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By the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, almost every inch of Africa was colonized. [Map of Africa is shown]

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The only holdouts were Liberia, which had started as an American colony for freed slaves, [Liberia kicking America out]

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before gaining independence…

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…and the Ethiopian Empire, which had kept on… keepin' on… for all those years. [Cat hanging on to a branch]

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Since there was such a massively overwhelming European presence in Africa, it shouldn’t [European soldiers all over Africa]

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be a surprise that parts of it got dragged into the whole boondoggle.

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“Boondoggle” being the polite way of describing the horrible violence of World War I. [Explosions going off on a map of the world]

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In this epic age of imperialism and power-grabbing, European empires weren't exactly BFFs.

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So one huge cause of World War I was growing tension between them. [German and France falling out]

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European empires were basically like Ninja Turtles yelling at each other over the last

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few scraps of African pizza. [Ninja turtles waving their arms in the air]

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Tensions were high not only between Allied and Central Power countries, but also within

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the alliances.

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In fact, a world war almost kicked off a decade earlier in 1905 when the British and French

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started going at it over part of the Sudan.

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But…fortunately the world dodged that one. [Britain and France playing dodge ball with the world in the middle]

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When European nations ran out of places to snatch up, they increasingly eyed each other’s [Guy drawing on a map with a highlighter]

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empires.

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As any Sith Lord will tell you, there’s not much else for a power-hungry empire to [Starwars characters shooting at a each other]

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do…

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Germany only had a few poor colonies that were getting poorer…what with all that genocide. [People looking unhappy next to landfill]

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To rev up their colonial game, the German government started building up a navy to rival [A german ship]

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Britain's.

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Britain was all like…don't you be threatening our overseas colonies, man…and tried to

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build up an even bigger navy. [British ship appears]

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Of course, France had to keep up with the Joneses, so they started militarizing their [French tank appears]

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colonies, too.

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Then, in the midst of this trigger-happy environment, a Serbian resistance fighter in Sarajevo assassinated

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Franz Ferdinand, Arch Duke of the massive Austro-Hungarian empire. [Franz Ferdinand is shot]

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This gave everybody the excuse they needed to try out all those nifty navies and armies

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they’d been building.

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The result?

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A great big war for Europe and with it, most of Africa. [German and British tanks shooting at each other]

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Of all the tragic losses of life in World War I, the fighting in Africa was among the [Africa with an unhappy face]

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most tragic.

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And that’s saying a lot.

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The majority of African soldiers were conscripted, meaning that they were forced to either join

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the army or be arrested by the colonial governments.

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The choice was fight and probably die, or go to prison and probably die. [Man is prison uniform picks up a gun]

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And plenty of Africans chose to fight.

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To add insult to injury, many Africans dragged into this situation were old enough to remember [Guy sat thinking]

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being independent of European empires. [He has memories of happier times]

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But now they were being made to fight other Africans to serve their brutal overlords. [The man is whipped and dragged away]

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How sad is that.

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Here’s hoping that one day history looks a little less like the Star Wars movies where [Starwars clone soldiers marching]

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the Empire wins…

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