ASSIGNMENT: 01

Module Code: HSY2602

STUDENT NAMES: SIPHIWE NKOSI

STUDENT NUMBER: 63307014
Assessment 1
Short Essay Assessment Theme: Empire

DUE DATE: 22/03/2024

Theme: Empire

Question: Discuss critically what is meant by this statement:

“Ironically, European exploration, of and expansion into the African
Continent was often motivated by moral outrage against slavery”.1

This statement points to the irony of European exploration and expansion into Africa being
motivated by moral outrage against slavery. While it is true The ironically arises from the fact
that despite some Europeans being motivated by moral outrage against slavery, their
exploration and expansion into Africa often led to further exploitation, colonization, and
oppression of African peoples. This contradiction highlights the complex and multifaceted
nature of historical motivations and actions. And some European nations, particularly Britain,
did use humanitarian justifications for their colonial ambitions in Africa.
Firstly, the expansion of Europe drew the whole world into a new network of relations. From
the 19th century many Europeans believed that that imperial expansion was an economic
and political necessity in order to safeguard a country’s dominant position among the other
great powers. Even some influential commentators claimed that imperialism was a matter of
national survival. Furthermore, people in Germany, Britain and other countries did not take it
for granted that their empires had to expand to other regions in the world1. According to the
study the African island state of Madagascar, was occupied by the French from the 1880s to
1960s, is in geographical terms bigger than Great Britain, the largest colonial empire in the
19th century2.
These figures indicate that western colonial expansion was based on more that brute force.
The western penetration of foreign societies constituted a complex process which involved
not only military conquest, but also indigenous people all over the world interacted with
western influences in a myriad of ways, by resisting foreign influences, but also by
participating in a new economic networks, by responding to new religious and ideological
influences, and generally by trying to make the best of it and grab new opportunities3.
Secondly, In the 1850s and 1860s Africans became connected to the economic exploitation
of Africa, when David Livingstone a missionary advocated Christianisation of African content,
by arguing that he conducted his extensive explorations in Southern and central Africa in
order to save souls of Christians, and also to be able to facilitate trade with the advanced
economies in Europe to make African economies viable4. Moreover, the abolition of slavery
did not result in equal relations between black and white people, also subsequent
developments seemed to prove too many whites that Africans were inferior5.
Furthermore, the Christian Revival, became an important trend in many European societies
by the 19th century, also contributed to new ideas on race, especially because middle-class
Protestantism became involved in the missionary and abolitionist movements. According to
the study, men and women who were active in the movements protested against the
exploitation of black people even though many of the activist did not completely renounce
the idea that different societies had developed unequally. Therefore, many abolitionists who
passionately protested against the human treatment of slaves, accepted that Africans were
so backward and underdeveloped that they could not be independent unless they were
prepared to become more like Europeans6.
The French aristocrat, Author de Gabineau, published a multivolume treatise titled an essay
on the inequality of the human races in the 1850s. Gobineau did not particularly single out
Jews, but his claims that the white race was the superior master race reverberated among
western intellectuals7. Gobineau’s ideas became hugely influential among racist intellectuals
who had developed a more radical brand of racism and anti-Semitism by the end of the 19th
century. In 1794 slavery was abolished in the French empire, but this was not done because
French were concern about the human rights of black people. Since France was at war with
Britain, the French hoped that their declaration of freedom for all slaves would garner them
support among black people against the slave-holding British. The chaotic period of 1790s
saw temporary alliances between whites on the other hand and coloured and black on the
other. Dispute among the different political sections of the white community caused these
agreement to collapse, even those whites who sympathised with the revolution in France
were not prepared to liberate the slave and to give equal rights to free coloureds8.
However, the events in Haiti showed that Europeans were not necessarily prepared to
extend the new ideals to those people whom they thought of as incapable and backward.
The same Europeans who agreed with the radical demands for the equality of all people
often unthinkingly accepted that some groups of people, such as Africans, had to be
excluded from the new brotherhood of free citizens because they did not qualify for freedom.
Ironically, George M Frederickson argues, that the intensified message of equality in a
democratic nation-state may have boosted the intensified racism which is reflected in
Napoleon’s decision to reintroduce slavery. If everybody supposed to be equal one has to
present convincing reasons for depriving specific groups of the human rights. According to
the study, one efficient way of doing this was to deny the humanity, like French thinkers who
claimed that black people were closer to apes than to humans9. Despite European racial and
cultural prejudice, people in non-European countries heard the message of universal
brotherhood and insisted that they too had the right to be free and equal.
Moreover, European ethnocentrism and the belief in cultural superiority often underpinned
justifications for subjugating non-European societies. Such ethnocentric views suggested
that European interventions were necessary to 'civilize' other peoples. The notion of the
"white man's burden" propagated the idea that Europeans were saving African societies
from barbarism, while concurrently engaging in exploitative activities. This hypocrisy is
evident in how European countries used the existence of slavery in Africa as a rationale for
their colonial expansion on the continent, also masking their economic interests in the
regions they colonized10.
In summary, the rationale behind European exploration and colonization, particularly as it
relates to moral outrage against slavery, is complex and often sits uncomfortably alongside
the economic benefits these activities brought to Europe's development. Significant historical
scholarship, such as that by Eric Williams and Walter Rodney, suggests that the exploitation
and profits from colonial activities, including slavery, contributed to the economic ascent of
Europe, facilitating its industrial and imperial dominance at the expense of other world
regions' development11.

