Decolonization

The Scramble for Africa Was Faster Than Almost Anyone Expected

by
The 1892 Punch cartoon The Rhodes Colossus, Cecil Rhodes striding from the Cape to Cairo.

In 1870 Europe controlled about a tenth of Africa; by 1914, roughly nine-tenths. How the partition actually worked — chartered companies, pre-printed treaties, and a great many wars — and why the “carve-up at Berlin” story is only half true.

European Colonialism: How Five Centuries of Empire Remade the World

Updated · Published by
Abraham Ortelius's 1570 world map, Typus Orbis Terrarum, from the first modern atlas.

How five centuries of European colonialism worked as one system — trade routes, chartered companies, slavery, conquest, decolonization, and the world it left behind.