Mini Paper
Somalia: Colonization
http://org.newtrier.k12.il.us/academics/faculty/hjelmgren/africa09proj2lev.html
Ben Friedman
Somalia: Colonization
Somalia, a land first colonized by the British, then given as a gift to the Italians. (Goodman, Sean) Was later known to be Somaliland. The Ethiopian ruler Menelik II was very intimated by the Europeans. In the scramble for Africa, he had to make a very tough decision. Does he fight the European countries like France and Britain, and risk losing his own country of Ethiopia? Or does he give the Europeans the land of Somalia and keep him and his people safe in Ethiopia? Menelik made a vital decision to keep his people and land safe. By doing so, he would not have endangered his people by having stronger, European, countries steal his precious land and claim him and his people as slaves or even dispatch all of his valuable natural resources such as coal. (Goodman, Sean) I found the fact that he simply gave his secondary country away very interesting. In most cases, in the scramble for Africa, European countries would war and fight for a certain area. Sometimes Europeans would even fight each other for a certain part of Africa! But in this case it’s the opposite. The British didn’t have to do anything but ask for it. Overall, the people of Somalia didn’t mind the British. The British didn’t harm any people or force them into anything they didn’t want to do. The British were only there because of the Natural resources available. The British had received what they had wanted and began to export more goods such as coal, gold, and diamonds back home to Britain.
The main reason the British were so attracted to Somalia is because of its location. They could use Somalia as trading port for Coal. The British had already had a major trading port in India very close to the Gulf of Aden, which leads right out in to the Indian Ocean. Back in the 1800’s coal was equivalent to gasoline today. (Reed, Arthur) The coal would do things such as warm houses, power stoves, and most importantly run their ships for these long excursions back and fourth to Africa. The British had many benefits from utilizing the land of Somalia. The natural resources they would have access to would boost their economy.
Though the people of Somalia were treated pretty well compared to other people in different parts of Africa, a man named Sayyid Abdullah Hussein set up a resistance clan. Farmers were tired of being taxed due to use of the ports they had to use to ship their livestock.(Azikiwe, Abayomi) As a religious leader he took charge over the eight hundred farmers and refused to sign any new tax agreements about shipping supplies. His resistance failed miserably. This formed a struggle for independence throughout Somalia.
Goodman , Sean . "All Africa: Somalia." GlobalSecurity.org - Reliable Security Information. 5 May 2009 <http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/somalia/hist-setting.htm>.
This taught me the majority of the information I found out in this essay. I learned all about the process in which the British used to take full control of Somalia.
Reed, Arthur. "Somalia: History, Geography, Government, and Culture — Infoplease.com." Infoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free online reference, research & homework help. — Infoplease.com. 12 June 2008. 5 May 2009 <htt://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107979.html>.
This taught me how the Africans were treated by the Europeans. Also, this taught me about what natural resources the Africans had in Somalia. This taught me that coal in the 1800’s was equivalent to gasoline today. Coal did things like warm houses and power ships for very long excursions back and forth to Africa .
Azikme, Abayomi. History - Somalia." Encyclopedia of the Nations - Information about countries of the world, United Nations, and World Leaders. 5 May 2009
This taught me about resistance all over Somalia and about Sayyid Abdullah and how badly his resistance failed. I learned that the British always tried to make more money they could. Overall i received the fact the British were unfair people.
-Underneath, is a picture of the Britian flag because Britian colonized Somalia.
Last Updated May 26,2009, By Ben Friedman.
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