Customer Reviews

COLONIAL ARMIES IN AFRICA 1850-1918: Organisation, Warfare, Dress and Weapons (Armies of the Nineteenth Centu)

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Another great entry in an great series. This book is a bit larger than the others, seeing as it has a lot of ground to cover. The artwork is particularly nice in this one.The reason I rated this four instead of five stars is the text is a bit dryer- the author will not cover the campaigns in this period,as he feels(rightly or wrongly)that it would take away from the topic- military organization-and boor the reader with page after page of colonials mowing down poorly armed,disorganized natives.
There are chapters for the Belgians,GreatBritain,France,Germany,Italy,Portugal and Spain.
Two things that are strikingly shown in this work, are that from about 1500 to 1850, the Europeans sat on the coasts of Africa,held in check by numbers,terrain and disease. But starting by about 1850,superior technology,(esp. breachloading magazine repeating rifes and machine guns)organization and disipline, the European powers carved up Africa in less than 50 years.
The other is that the conquest( Or theft, if you prefer.)of the continent was largely done by African troops led by European officers. White troops died like flys,from disease and the climate.