Footnotes Of History

Listeners, Today after a lengthy interlude, Dan and I release the second half of the Scramble for Africa episode. It’s controversial of course since, despite our normal dismissal of all the virtue signalling in modern media about empire and European history, we actually found ourselves rather moved by the cold brutality of the operation. Dan actually burst into tears, but out of deference to his ego, I cut this from the tape. Okay that didn’t happen, but before we get too carried away by the number one mistake historians always make (i.e. imposing modern values on the past), two caveats: 1) The right of conquest of course was a recognised concept at the time and 2) many lands were bought rather than “stolen”. As historians, our role – unlike the famous quote – IS to reason “why”. This being said, it doesn’t get away from the fact that European leaders treated much of the continent as if it were essentially empty. As well as the fact that they hid their imperial ambitions behind the veneer of respectability o