Consequences of colonisation

1Why this matters

Most African countries became independent around 1960, and Rwanda in 1962, but colonialism shaped the states we live in today: their borders, their official languages, their economies and many of their tensions. Some colonial legacies, such as schools and railways, are still in use. Others, such as divisions deliberately sharpened by colonial rulers, cost lives long after the colonisers left. This lesson helps you weigh both honestly.

2Political consequences

• Loss of independence. African kingdoms and societies lost the right to govern themselves; rulers who resisted were killed, exiled or replaced.
• Artificial borders. Borders were drawn by Europeans for European reasons. They split peoples (the Maasai between Kenya and Tanganyika; Somali people across several colonies) and forced rival groups into one state. In 1964 the Organisation of African Unity agreed to keep colonial borders to avoid wars, so they still stand.
• Modern states and administration. Colonial rule created central governments, civil services, police and armies that newly independent states inherited.
• Divide and rule. Favouring some groups over others created or deepened ethnic divisions that later fed conflict. In Rwanda, as you will see in the next unit, Belgian policies of division were among the roots of later violence.
• Rise of nationalism. Colonial injustice, together with Western education, produced leaders who organised movements for independence.

3Economic consequences

• Export economies. Colonies were made to produce raw materials for Europe: cotton and coffee in Uganda, cocoa in the Gold Coast, copper in Northern Rhodesia and the Congo. Many African economies still depend on exporting a few raw products.
• Taxes in money (hut and poll taxes) forced Africans to grow cash crops or work for wages, often far from home as migrant labourers.
• Forced labour on roads, plantations and mines.
• Land alienation. In settler colonies such as Kenya (the "White Highlands") and Southern Rhodesia, the best land was taken for Europeans.
• Infrastructure. Railways, roads and ports were built, but mainly to carry raw materials from the interior to the coast; the Uganda Railway (1896–1901) linked Mombasa to Lake Victoria. Few lines connected African colonies to each other.
• Decline of local industries, such as cloth-making and iron-working, which could not compete with cheap imports.
• A money economy, banks and new currencies replaced older forms of exchange.

4Social and cultural consequences

• Western education, mostly through mission schools, created a literate elite, but places were few and higher education very limited.
• Health services and vaccination campaigns reduced some diseases, while colonial movement of people and animals also spread diseases such as sleeping sickness and rinderpest.
• Spread of Christianity (and in places Islam), and decline of African religions.
• European languages such as English, French and Portuguese became languages of government and education.
• Racial discrimination: segregation in housing, jobs and services, and the belief that Africans were inferior.
• Urbanisation: new towns grew around administration centres, mines and railways.
• Erosion of African cultures, values and institutions, which were often mocked or banned.

Worked example: avoiding the "balance sheet" trap

Question: "Colonialism brought development to Africa." How far do you agree?

Colonial governments did build railways, roads, schools and clinics that independent states inherited. However, this development was designed to serve Europe: railways ran from mines and plantations to ports, schools trained clerks and catechists, and very few Africans reached university. At the same time Africans lost their independence, land, labour and often their lives, and economies were shaped to export raw materials cheaply. Some infrastructure was paid for by African taxes and built with forced African labour. So colonialism brought some modern structures, but it did so on unequal terms and at great human cost; "development" for colonial economies was not the same as development for Africans. I agree only to a limited extent.

Notice that the answer does not simply list "good" and "bad" points. It asks who benefited and who paid, which is what "how far" questions are really testing.

Practice

Solution. Any two of: Africans lost their independence; artificial borders split peoples and grouped rivals together; modern centralised states and armies were created; divide and rule deepened ethnic divisions; colonial injustice gave rise to nationalism.

Solution. Their main purpose was to carry raw materials such as cotton, coffee and copper to ports for export to Europe, and to move troops and officials, not to connect African communities with one another.

Solution. To pay them, Africans had to earn cash by growing export crops or working for wages on settler farms, in mines or in towns. This drew people into the colonial economy and created migrant labour.

Solution. Positive: any of Western education, literacy or some health services. Negative: any of racial discrimination, erosion of African cultures, or the spread of some diseases.