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Overseas companies as transnational actors during the European conquest of Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Stephen Cooney
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Extract

“William, when I went into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty-one. And, by God, I was rich!”

Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman, Act I

Fortunes magically and mysteriously made on vast continents overseas have tempted western entrepreneurs for generations, much as Uncle Ben tempted Willie Loman. But these exploits also involve machinations which appear sinister to a general public increasingly disturbed by the control giant corporations have over our daily lives. As long ago as 1900, John Hobson developed the theory that modern imperial expansion was the product of the manipulation of national foreign policies by the “Rand lords” and similar overseas financial operators. This idea was used by Lenin, Hilferding and others in their elaborations of the Marxist explanation of the nexus between economic forces and the political behaviour of states. Imperialism in tropical Africa was always seen as a key issue in this context. With the onset of decolonization and the struggle for development, questions of the history and the progress of imperialism have remained cogent subjects of intellectual controversy. The historical “scramble for Africa” and the process of colonization which followed created the basis for the modern political map of Africa and modern African political society. To what extent were these developments triggered or determined by the activities of private entrepeneurs? What relevance might the answer have for the contemporary study of international politics? This article seeks to explore these questions in the light of theories of transnational politics. At the same time, the problem of European expansion in Africa provides an important test for the transnational approach, as it relates to the overseas political activity of international business firms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , July 1980 , pp. 154 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1980

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References

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page 164 note 2 Jean Stengers, ‘King Leopold's Imperialism’, in Owen and Sutcliffe, op. cit. pp. 272–75; Slade, op. cit. pp. 175–78.

page 164 note 3 Stengers, ‘King Leopold's Imperialism,' op. cit. pp. 259–76; and, ‘Leopold and Anglo-French Rivalry’, pp. 121–32; Roeykens, Conference de Bruxelles, Ch. 2 and, Dessein africain, 1–2 esp. pp. 20–28.

page 164 note 4 Slade, op. cit. pp. 193–99.

page 165 note 1 Ibid, pp. 203–10.

page 165 note 2 Ibid. pp. 178–92, 199–210; Stengers, ‘Congo Free State’, op. cit. pp. 266–71, 280–82, 287–90; Porter, Bernard, Critics of Empire (London, 1968), pp. 260–74.Google Scholar

page 165 note 3 Roeykens, Conference de Bruxelles, op. cit. pp. 47–55, 109–93; Stengers, ‘Congo Free op. cit. pp. 264–66, 279–80.

page 166 note 1 Stengers, ‘Leopold and Anglo-French Rivalry’, op. cit. pp. 132–65; Crowe, Stephanie, The Berlin West African Conference, 1884.–1885 (London, 1942)Google Scholar, pt. 1: chs. 1–2, p. 8; pt. 2: chs. 2, pp. 4–5; Power, Thomas F., Jr., Jules Ferry and the Renaissance of French Imperialism (New York, 1944), pp. 92–115; Brunschwig, Myths and Realities, op. cit. pp. 43–48, 65–74; Slade, op. cit. ch. 3.Google Scholar

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page 167 note 1 Robinson, Ronald and Gallagher, John vi, ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade’, Economic History Review, (1953), pp. 1–5Google Scholar; Gf. also their Africa and the Victorians, op. cit. chs. 1–2.

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page 167 note 3 For general summaries of this threat, cf.: Gilpin, ‘Transnational Economic Relations’, op. cit. pp. 403–8; Lowe, G. J., The Reluctant Imperialists, I, British Foreign Policy, 1878–1902 (London, 1967), pp. 1–5Google Scholar; Stengers, Jean, ‘L'imperialisme colonial de la fin du XIXe siecle: mythe ou realite?’; Journal ofAfrican History, iii (1962), pp. 483–87Google Scholar; Platt, D. C. M., ‘Economic Factors British Policy During the New Imperialism’, Past and Present, no. 39 (April, 1968), pp. 120–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The strategic threat is discussed in Lowe, chs. 2–4, and Hinsley, F. H., ‘International Rivalry in the Colonial Sphere, 1869–1885’, in Rose, J. H., et. al. (eds.), Cambridge History of British Empire, III, The Empire-Commonwealth, 1870–1919, (hereafter CHBE) (Cambridge, 1959), pp. 117–26.Google Scholar

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page 168 note 2 Ibid. pp. 62–98; Robinson and Gallagher, Africa and the Victorians, op. cit. pp. 175–89; Platt, op. cit. Trade, Finance and Politics, pp. 251–56; Hargreaves, Loaded Pause, op. cit. pp. 93–111. Crowe, op. cit. pt. 2: Chs. 2 and 6.

page 168 note 3 Newbury, Colin W., ‘The Development of French Policy on the Lower and Upper Niger, 1880–1898’, Journal of Modem History, xxxi (1959), pp. 18–24Google Scholar; Flint, Goldie, op. cit. 34–41. 62–71.

