Scramble for Africa

Overview

Africa held two gateways to India - Suez, and the staging post at the Cape - and Britain gained control of both. In holding them, she was sucked into trouble. With Britain's hands tied at either end of the Dark Continent, other European nations began to grab slices of Africa for themselves. It looked as if they might get the lion's share until Cecil Rhodes determined at all costs (and he held the monopoly of South Africa's diamonds) to carve a path for a British Cape-to-Cairo railway.