1. Imperialism: The Scramble for Africa
(Teacher Version)
Students should be familiar with Kipling’s Poem prior to this activity. I just make sure that the students
understand the European ethnocentrism that exists. According to Kipling, it was the responsibility of
Europeans to try and civilize those countries in Africa and Asia. Europeans saw it as their duty to
oppose their culture on other countries because they thought it was superior. Also make mention
that this same mentality was used to justify imperialism in the US during the late 1800’s to early
1900’s
Having discussed Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “The White Man’s Burden,” you begin to get a sense of the
mentality of the European powers, post-industrial world. The balance of power that Europe had
maintained after the Congress of Vienna in 1815 with the Concert of Europe Alliance is no longer in
existence. All of Europe is now jockeying for position atop the leader board of continental power.
They may have said they were imperializing to “help” the foreign cultures they conquered, but the
reality is that each nation in Europe was looking out for itself.
I chose to arrange students in groups myself before class to hopefully eliminate confusion during class
time. Make sure to assign a country name to each group in order to tie in nationalism during the
debrief after the activity. Give the students about 5 minutes to rank their top four African countries,
collecting a sheet of paper from each group with a list of their four countries in ranking order with
their assigned country’s name clearly labeled.
You will now be assigned to a country of Europe (Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, or Spain). Your task
is to determine which four African countries your country wishes to imperialize. You may only choose
four countries so rank your countries in order of desirability one to four (#1 being your top choice).
Each country is (secretly) assigned a different point value based on its overall economic and political
value, so the objective would be to evaluate the importance of each area in order to obtain the
greatest number of points. Since some of your countries may be desired by other countries, you and
your teammates will be competing for dominance of Europe! Be able to flex your nationalistic
muscles! (Literally and figuratively)

2. After collecting each country’s list, quickly look and see which four countries each group chose. Make
mention of their groups have very similar desires. “Many of your countries have chosen South Africa.
What now must happen in order to determine who takes control of that country? War. We are
going to symbolize war by various physical activities. The physical activity for the war over South
Africa will be wall sits. Please have one representative from each country in this dispute volunteer.
Your group must send someone new to participate in each physical strength test.” Most of the
groups should have similar lists. This will continue for all other African countries that are in dispute.
If a student country has an African country that is not on any other list, they automatically get the
points because there is no conflict. This continues until each of the student countries lists are
exhausted (each country is crossed off on each list). After all the lists are checked, the student
country with the most points is the winner.
Some suggestions for various physical activites:
 Wall Sit – person who can hold on the longest gets the points
 Push-ups – Fastest one to complete 15
 One-legged Balance – Students must stand on one leg holding the other leg straight in front
 Jumping Jacks – Fastest one to complete 30
 Balancing textbooks – Person who balances a textbook on their head the longest, wins
Your Group must use the African Resource map provided in order to determine which country to
colonize.
Each country has been rank by Mr. Welch but it is up you to determine yourown ranking system.
Things to Consider:
 Geography is the Mother of History
 Countries with access to water for ports allows for easier trade
 Some resources may be more valuable than others
 Abundance and diversity of natural resources may make a country more valuable
**Remember to rank each of your 4 African countries in order of desirability from 1st to 4th.
In the words of Ricky Bobby, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” The Scramble for
Africa is on!
Important points to make during the debrief:
 European countries competing against each other
o Competition breeds rivalry, rivalry breeds conflict, conflict leads to WAR
 Make sure to define Imperialism
o Due to industrialization, every country in Europe is striving to be number 1
o More resources, more land, more people, leads to more power
o Power comes from a countries ability to industrialize
 Ultimately, every country in Europe has one thing in common at this point. The “need” to be number
one and the fear of falling to number two
o If you’re not leading the industrial push of Europe you might be overtaken by ones leading
o This Creates enormous tension and ultimately leads to WWI