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Why Russia didn't have any colonies in Africa? - Coggle Diagram
Why Russia didn't have any colonies in Africa?
as of the year 1914 africa
was thoroughly scrambled this was done
by most of europe's major powers and one
notable absence was the russian empire
who despite having much more experience
in imperialist expansion than most of
its fellow european nations ended up
with not a single colony in africa
but why why didn't russia take part in
the scramble for africa
so first of all russia had already tried
to establish a foothold in africa
specifically in madagascar now this was
done under the rule of peter the great
who sent privateers there to lay claim
to the island and establish some trading
ports for russia
turns out though that privateers aren't
great at settling and so this attempt
petered out pretty quickly
so russia did take part in the berlin
conference with the other european
powers to discuss the division of africa
their attendance wasn't to secure
themselves territory though
it was mostly to secure access to africa
for traders and missionaries
because the russian government wasn't
interested in obtaining traditional
colonies for several reasons
russia's imperial ambitions were
better aimed at conquering and
subjugating its neighbours
anything that sat on its borders which
were much easier to reach police and
defend and they played into russia's
strength in its army
whereas defending a colony in africa
from say britain or germany would be
much more difficult than protecting
poland or armenia
and part of that was down to reason
number two access to africa
unlike britain france or italy russia
had no quick means to access the
continent
the northern route was long and the port
of arkhangelsk was frozen for half the
year anyway
the baltic sea route meant that russia
had to pass germany denmark the united
kingdom
the other united kingdom and france all
of whom could make leaving the baltic
sea incredibly difficult if they wanted
to
the third route was via the dardanelles
which could be blocked quite easily by
the ottomans and even if they did get
out exiting the mediterranean could be
blocked by the british
and the fourth route meant traveling
around the entire continent of asia
which was long and
expensive so no as such russia's grip
and potentially even trade with
any colonies in africa would be tenuous
at best reason three
was expense many african colonies
weren't profitable on their own and had
to be part of a larger imperial network
to make money for the colonisers
and russia wasn't exactly flush with
cash in the 19th century
as demonstrated by its need to sell
alaska to the united states and its
struggles in modernizing its military
now the russian state not wanting to
colonize africa is not the same thing as
russians not wanting to colonize africa
one particular enthusiast was nikolai
ashnov who in 1888 launched a
colonisation effort to settle and
subjugate this area
there was one problem with this plan
though the french had already laid claim
to the area
ashanov arrived here in 1889 with a
bunch of cossacks who immediately took
control of an abandoned fort here
and it was promptly called new moscow
the plan was to secure this area and
from here expand to control the entire
horn of africa
that never happened because as soon as
the french heard that the land they
claimed was being occupied they demanded
answers from russia the russian
government denied any responsibility and
so the french were free to get rid of
him
ashinov was arrested and then sent back
to russia where he was soon afterwards
exiled to siberia
and despite ashenov's later offers of
help to the tsar russia's very brief
part in the scramble for africa
was over