Colonial Causes
This 19th-century meeting of European powers established rules for claiming African territory and led to rapid partitioning of the continent.
What is the Berlin Conference?
Many African borders were drawn using straight lines that ignored these existing local divisions.
What are ethnic or cultural boundaries or tribal/linguistic/ethnic groups?
Europeans extracted these valuable goods (like rubber, gold, and diamonds) from African colonies for profit; name one.
What is rubber or gold or diamonds?
Colonial rule often privileged one ethnic group over others, creating this unfair treatment that can spark resentment.
What is favoritism or ethnic favoritism or discrimination?
This 1994 mass killing in Rwanda was largely between the Hutu and Tutsi groups and was influenced by historic tensions exacerbated by colonial policies.
What is the Rwandan Genocide?
European nations claimed African lands primarily to gain access to these two economic benefits: raw materials and new places to sell goods.
What is raw materials or new markets?
When colonial borders split a single ethnic group into two or more countries, it is called this.
What is partitioning an ethnic group or dividing an ethnic group?
European control of land and mines often led to economies depending on a single export crop or mineral. This kind of economy is called a(n) _____ economy.
What is an export-dependent economy or a mono-crop or single-resource economy?
Forced migration, labor camps, and resettlement under colonial rule contributed to breaking up local communities and this long-term effect on culture.
What is cultural disruption or loss of traditional practices?
This ongoing conflict began after the division of Sudan and disputes over identity, resources, and borders; it eventually led to the creation of a new country in 2011.
What is the conflict between Sudan and South Sudan or the South Sudan independence/conflict?
The system by which a country controls another territory politically and economically is called this.
What is colonialism?
Colonizers often used maps and longitude/latitude rather than local realities; this term describes borders created without regard to people living there.
What are artificial or arbitrary boundaries?
When colonizers took the best farmland and relocated or forced locals into less fertile areas, this disruption often harmed local food supplies and led to this social problem.
What is famine or food shortages or displacement of people?
When one ethnic group is favored in government or military after independence, other groups may feel excluded and pursue this political action (sometimes violently).
What is rebellion or uprising or insurgency?
In this West African country, competition for control of diamond-rich areas helped fuel a brutal civil war in the 1990s and early 2000s.
What is Sierra Leone?
A primary reason European powers could take control of large parts of Africa was their advantage in these two areas: military technology and this type of transportation or communication (pick one).
What is military technology or steamships/railroads or telegraph?
A border that forces different ethnic groups into the same new country can lead to competition for power and is a cause of this type of internal conflict.
What is civil war?
Competition between colonial powers for resources sometimes caused conflicts in Africa, but after independence those resources often fueled conflicts between local groups or governments; this term describes fighting over resources like oil, diamonds, or water.
What is resource-driven conflict or conflict over natural resources?
Some African leaders used ethnic differences to gain or keep power, encouraging loyalty to group leaders instead of the state; this practice is called this.
What is ethnic patronage or clientelism?
This region in northern Africa has experienced long-running conflicts partly because colonial borders grouped nomadic people and different states; its name begins with "S" and includes a desert area.
What is the Sahel or Sahara or the Sahara/Sahel region?
This motive — the belief that Europeans should spread their culture and religion and that they were superior — was used to justify partitioning Africa.
What is the "civilizing mission" or "White Man's Burden"?
This long-term political problem results when artificial borders create states with weak national loyalty and multiple competing local identities.
What is state instability or weak national cohesion or what is political fragmentation?
Multinational corporations and former colonial powers sometimes influenced post-independence governments to keep policies favoring foreign access to resources. This ongoing influence is often called this.
What is neocolonialism?
A tragic extreme result of ethnic hatred and division is when groups attempt to eliminate each other; this is called this.
What is genocide?
Modern peacebuilding efforts sometimes use this process — redrawing local governance or sharing power among groups — to reduce conflict caused by artificial borders and ethnic division.
What is power-sharing or decentralization or federalism or autonomy arrangements?