The Scramble for Africa: The History and Legacy of the Colonization of Africa by European Nations During the New Imperialism Era

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Scott Clem

Length: 1 hr and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

The British South-African Company's shares May be at a discount - (Trade-martyrs! - trade-martyrs!) But he, our Colossus, strides on, he declares, Whether with or without chums or charters - or charters. Hooray! We brave Britons are right now to the front - Provided we've someone to boss us - to boss us; And Scuttlers will have their work cut out to shunt This stalwart, far-striding Colossus - Colossus! —Excerpt from an editorial in Punch, December 10, 1892

The modern history of Africa was, until very recently, written on behalf of the indigenous races by the white man, who had forcefully entered the continent during a particularly hubristic and dynamic phase of European history. In 1884, Prince Otto von Bismark, the German chancellor, brought the plenipotentiaries of all major powers of Europe together, to deal with Africa's colonization in such a manner as to avoid provocation of war. This event - known as the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 - galvanized a phenomenon that came to be known as the Scramble for Africa. The conference established two fundamental rules for European seizure of Africa. The first of these was that no recognition of annexation would be granted without evidence of a practical occupation, and the second, that a practical occupation would be deemed unlawful without a formal appeal for protection made on behalf of a territory by its leader, a plea that must be committed to paper in the form of a legal treaty.

This began a rush, spearheaded mainly by European commercial interests in the form of Chartered Companies, to penetrate the African interior and woo its leadership with guns, trinkets, and alcohol, and having thus obtained their marks or seals upon spurious treaties, begin establishing boundaries of future European African colonies. The ease with which this was achieved was due to the fact that, at that point, traditional African leadership was disunited, and the people had just staggered back from centuries of concussion inflicted by the slave trade. Thus, to usurp authority, to intimidate an already broken society, and to play one leader against the other was a diplomatic task so childishly simple, the matter was wrapped up, for the most part, in less than a decade.

©2017 Charles River Editors (P)2017 Charles River Editors

Worth a listen

Some good insight into into colonization, narrator is not great but bearable. There is so little text on the berlin conference, this book is not a last stop but a good accompaniment to more research regarding this tragic period of history.

terrible narration

On what grounds was Audible moved to appoint this man as narrator for this excellent book? A book like this deserve a voice like David Attenborough! We are talking about a perioid in history which had an enormous impact on the world and a man with no feeling, bad prononciation blasts it out! Very bad Audible. Very bad. It was no plesure. I feel like canceling my membership after this experience !

This Unscrambled It For Me!

This book helped me understand how Europe destabilized Africa for generations. Between slavery and plundering for natural resources, the Europeans basically guaranteed disunity among the African nations. Now I understand why some Africans speak with a British accent and some Africans speak with a French accent. It relates directly to colonization and the scramble for Africa. The book is nice and brief in explaining history and the narrator was very clear. The book is concise and informative.

how did they find such a bad narrator?

seriously did they owe this guy a favor? did he blackmail the publishers with compromising photos to accomplish his dream of being an audio book narrator? your average person on the street would likely be better. it's hard to independently judge the book itself without being influenced by the terrible narration but i don't think i learned a thing i wouldn't have learned from the Wikipedia article on the scramble for Africa, nor was it composed in a particularly eloquent or more understandable manner. so I'm gonna get the next vagrant i see to read the scramble for Africa Wikipedia page into a voice recorder and pitch it to audio books i guess. can't be worse.

Reading poor

The quality of the reading was so poor I have not been able to listen even though I am very interested in the topic. Why was this reader chosen?

Scramble for Africa

Awful. The narration was terrible, words pronounced incorrectly. Unfortunately, I thought I had purchased the original Thomas Pakenham version. This was very misleading