Africa (The Long Run)

After the narrator finished his engineering job in China, he went to Africa.

In the first phase of colonialism, more and more African territories were confiscated and exploited by major European powers (Pawlak). In the course of the centuries the supremacy of the Portuguese shifted first to the Dutch, later to the French and British. But until the end of the 19th century, the colonial powers limited themselves to occupying trading posts along the coast (Pawlak). A large part of the outback remained unexplored and independent for a long time (Pawlak).

During the height of imperialism in the late 19th century, however, the European states fought a real power struggle for the African countries (Pawlak). Within only two decades, almost the entire African continent was occupied (Pawlak). Most areas within Africa were divided between the European powers at the Congo Conference in Berlin in 1885 (Pawlak). The map of Africa was fundamentally reshaped and arbitrary borders divided the continent into British, French and German territories, ignoring the existing borders (Pawlak).

Almost all African people had lost their freedom by the beginning of the 20th century (Pawlak). Despite the widespread ban on the slave trade, many people were enslaved and sold until the 20th century (Pawlak).

This was the time when the narrator of Edith Wharton’s short story lived some time in Africa.

Sources:

• Pawlak, Britta. “Zeit des Kolonialismus: Versklavung und Ausbeutung Afrikas.“ Cosmos Media UG. 2018. Web. < https://www.helles-koepfchen.de/kolonialismus_versklavung_und_ausbeutung_afrikas.html>