West Africa and the 1914–18 War

Colonial rule brought Europe and Europeans to Africa; it did not bring Africa and Africans to Europe. West Africa, far from being integrated into the wider world, remained largely isolated from it. British West Africa felt the touch of that war but lightly in comparison with French West Africa, for whose people it proved a heavy human and economic burden, and an opportunity for revolt against colonial domination. The Second World War was to bring both French and British West Africa once and for all into the modern world, and heralded their emancipation from colonial rule. In British West Africa the war called forth surprising loyalty from the African population. The major economic impact of the war on the British West African territories was, as in the Gambia, to increase British trade with them, and to prepare the ground for the great British oligopolies that emerged after the war.

Ancient history · Geography · Political science · African history and culture studies · History