What country "started" the scramble for Africa??

Question

i was wondering if it was France or Belgium...if you can please put why it is one and not the other. Thanks!

Answer 1

Although European countries had colonies in Africa for centuries, it wasn't until the 1880s that the term 'Scramble for Africa' is referred to.
The main culprits were Britain, France & Germany.

I suppose that France 'started' it due to:
1. Losing the Napoleonic wars, and needed markets & raw materials. i.e. compensation
2. Germany was a growing European Power looking to acquire colonial possessions, and therefore France played Germany off against Britain

Belgium had only one possession...the Congo which actually was the personal property of the King of Belgium!

Answer 2

I would say it'd be Portugal who first took over small forts on the coast of western Africa and soon began the profitable slave trade during their golden age of exploration under the patronage of Henry the Navigator during the 15th and 16th centuries, even before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Belgium, or the Low Countries, wasn't even an independent country until the 1830s and by then the scramble for Africa had already started. As for France, it's first African colony was Senegal in 1624 so if you're deciding France and Belgium, go with France.

Answer 3

Portugal, a long time before France and Spain got involved.

But maybe you're talking about the 19th century competitive imperialism. In that case, both France and Britain were involved in Africa. Britain started to exert imperial control in the 18th century and in the 19th century took over the Dutch colonies in south Africa during the Napoleonic Wars. France was similarly an earlly colonial power, and started to make its major inroads by conquests in Algeria in the 1830s. The Belgians only started with King Leopold's private venture in the Congo in the 1870s or 1880s (backed the Anglo-American explorer Stanley, created a private investment that ran the Congo as a major rubber produder etc. on near-slavery grounds). In the early 20th century, there was such a stink of bad publicity that the Belgian state took over from the royal monopoly. Read Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" which is based on this historical tragedy.

Answer 4

Portugal is my thinking, since they sailed South as far as the Cape of Good Hope. They were excellent sailors and had the newly created charts to know the way.