Wars of Imperial Conquest in Africa 1830-1914. Bruce Vandervort. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1998. 288 pp. Paperback $16.95.

Bruce Vandervort's aim in writing this book is to examine the origins and conduct of colonial warfare in Africa in the late nineteenth century. The author investigates the history of the colonial conquests from the perspectives of the European invaders and the African resisters. Over the course of the book, he demonstrates the impact, both immediate and long-term, of these wars upon the societies, political structures and military theory and practice of both the victors and vanquished.

Vandervort describes how relations between black Africans and Europeans were carried on largely at arm's length until the 1850's. He informs us that the interior of Africa was still mainly in the hands of the African peoples, whose hostility, combined with rigors of tropical diseases, kept European penetration to a minimum. He explains that Europeans came to Africa largely for economic reasons, thus, their presence on the continent was limited to a small number of trading enclaves along the west and east African coasts.

According to Vandervort, in 1876 more than 90% of the African continent was ruled by Africans. However, by 1914, all but Liberia and Ethiopia were controlled by European powers. The author explains that the ability of the Europeans to recruit large armies of African troops and the technology advantage that European countries had over African countries were the major reasons for European success in the African colonial wars. The motives for participation in the imperial venture were multiple and complex and they varied considerably among European nations.

Vandervort describes the pre-colonial years of the nineteenth century as a time of movement toward a greater centralization of power. In larger polities such as the Zulu empire in Southern Africa, the jihad states of al-Hajj Umar, Ahmadu Seku and Samori in West Africa, the Mahdist theocratic state in the Sudan, the rejuvenated Solomonic empire of Ethiopia, the Sokoto empire of northern Nigeria, and the Ashanti empire of present-day Ghana, an internally-generated change might have opened up a distinctly African path to modernity. Given the opportunity, African nations might have eventually liberalized their political, legal and fiscal institutions to make room for their more productive classes. These classes could then have commercially collaborated with the European mercantilists. If this had occurred, African nations might have retained their political and economic independence through an open door policy of trading with the world.

This process was brought to a halt as a result of two factors: first, through conquest and subsequent imperial rule, the Europeans were able to impose their own economic and political priorities onto African institutions and society conquest. Secondly, African societies were almost entirely unable to bury long-standing ethnic and political animosities long enough to forge alliances against the Europeans. Vandervort reveals in great detail the African nations' unwillingness to rethink military strategies and tactics that had proven ineffective against European methods of warfare. He shows how their refusal to abandon hierarchical and inequitable social structures inhibited the African peoples from presenting a united front against the European invasion. Europeans were able to turn ethnic groups and religious factions against each other. Ethnic divisions, tribal rivalries, religious differences and conflicts between regions all played into the hands of the Europeans.

In conclusion, the author has written a thorough and well-documented book and is able to discuss both the European and African perspectives without bias. Additionally, the military aspects of the wars are clearly explained. The social, economic and political background is illustrated to provide the reader with a greater understanding of European imperialism in Africa and the effects it still has on the Continent. Therefore, this book is a must for those readers who want to better understand the confluence of factors that led to the success of the European conquest of Africa.

David S Fick
Overland Park, Kansas
Independent Scholar