Africa Role In World History Essay

So Europe invaded Africa, took possession of Africa, and divided Africa into colonies of Europe. The period of invasion, lasting some twenty years, was more or less completed by 1900. There followed a longer period, between sixty and ninety years, of direct European rule, called colonial rule. This was a time of profound upheaval for all of Africa’s peoples. It brought irreversible changes” (4).

In the race of European imperialism, European countries dominated innocent African colonies. The driving force behind this? Africa’s bountiful resources. Before Africa’s colonization, the European presence in Africa was extremely limited, mainly due to lack of exploration and diseases (Background Essay). However, this changed as European prominence became largely influential through the discovery of Africa’s resource rich lands.

In History of Africa, Shillington focuses on many aspects of African culture and factors that made Africa to be the continent that it is today. Chapter 5 primarily focuses on the Northern region of Africa and how empires took over and spread their ideology technology, and culture all through out the region. Even today some remnants of the Roman and Greek empire live on to this day (Shillington, 69.) Despite many people getting the impression that Northern Africa is only influenced by Arabic and Islam, these empires and their conquests are best understood through topics like intricate trading routes, farming, and the spread of religion. Shillington provides an in depth analysis of how many of these conquests affected Northern Africa centuries ago and today.

In Chapter 1 and 2 of “Creating Black Americans,” author Nell Irvin Painter addresses an imperative issue in which African history and the lives of Africans are often dismissed (2) and continue to be perceived in a negative light (1). This book gives the author the chance to revive the history of Africa, being this a sacred place to provide readers with a “history of their own.” (Painter 4) The issue that Africans were depicted in a negative light impacted various artworks and educational settings in the 19th and early 20th century. For instance, in educational settings, many students were exposed to the Eurocentric Western learning which its depiction of Africa were not only biased, but racist as well.

Africa, a country that throughout history is recognized through poverty and hunger. Africa has had its ups and downs throughout history. In this essay we are going to dig deep within Africa’s history to the 1500s. Seeing how and what Africa has had to endure as a country.This includes external conflicts as well as internal conflicts.

In The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Olaudah Equiano writes about his experiences as a slave. Beginning with his childhood, he tells of how he was kidnapped and traveled through the Bermuda Triangle, bought by his first white owner, and eventually gained his freedom. Although Equiano still considers himself an African at the end of his text, the text tells a different story about his transformation from an African to a British man. Considered to be a slave narrative by many critics because of its true stories about slavery, there are many issues with Equiano’s argument against slavery: Rather than asking that Britain completely rid of slavery, Equiano actually suggests that they create a new form of slavery which would allow Africans to assimilate to the white men through economic reforms such as paying the Africans for their work and using their land for production.

In that quote you can see the true disgust and hatred for something that was not European. This is just one of many different captains and scholars who traveled to Africa and to their surprise, were stunned by the amazing towns, workmanship, craftsmanship, and art that African people had. This was first accounts of Africa that would eventually lead to Europeans conquering the land and claiming it as their own

Raj Patel, a professor at the UC Berkeley Center for African Studies, brings forth both personal experience and recollection of

And the novel repeatedly tells us that these crimes--not the casual brutalization of black men and women, not the denial of political and economic rights to the overwhelming majority of the population-are the big problems in South Africa” (AUTHOR NAME AND PAGE NUMBER?). This shows that Europeans are titling blacks as thieves, prostitutes, and murders. They are pretty much titling them as their downfall to society. They are blaming all of the bad stuff that happens in there everyday life on the Blacks of South Africa. They are not seeing the big picture which is that the white forced themselves into their land and caused them to become poor and are forcing them to scramble for money.

People do not view Africa as a great world power due to its history of slaves and poverty. Africa will become a great nation like it was before the peace broken by European powers. Africa will return to its natural roots being free from violence and discrimination. The poem, Africa, relates to the harass of Africans and African-Americans being seen as a lower class even in modern time. This poem repeats in America with black injustice crimes, ripping black culture to modernized.

If this is the case, why is it fair to remove Africans from their homes only to compare them to a society started by Europeans? Not only is this an obvious bias, this statement demonstrates the idea of the white standard. Since black people in the United States were not granted emancipation for almost a century following the publication of this writing, these arguments from a well- respected leader were accepted at face

This sense of racial dominance offers insight into the Western justification of their brutal treatment of natives –ruling through violence and intimidation rather than diplomacy. Moreover, as native Africans are degraded in the background, the wicked imperialistic operations of European companies lowered the moral standards for arbitrating the evil and madness of their

By doing so, indirectly Europeans hindered the development of African societies and caused them to stagnate. Routes like the Triangular Trade were established, which shipped goods to Africa in exchange for slaves, and shipped those slaves to the New World for production of even more goods. When the Europeans had showed up to Africa, major trade hubs that spanned the Sahara to Egypt, existed, trading spices, salt, and other luxuries (Lect. 2, 1/22). However, the outstretched arms of colonization proceeded with a “better” plan, to remove any inkling of progress that could define an advanced African society. Slaves were taken from West Africa, prisoners from inland regions and taken out to the coast to be shipped off the New World and the colonies (Lect. 3, 1/25).

The  Imperialism of Africa is a world nation over political, economic and cultural affairs of other countries and  region. The European Imperialism was caused by the loss of The American colonies during 1700s and 1800s. According to the passage, document B John Ruskin born in 1819 and 1900 stated that England must do to again a source of light, a center of peace, meaning to find the colonies as  fast as possible this was economic and political reasons. The Europeans took over Africa at which it was shown on Document A, every land has been taken over by the Europeans except for Libya and Ethiopia. According to this  continuous with the passage Europe and  the number one trade and sea power, another man named Fabri believed that Saxon British colonies would begin competing.

Moreover, Western civilization became the ideal civilization, and became way superior to African “civilization.” As a consequence, African tradition became perceived as primitive, outmoded, and sadly not welcomed by the rest of the world. Unfortunately, a lot of Africans experienced a trend of a dying out culture. (2) It can be implied that even the Africans’ self-perception dropped because the only lifestyle they knew was suddenly taken away from them and they were taught that it was substandard. Therefore, the indigenous inhabitants of the colonies, the Africans, had to adapt to a new, “superlative” culture and view it as more sophisticated than theirs.