John Doe AAS-290
The Magnificent Cake
In the 1th century Africa was considered a “magnificent cake”, this phrase was a metaphor for African soil. Africa was divided up into new colonies by Europeans. After the end of slavery in Africa, Europeans wanted to expand their empires for industrialization and trade. This was called the “scrabble for Africa”, which consisted of the France, England, Portugal, Germany, and Denmark and they all wanted a piece of African soil hence the metaphor the “magnificent African cake” because Africa was divided amongst these countries like slices to a cake.
The early resistance to European invasion was the early British takeover of southern Africa. The British took the Ashanti nation forcefully. The king of the Ashanti was publicly humiliated after surrendering. He was forced to kiss the British commander's boot. The Portuguese farmers were forced to grow cotton for export to Portugal. The price per unit of cotton was fixed by Portugal. The farmers were forced to sell great quantities of cotton at low prices. So many farmers were forced to produce cotton that there was a shortage of crops in Mozambique.
The people began to pressure the government to become more liberal. Stronger demands became common, to the point of requesting a full-fledged democracy. The ideas were not only confined to the elite of the colonies, however, the elite held protests.
Farmers face grievances from Portugal because farmers were forced to grow cotton for export to Portugal, but the price of this cotton was fixed by Portugal which created an unfair market price for the Africans, meaning that the farmers of Mozambique were forced to sell a lot of cotton at very low prices. There was also famine amongst the people, because there was no one left to make the food.
The welcoming of the British was brief after the building of the railway, amongst the native