Movements in Africa

Movements in Africa Colonisation of Africa The African coastline had been explored in the sixteenth century and a few European settlements had come about. But the interior of Ho Chi Minh ( - ) was born in Tongking. When Ho Chi Minh was twenty one, he went to Europe. After working as a cook in a London hotel, he went to Paris. In the Paris peace conference, he lobbied for the independence for Vietnam. His articles in newspapers and especially the pamphlet, French Colonialism on Trial , made him well known as a Vietnam nationalist. In he became a founder-member of the French Communist party. Two years later he went to Moscow and learnt revolutionary techniques then. In , he founded the Revolutionary Youth Movement. The World between Two World Wars Africa was unknown to the outside world until the last quarter of nineteenth century. European colonisation began after about . The Berlin Colonial Conference of – resolved that Africa should be divided into spheres of influence of various colonial powers. The war between the British and Boers in South Africa, however, was in defiance of this resolution. Boer Wars The relations between the two British colonies of Natal and Cape Colony and the two independent Boer states of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State had long been unfriendly. The discovery of gold in Transvaal, in , led to large numbers of British miners settling in and around Johannesburg. The Boers hated these people whom they referred to as Uitlanders (foreigners). The Boers taxed them heavily apart from denying political rights. So the question was whether the British or the Boers were to be supreme in South Africa. Fearing attacks from the British, the Boers armed themselves and decided to attack. The Boer War lasted for three years, - . Initially, the Boers were successful. But by the first half of , the Boer army was defeated. Pretoria was occupied. The Boers took to guerrilla fighting. This continued for about two years. In retaliation the British destroyed farms and