Imperial Considerations
October 21, 2025•238 words
The Scramble for Africa
Lesson plan – image analysis
Disclaimer: all of the following images are from an old teaching material archive of mine, for which I do not have any image credits to cite. They should all fall within fair use, however.
This is an old map depicting the British Empire. How does the map portray Britain in relation to her colonies and colonial subjects?
Examine this Weihnachts-Nummer ("Christmas Number") of the German satirical social democratic magazine Der Wahre Jacob from 1907, in which Maiden Germania and German Foreign Minister Bernhard von Bülow are sitting on the couch while German Secretary of Colonial Affairs Bernhard Dernburg is shown playing on the floor.
What message is the above cartoon attempting to convey?
This is a photo of children in the Congo Free State with their hands cut off by the colonial authorities. What happened in the Congo Free State?
What do you think is happening in this picture?
Collectible pictures such as this one (trans. "Black Troops Attacking") were marketed to children during the First World War. How were African colonial subjects characterised to European children?
A news headline commented on French colonial endeavours in the beginning of the 20th century:
...and who would dare to claim that these wild savages would kill our soldiers with French rifles!
How is the supposed superiority of the French Colonial Army depicted in this image?