African Imperialism And Its Effects On Africa

It is the year 1870, the start of imperialism in Africa and many other regions. Imperialism is when a country acquires power through domination of others. The Europeans took control of Africa with their steam engines, advanced medicine, and superior weaponry. Imperialism harmed Africa because imperialist governments created laws that treated Africans cruelly and unfairly, Europeans changed how the tribes of Africa lived, and the Europeans used treaties to control Africans.

European Imperialism in Africa had one real driving force behind it, racism. After 300 years of Europeans cashing in on Africa’s coasts, the explorers finally ventured inward, wreaking havoc on the continent’s environment and inhabitants, not giving a second thought to the people whose lives they ruined. This is made clear though the British’s new industry they built their and the economy formed atop it poorly affected the people they took advantage of and the moral obligations they had but did not follow.

European Imperialism heavily impacted the African continent through culturally, economic, and political ideas. This era of history is heavily drenched in the aspect of ethnocentrism, which is the belief that one’s own culture is superior that of another. The Europeans colonized Africa believing that they could bring civilization, but they were often ignorant of Africa’s very complex societies. The European powers divided up the continent of Africa among themselves, without any consent from the people who actually lived there. The tribal stratification was changed to a caste system where racial, ethnic, and religious differences were of utmost importance, as delegated by European rule. The structure and business of the African economy was

Imperialism was a time of new inventions, technology, and many other things. Imperialism had many positive things like, transportation, spread of technology, and an increase in education. Because of Imperialism transportation became a thing. Also communication with other foreign countries became a thing. Then there was an increase in education too.

First, Africa was finally given a place in the international community because of New Imperialism. For hundreds of years, an entire fifth of the inhabited Earth was excluded from the world’s most important decisions. But because of New Imperialism, they were able to

The Europeans came into African and took control of the Africans and all of their policies and their power and made them feel like second-hand people in their own communities. The Europeans brought in jobs, rules, and their history and language, this caused more resources to be made, the Africans to lost power in their own territory, and African languages and cultures were lost and replaced with European languages and cultures. The positive and negative effects of imperialism on the Africans were caused by the modernization of their communities, the establishment of European rulers, and the religion and education the Europeans brought to Africa.

When learning about the history of the world, we can not ignore the fact that Africa plays a significant role. Many believe that Africa is the birth place of all races, and although that is true, the history and cultures of Africa and its natives are misunderstood among Americans. People do not take the time to expand their knowledge about Africa, yet they create their own perceptions of the continent based upon the image that America created. America creates this stereotype that Africa is inferior to the other continents by picturing them as savage like individuals who live an insufficient life. To truly understand Africa, you must understand these two important elements: the demographics of Africa and the true history of Africa

The Congolese people have endured many hardships over the past few centuries. The slave trade initially commenced by the Portuguese in the 1480s caused the Kongo society to become unstable and chaotic. Due to the expansion of European imperialism, the Congo endured suffering from King Leopold II. His harsh ruling ultimately leads to his decline in 1908. Conversely, forced labor in Africa was very common from many European leaders. The depression of the Congolese society took place before and after the colonization and this was a typical result of imperialism in the 19th century.

During the 19th century, Imperialism started to break out across the globe. The Age of Imperialism actually began in 1870, mostly impacting European states, Africa, and the Middle East. This is where countries gained power by taking over and claiming land that was already inhabited. States were driven by power and influence, and they all wanted to be the best. This lead to tension and competition for power among countries. However, places with the biggest army, most advanced technology, and organized government system were usually the most successful, especially Great Britain. With this tension over power came conflict over land and territory. Because of its natural resources and huge coastlines, Africa became the main target for claiming land. European states first started claiming land on the coast of Africa and then they all fought over who could have the most land. The Berlin Conference was a meeting between all the states fighting for land, including Britain, France, Germany, and the U.S. The intent of this conference was to settle tension over territory and reduce conflict over land on the African

First, to understand the dynamic between Africa and the exploitation of the Western world and examination of the scrabble for Africa must accrue. Before the 1880’s European empires controlled only ten percent of the continent, but with no more land to concur on the already inhabited continents and the spread of imperialism throughout Europe the only place left was Africa. A complete and utter invasion of Africa took place, in many ways resembling the colonization of the Americas. The spread of Christian values, western government and living took a strong hold over the country, along with sickness, war, and fear. Groups such as the British, Belgian, and Dutch has already staked their claim to specific parts of Africa during the first half of the 19th century, but during the latter

During the 1800-1960 time period, many events occurred that showed how determined the people of Africa were to gain their independance and freedom. Because of their determination, these years brought a lot of change. In the year 1800, the slave trade came to an end. The slave trade started as a trade between equals, but overtime it turned into enslavement and forced people to migrate. This shows how Africa is changing for the better. After that, in 1884, the “Scramble for Africa” happened. This was an unethical way for the Europeans to discuss how to conquer Africa. The Africans had no say in this, so this shows how Europe was only getting stronger. The events in the next few years, showed the continent’s nationalism and pride. The national

In the age of Imperialism, European countries sought to colonize the world. It all came crashing down as European countries became involved in conflicts and could not sustain this infrastructure. In South Africa, European ideals were held so strongly in the government that segregation was the norm long after Europe and North America had become desegregated. Africa was seen as a place to steal from, whether it was slaves, minerals, riches, or land. From the constant European intervention and inability of nations to function on their own and control their people, Africa has become a vacuum of centralized power with new puppet democracies controlled by dictators and warlords. European control was a very hands-on way of controlling every aspect of African life in the government, infrastructure, culture, technology, religion. When African countries became independent, it was a struggle to adopt their new identity Because of the overpowering European dominance in every aspect of live, Africa was deprived of the chance to learn and develop on its

Going back to the 1860s, Africa was an unknown continent to many Europeans. Most Europeans only had colonies on the coastline, such as current day Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal etc. The only people to go into the interior of Africa was missionaries, reporters and traders. As people of Europe discover more about Africa, discoveries will begin the Scramble of Africa, an event in which very rapidly, Europe was able conquer most if not all of Africa. They did this with technological and medical advances, economic reasons, and the motivation of prestige and White Man’s Burden.

Africa is a place rich with diverse culture, languages and people, Western Africa in particular. Much of this area of African history however had been heavily impacted by Europe. Initially most Europeans came as traders, establishing trading posts and engaging in commerce with the native Africans, this began in the late 1400’s. With colonies being started in the New World with the intent of gaining resources, cheap labor was needed. This sparked the trade of slaves out of Africa to the Americas, which from the 15th century to 19th century approximately 10 -15 million slaves were shipped from their homeland. In order to understand the impact of this time in history it is important to go back to a pre-colonial West Africa before Europe became

Before any type of outside involvement, most Africans were educated and civilized.  While it is a widespread misconception that Africa is “the heart of darkness,” in reality, it is a place full of sophisticated people living just like the rest of the world.  It is true that during the late 1800’s many countries in Africa were not as developed as many places in Europe, however  as Chinua Achebe states, Africa is “...vaguely