Africa and the New Imperialism documents the period of rapid colonial expansion by European powers across the African continent during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.  

From the accounts of missionaries and European explorers navigating the interior of the continent in the early nineteenth century; to the rise in European desire for increased power, empire and wealth culminating in the Berlin Conference 1885-1886; to the subsequent power struggles, negotiations and conflicts that raged across the continent at the turn of the twentieth century, the documents within Africa and the New Imperialism charts Africa’s encounters with European imperialist regimes and their impact on the lives of peoples across the continent.

• Diaries, journals and sketch books from key figures including David Livingstone, John Kirk and James Augustus Grant, whose sketchbooks from his Nile expedition are illustrated with watercolours of landscapes and peoples he encountered.
• The journals of British soldier Major General Charles Gordon, which includes his final journal written before the fall of Khartoum to the Mahdist forces led by Muhammad Ahmad of Sudan. 

  

  _{Grant's Sketches: Hill of M'Phonza, Ukuni District © National Library of Scotland}
  
  

• Papers of Henry Shelton Sanford providing a key source for the early history of the Congo Free State and including signed letters from H. M. Stanley and King Leopold II of Belgium.  
• Correspondence from Roger Casement and the resulting Casement Report which investigated, and confirmed, the atrocities committed in the Congo Free State under King Leopold II. 
• Papers related to the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, led by H. M. Stanley, including diaries and journals from members of the expedition, and correspondence relating to the expedition between Sir William Mackinnon, H. M. Stanley and the British Foreign Office.  
• British Foreign Office files for the Berlin Conference, the event which ignited the spark of late-nineteenth century European imperialist efforts across Africa, including papers relating to European intervention in the Congo, the involvement of Belgium and Germany, and the Malet papers which include the private correspondence of Sir Edward Baldwin Malet who was the British Ambassador to the German court, 1884-1895.  
• The papers, photographs and correspondence of Frederick Lugard, a British soldier and administrator in Africa, covering British involvement in East Africa and West Africa from the 1870s to the early twentieth century. These are along with the papers of journalist and colonial commentator, Flora Shaw, Lugard’s wife. 

_{Lugard's Photographs: A Masked Dance Takes Place in Offa, Nigeria © Bodleian Library, University of Oxford}

• Correspondence, journals and reports from French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza that provide insight into his expeditions to the Congo Basin; the establishment of the French Congo; de Brazza’s administration of the French Congo as Commissioner General; and de Brazza’s 1904 investigation into injustice, forced labour and brutality within the French Congo. 
• London Missionary Society correspondence from Central Africa and Matabeleland, including first-hand accounts of audiences with King Lobengula of the Ndebele people and the activities of the British South Africa Company controlled by Cecil Rhodes. 

• Imperialism 
• Slavery and forced labour 
• Diplomacy 
• Religion and missionaries 
• Race and ethnicity 
• War and violence 
• Resistance to colonialism 
• Technology and infrastructure 

Material has been sourced from world-renowned library and archives: 

• Archives nationales d’outre-mer 
• Bibliothèque nationale de France 
• Bodleian Library, University of Oxford 
• British Film Institute 
• British Library 
• National Library of Scotland 
• Sanford Museum, Florida 
• School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 
• Senate House Library, University of London 
• The National Archives, UK
• University of Birmingham Library 

For detailed information on the collections available, visit the Guide to the Archival Collections. 

For more information about how this material was selected, visit the Selection Criteria.

Each document within Africa and the New Imperialism has been tagged with a region. These regions have been designated in consultation with our editorial board, they are broad and are intended to provide support in browsing and navigating the documents presented within this resource. However, due to the nature of the material, many documents cover several regions and where this is the case, the most relevant regions have been added; there may be more regions covered by events within documents.  

• Central Africa
• East Africa
• Horn of Africa
• North Africa
• Southern Africa
• West Africa
• Rest of the World

For more context on each region and events taking place within each region, visit the Guide to Regions and Places.

A variety of research tools provide further contextual information or guidance for teaching and research. From Essays and Biographies to Guide to Regions and Places and Guide to the Archival Collections, explore the options under Research Tools or view the full list in Teaching Tools.