Abstract
In the early 1870s, the European countries had only 10% of the African territories, they were especially situated on the coasts, the majority were just trading posts. In eastern and central Africa, there was an English presence in Sierra Leone (since 1807), Lagos (1861) and Gold Coast (1830), the French had a part of Senegal, Gabon and Ivory Coast and the Portuguese held the coast of Angola.
In southern, the descendants of Dutch settlers occupied territories inside the country and had created the area around the Cap. All these colonies had for main goal the trade and business. Until the 1860s the European did not know very well the majority of the territories inside the continent, the climatic conditions, the diseases did not favour the explorers. But with the progress of medicine (quinine) and geography, the explorers discovered new areas; the springs of Nile (1860), the flow of the Niger...
In the 1870s, Europe was far to think about the politic domination of the Africa. Except few scientists, missionaries and adventurers, nobody in Europe was interested about these remote areas. After all, in 1910, except Liberia and Ethiopia, the whole continent belonged to European countries. Five countries (Great-Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and Portugal) controlled 90% of the 28 millions km2 of the Africa. In 30-40 years, these countries imposed a complete domination, and they had divided the continent in accordance with their interests, and without any African advice. How can we explain this phenomenon ? Why did the European change their mind during from 1880s to 1910s ?