1
Study guide for HSY2601 study unit 1, (theme: empire), p. 1.
2
Colley, Captives. Britain, empire and the world, 1600-150 (London: Pimlico, 2003, pp. 5-6
3
Study guide for HSY2602, p. 2.
4
Study guide for HSY2602, p. 21.
5
Study guide for HSY2602, p. 21.
6
Study guide for HSY2602, p. 25.
7
Study guide for HSY2602, p. 27.
8
Study guide for HSY2602, p. 30.
9
Study guide, for HSY2602. p. 34. Frederickson, Racism, p 68
10
Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2021.
11
Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020.

Bibliography
Biddins; “Gobinean, H.S. Chamberlain and Spengler”, Transaction of the Royal Historical
Society, 7, 1997, pp 73-100
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a longtime labor activist, writer, and a past president of TransAfrica
Forum. He is the coauthor (with Dr. Fernando Gapasin) of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in
Organized labor and a New Path toward Social Justice (University of California Press, 2009).
He also wrote “They’re Bankrupting Us”—And 20 Other Myths about Unions (Beacon Press,
2012), and The Man Who Fell from the Sky (Hard Ball Press, 2018).
Colley. L, Captives, Empire and the world, 1600-1850 (London: Pimlico, 2003)
Dubois, L & Garrigues, JD, Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1904 (Boaton & New
York: Bedford/st Martin’s, 2006)
Etherington, N, Theories of Imperialism war, conquest and Capital. (London: Coroom Helm
Totowa; N.J: Barnes & Noble, 1984)
Frederickson. GM, A short History (Victoria, Australia: Scribe, 2002)
Frederickson, GM, Racism. A short History (Victoria, Australia: Scribe, 2002)
Fick, CE, The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution From Below (Knoxville:
University of Tennessee Press, 1990)
Hobsbawn, E, The Age of Empire, 1875-1914 (London: Weidefeld & Nicolson, 1987)
Logan, RW, Haiti and the Dominican Republic (London & New York: Oxford University
Press, 1968)
Ott, TO, The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804 (Knoxville: University Of Tennesse press).
Study guide for HSY2601 (Pretoria: Unisa, 2011-2013). Study Unit 1-3 p. 1-36

DECLARATION
Name: siphiwe Nkosi
Student number: 63307014
Module code: HSY2601
Assignment number: 01

I declare that this assignment is my own original work. Where secondary material has been
used (either from a printed source or from the internet), this has been carefully
acknowledged and referenced in accordance with departmental requirements. I understand
what plagiarism is and am aware of the Department’s policy in this regard. I have not
allowed anyone else to copy my work.

Signature: S. NKOSI Date: 21/03/2024