British imperialism created tension with other European powers.

1. No longer content with improvising as they went along, the British and the French were determined to put things in order and establish a clear administrative hierarchy with Europeans at the top and Africans below. Meanwhile, some of the oldest trading nations in Europe abandoned Africa and new players emerged.

2. In 1911 Italy invaded Libya, then under Ottoman rule. Ottoman resistance collapsed and Libya was accorded nominal independence(without consulting the people of Libya). But Italy continued to occupy Libya. The commander of the fighting force of the Sanussi brotherhood, Umar al Mukhtar, defied the Italians until 1931 when he was executed.

3. By the end of the century the French had conceived a type of colonial rule which was highly centralised and made little effort to involve local rulers. This contrasted with the British colonial style, which in northern Nigeria took the form of indirect rule through the local Emirs and chiefs.

4. The Scramble for Africa had the effect of defusing and displacing tensions between the European powers in Europe, but eventually the tradeoffs and alliances could not disguise the fact that Imperial Germany was on a collision course with Britain and France. Now for the first time, Africans found themselves dragged into a conflict which had its origins in the war rooms of Berlin and London. The moral posturing of European powers, supposedly representing civilisation, wisdom, reconcili