Rwanda is located in Central/Eastern Africa and is boarded the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. Rwanda’s capital city is Kigali, it is the largest city in Rwanda, its population is more than 1 million. The size of Rwanda is 281. 9 mi? , the bigger houses and office buildings are on the tops of the ridges, and the poorer people live in the valleys. The city is really big, it has a lot of people. History Of Imperialism: The scramble for africa (1880-1900) was a period of rapid colonization of the African continent by European powers.
It wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the particular economic, social, and military evolution Europe was going through. Cause of Scramble for Africa: There were several factors which created the motivation for the Scramble for Africa, most of these were to do with events in Europe rather than in Africa. End of Slave Trade – Britain helped to try end the slave trade and had some success. Capitalism – After Europe stopped trading in slaves, people found huge places of materials that were raw, they made trade routes, navigated rivers, and identified population centers which might be able to be a market for manufactured goods from Europe.
The Berlin Conference was in 1884-1885, marked the start of the European competition for territory in Africa, it was called the scramble for africa. In meetings, Great Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, and King Leopold II divided their claims to African territory. During the conference the leaders also agreed to allow free trade among the colonies and made a system for negotiating future European claims in Africa. They did not provided any say for the peoples of Africa over the partitioning of their homelands. The person who took over Rwanda is Paul Kagame, he ended the Rwandan genocide, he has been in office since 2000.
Belgium took control of Rwanda in 1994 after world war 1 was over, and they divided them into different groups called Hutus and Tutsis. To keep control and keep track of them they gave them cards that say if there Hutu or Tutsis. They thought the Tutsis were more white looking. There was a big effect, the Tutsis wanted more independence and they were being impatient and the Hutus were getting mad, they had know idea what was coming that affected their lives. The Imperialists Leave: The Imperialists (Belgians) left Rwanda in 1962.
The president Juvenal Habyarimana was left in charge, the effects it had on the Rwandans was that the president was a Hutu and the Tutsis were scared because they had not treated the Hutu right when they were in charge. The president tried to help, he wanted to make peace between the groups. He flew to tanzania trying to make a peace agreement. The Genocide: The president Habyarimana died on April 6th when he was flying home from the peace treaty and was shot down by the Hutus, they blamed it on the Tutsis to make it seem like they wanted the Hutu dead.
The interahamwe were getting weapons from General Augustin Bizimungu, head of the Rwandan army. They also got machetes from George Rutaganda who owned a supply warehouse in Rwanda. The objective of the genocide was that the Hutu wanted to wipe out the Tutsi race so there would be no more of them. People Involved: Some of the people that made the genocide worse were George Rutaganda, he was the head if the interahamwe and told them to go kill the Tutsis.
Another person that made it worse was General Augustin Bizimungu, he was the head of the Rwandan army and supplied the interahamwe with weapons and might have helped killed the president. A famous person who tried to help was Paul Rusesabagina, he was the manager at a hotel in Rwanda called the mille colline, he saved 1,268 people during the genocide while protecting them at his hotel. A organization that helped were the U. N. forces, they helped with the peace agreement and protected the mille colline but was not able to use force to stop the genocide.
Aftermath: There were over 800,000 people killed during the genocide, all of them mostly Tutsis. The people that were involved, General Bizimungu was sentenced to 30 years in prison, George Rutaganda was sentenced to life in prison, he died on October 11 2010, he died in prison in Benin from a heart attack. Rwanda today is very different, the president is now Paul Kagame, he has helped out a lot, he has tried to bring the Tutsis and Hutus back together to forgive each other. There is also no more Hutu and Tutsi cards, it is back to normal but Tutsis still have a little bit more power than Hutu.