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page 169 note 2 Ibid. pp. 220–38 and Flint, Goldie, op. cit. pp. 48–71, 98–155, 187–215.

page 169 note 3 Gf. sources in fn. 43; also, Robinson and Gallagher, Africa and the Victorians, op. cit. pp. 395–402; and, Strauss, William L., Joseph Chamberlain and the Theory of Imperialism (Washington, 1942), pp. 80–85Google Scholar, 89–92.

page 169 note 4 Lockhart, J. G. and Wodehouse, G. M., Rhodes (London, 1963), pp. 106–22Google Scholar, 169–73; Galbraith, John S., Crown and Charter: The Early Tears of the British South Africa Company (Berkeley, 1974)Google Scholar, ch. 8.

page 170 note 1 On Rhodes' personal motives, cf. esp. the remarks in Lockhart and Wodehouse, op. cit. pp. 67–70, 80–105, 132–57.

page 170 note 2 Galbraith, op. cit. Crown and Charter, chs. 2–4; Robinson and Gallagher, Africa and the Victorians, op. cit. pp. 202–45; Lockhart and Wodehouse, ch. 10; Oliver, Roland, Sir Harry Johnston and the Scramblefor Africa (London, 1957), pp. 133–72.Google Scholar

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page 170 note 4 Ibid. pp. 240–54; Slade, op. cit. pp. 128–40; Lockhart and Wodehouse, op. cit. pp. 241–44.

page 170 note 5 Galbraith, Crown and Charter, op. cit. pp. 106–27,199–200, 310–39.

page 171 note 1 Cf. sources in fn. 49.

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page 172 note 2 Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, ‘French Colonization in Africa to 1920: Administration and Economic Development’, in Gann and Duignan,op cit.. pp. 177–94; Sieberg, Herward, Eugène Etienne und die franzöische Kolonialpolitik, 1887–1904 (Cologne, 1968), pp. 77–90Google Scholar: Suret-Canale, Jean, Afrique noire occidentale et centrale, II (Paris, 1961)Google Scholar, ch. 1.

page 172 note 3 Newbury, ‘Trade and Authority in West Africa’, op. cit. pp. 76–94: and, ‘The Tariff Factor in Anglo-French African Partition’, in Gifford and Louis (eds.), France and Britain in Africa, op. cit. pp. 221–30, 254–59; Suret-Canale, op. cit. pp. 19–22.

page 173 note 1 Hargreaves, Prelude to Partition, op. cit. pp. 271–78; Flint Goldie, op. cit. pp. 34–41, 62–71; Newbury, ‘French Policy on Niger’, op. cit. pp. 18–24.

page 173 note 2 Hargreaves, Prelude to Partition, op. cit. pp. 93–101, 110–20, 201–14; Coquery, Catherine, ‘Le blocus de Whydah (1876–1977) et la rivalité franco-anglaise au Dahomey’, Cahiers d'etudes africaines, ii (1962), pp. 386–409.Google Scholar

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page 175 note 1 Müller, op. cit. pp. 80–85, 115–60; Brunschwig, Expansion allemande, op. cit. pp. 78–79; Wehler, op. cit. pp. 333–58.

page 175 note 2 Ibid. pp. 333–43; Müller, op. cit. pp. 97–133.

page 175 note 3 Ibid. pp. 134–42.

page 175 note 4 On Peters5 general strategy, cf. Müller, ch. 6. On the Uganda question and Peters' “Emin Pasha” expedition, cf. Wehler, op. cit. pp. 364–67; Lowe, op. cit. pp. 128–32; Müller op. cit. pp. 458–84; Sanderson, Upper Nile, op. cit. ch. 3.

page 176 note 1 Müller, op. cit. chs. 6–8, pp. 11–16; Wehler, op. cit. pp. 343–64; Henderson, op. cit. pp. 12–21; Townsend, op. cit. pp. 130–41.

page 176 note 2 Cf. Wehler, op. cit. pp. 263–81, 292–98, 328–33,367–72; and, Müller, op. cit, pp. 287–356, 384–87, for dicsussions ofsuch enterprises. The most important was F.A.E. Luderitz' company in Southwest Africa, which formed the basis of the German colony there.

page 178 note 1 Turner, Louis, ‘The Oil Majors in World Politics,’ International Affairs, iii (1976), pp. 368–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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page 179 note 1 Barnet and Muller, op, cit. chs. 3 and 5.

page 179 note 2 Vernon seems to agree with this view in the British, French and Japanese cases, but not in the American case, pp. 205–30. However, cf. Barnet and Muller, op, cit. pp. 72–81, and Magdoff, passim.