Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880-1914

First published in 1991 in Dutch, Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880-1914, disputes the belief that Europe engaged in a feeding frenzy to partition the continent for its resources. On the contrary, Wesseling shows that the colonization of Africa was more a by-product of sorting out the affairs in the Balkans after Turkey's defeat to Russia, and that, like most political endeavors, happened haphazardly rather than as a systematic process of occupation. Though he acknowledges damage caused by colonialism, he disputes the popular belief of colonialism as Africa's original sin: "Even under colonialism Africans thus largely remained masters of their fate."