Late 1870s–1890s: (Towards the Scramble — At the End of the 1870s Most of Africa Still in African Hands, the Foreign Presence Scarcely Extending Beyond Coast…

Late 1870s–1890s: (Towards the Scramble — At the End of the 1870s Most of Africa Still in African Hands, the Foreign Presence Scarcely Extending Beyond Coastal Enclaves, Yet Within Twenty Years the Entire Continent Under European Rule Except Ethiopia and Liberia — Continuity in Ideas and Rhetoric from the Late Eighteenth Century Onward Rather Than Sudden Discontinuity): There has always been a temptation to see the Scramble for Africa in terms of discontinuity — between the end of the 1870s and the end of the 1890s, Europe engaged in a sudden, largely uncoordinated partition of the continent. At the end of the 1870s, most of Africa was still in African hands notwithstanding spreading European influence, yet within twenty years the entire continent — with the exceptions of Ethiopia and Liberia — was under European colonial rule. Circa 1880, the foreign presence scarcely extended beyond coastal enclaves, with notable exceptions at either end — the British and Boers in South Africa and the French in Algeria. Yet there is much to be said for thematic continuity: the ideas, rhetoric, and policy considerations driving partition had been present since the late eighteenth century. The nineteenth century witnessed a gradual hardening of attitudes that created the moral, intellectual, and cultural climate for the European invasion — burgeoning scientific interest, the struggle against the slave trade and consequent discourses on modernization, the evangelical drive, and increasingly racially charged interpretations of African polity and society.