:31.240 --> 00:23:34.640 and regroup. In other words, he followed just about every 283 00:23:34.640 --> 00:23:38.799 single one of Julius Caesar, Czar, Nicholas the First and 284 00:23:39.079 --> 00:23:44.799 also I guess Machiavelli's principles. French commanders complained that fighting 285 00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:49.319 Samurai was like fighting smoke. He appeared, then struck, and vanished, 286 00:23:49.559 --> 00:23:53.880 and reappeared hundreds of miles away. Columns marched for months 287 00:23:54.039 --> 00:23:57.880 through hostile terrain, only to find empty villages and poisoned 288 00:23:57.880 --> 00:24:01.720 wells in Paris. Samurai became a bit of an obsession, 289 00:24:02.359 --> 00:24:06.680 proof that African resistance actually could be organized, modern and dangerous. 290 00:24:07.720 --> 00:24:12.960 But resistance, of course had a cost Samurais wars, devastated 291 00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:19.880 civilian populations, forced conscription, famine, and mass displacement followed. His armies, 292 00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:25.920 allies defected. Firearms became harder to acquire as European powers 293 00:24:25.960 --> 00:24:29.480 closed ranks and refused to sell them. By the late 294 00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:35.039 eighteen nineties, the French adapted, deploying larger forces, African auxiliaries 295 00:24:35.319 --> 00:24:39.960 and relentless pursuit, and so in eighteen ninety eight, Samurai 296 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.440 Torre was finally captured in present day Cote Devor. There 297 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:48.599 was no dramatic last stand, no battlefield death. He was 298 00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:52.759 taken alive, a symbolic victory for the French Empire. The 299 00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:56.160 French exiled him to Gabon, far from his homeland, and 300 00:24:56.200 --> 00:24:59.039 he died two years later in the year nineteen hundred, 301 00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:01.759 but still well. I think that his life is really 302 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:05.359 emblematic of something that could have been. Africa, because of 303 00:25:05.400 --> 00:25:08.680 a variety of factors, was unable to stitch together in 304 00:25:08.839 --> 00:25:12.119 effective resistance to European imperialism. But it was never because 305 00:25:12.119 --> 00:25:16.119 they couldn't because of some I suppose biological reason. Torre 306 00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:20.400 proves that resistance was possible, and resistance by African leaders 307 00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:23.759 was possible, it was just difficult to put it together. 308 00:25:24.799 --> 00:25:27.839 Of course, there were many others, and others resisted through 309 00:25:27.880 --> 00:25:31.319 everyday acts. They could flee, they could sabotage, and they 310 00:25:31.319 --> 00:25:35.160 could also work to preserve their culture. European response was 311 00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:42.799 all often overwhelming violence. Superior firepower crushed resistance, Punitive expeditions 312 00:25:43.160 --> 00:25:49.799 destroyed villages. Imperial peace was enforced through fear. In the end, 313 00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:55.480 imperialism reshaped the world Economically, Colonies were reorganized to serve 314 00:25:55.559 --> 00:26:01.599 European needs. Cash crops replace subsistence farming. Infrastructure existed to 315 00:26:01.720 --> 00:26:08.759 extract resources, not to develop societies. Politically, artificial borders sowed 316 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:13.440 future conflict. Traditional authorities were undermined or often co opted. 317 00:26:14.119 --> 00:26:20.680 Colonial states ruled through coercion rather than consent. Culturally, imperialism 318 00:26:20.759 --> 00:26:26.480 imposed languages, religions, and racial hierarchies whose effects endure still today. 319 00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:33.160 European superiority became embedded in global systems of power. In Europe, 320 00:26:33.200 --> 00:26:39.519 Imperialism fueled nationalism and rivalry. Colonial competition intensified tensions between 321 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:43.400 great powers, tensions that would eventually explode in the Gray 322 00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:47.519 War of nineteen fourteen. Now, the Race for Africa wasn't 323 00:26:47.559 --> 00:26:51.759 a random accident of history. It was the logical outcome 324 00:26:52.039 --> 00:26:58.559 of industrial power, nationalist rivalry, and racial ideology. It enriched 325 00:26:58.680 --> 00:27:03.519 Europe while deva stating much of the colonized world. It 326 00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:07.480 claimed to civilize while it conquered. It promised progress while 327 00:27:07.480 --> 00:27:12.880 it delivered only suffering. One African intellectual would later write, 328 00:27:13.319 --> 00:27:16.920 they came with maps and guns and left us with 329 00:27:17.079 --> 00:27:23.359 borders and graves. Imperialism shaped the modern world, its inequalities, 330 00:27:23.400 --> 00:27:27.720 its conflicts, its ability now to connect because of technology. 331 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:30.599 That it made the world so much small that it 332 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:35.319 had been for millennium. But to understand European history in 333 00:27:35.359 --> 00:27:39.000 the nineteenth century is to understand empire, not as a 334 00:27:39.119 --> 00:27:42.920 side story, as ideology, not as something that is a 335 00:27:42.960 --> 00:27:45.839 little bit of a castaway, but as a central chapter 336 00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:51.319 in everything that is to come. Next week, we have 337 00:27:51.400 --> 00:27:54.720 to turn our attentions, though, back to the United States. 338 00:27:55.279 --> 00:27:58.559 In the lead up to the Civil War, slavery dominated 339 00:27:58.680 --> 00:28:02.880 every single issue that was happening, and we'll see why 340 00:28:03.240 --> 00:28:07.440 the United States was so ineffective and unable to deal 341 00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:10.640 with the scourge that had been baked in to its 342 00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:11.920 very existence.