Africa is considered as the ‘Dark Continent’ and gone unknown to the outside world. Its interior elements like desert, mountains, plateaus and forests have discouraged exploration and development. Britain’s occupation of Egypt and Belgium’s penetration of the Congo have started the race for colonial possessions in Africa. The Suez Canal is important because it has shortened the route from Europe to South and East Asia. Britain has set up a protectorate over Egypt but is really controlled by Great Britain.
Chapter One British Cultural Promotion in Nigeria Before 1954 Introduction The first contact between Britain and Nigeria began in the sixteenth century along the Nigerian coastlines. During this period, British slave trading companies were preoccupied with establishing their trading posts to control the profitable “Transatlantic Slave Trade” without trying to control the local tribes. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, and due to the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire, the trading interests of the British in Nigeria gradually shifted to “Legitimate Commerce” in such goods as ivory and palm oil with the inland populations. These new commercial interests led to the acquisition of Lagos in 1861, Southern and Northern Nigeria in 1900 and finally the amalgamation and the placement of the Northern and Southern regions under British colonial rule in 1914. British colonization of these regions brought a new culture whose propagation remained essentially the preoccupation of the Christian missionary societies until the twentieth century.
The imperialism began from Africa. Imperialism basically means expanding nation’s power or influence by direct control of a territory or by controlling economy and politics. Between 1500 and 1800, Europeans were only seen in Africa to buy and sell slaves from local chiefs. As in Africa there was a huge problem of contagious malaria and other harmful diseases. Europeans became helpless to these diseases, so by 1833, the British government banned the slavery.
Since, the African Nationalist said that independence given to African is false because true freedom comes with economic independence and the author calls this kind of practice as Neo-colonialism. The false independence Blaming Africa's woes on colonialism and neo-colonialism strikes a chord with many educated Africans, but emphasis on external forces has drawn attention away from internal factors crucial to an understanding of Africa's condition. With or without colonialization, African societies would still today be faced with fundamental economic dilemmas, argues Tunde
The important catalyst came into being to shape the Americans. At this level, the fate of British colonies unleashed a heated debate about the political representation that was often enclosed in disfranchisement and the vote. The commitment of the revolutionaries to the equality and freedom led to the growing unease over the slave trade legitimacy. This was also visible in the way Americans pursue their patriotic cause. Benjamin Rush said that it would be useless for us to denounce the parliament servitude to reduce the citizens while continuing to keep fellow humans in slavery because of their different
(Achebe 129)” Chenowa Achebe speaks his thoughts on imperialism here by saying that even though the white imperialists thought they were doing good, they didn’t bother to even try to understand the natives’ feelings towards them. Although imperialism brought government stability and education, the long term effects of imperialism in Africa were negative because natives were made slaves, borders were poorly placed, and European religion/education was forced upon them. All in all, British Imperialism hurt Africa much more than it
By maintaining it, colonists could form their own way of levying taxes. The ability to levy taxes would appeal tremendously to the colonists due to the Stamp Act of 1765. This act, proposed by the British Parliament, made colonists pay for the debt that Britain obtained from the French and Indian war. Colonists were not happy with this act because they did not have a say in the creation of it. The Stamp Act of 1765 only furthered the wish of colonist to be free from monarchy rule.
Lord Frederick John Dealty Lugard, an accomplished governor general of Nigeria, explains how the British should maintain its colonies in his book, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa. In the book, he describes the natives to be “lack[ing] the power of organization, and is conspicuously deficient in the management and control alike of men or business” (Lugard). In the eyes of the Europeans, the competence of the native laws and leaders were seen as inferior to their own. They felt the need to further reinforce their beliefs of racial superiority by forcing their own legislative system to the lands they colonized. Examples of the impacts brought by these actions can be found in Things Fall Apart.
Even though we tend to only see the unfavorable effects of colonization, British colonizers have had both positive and negative impacts on Nigeria’s traditional society by influencing its political structure, economy and education. British colonialism destabilized Nigeria’s political system. The West African country was governed by means of indirect rule. This means that, in opposition to direct rule, the
All the huge European powers were incorporated into this endeavor, however by the mid eighteenth century, Britain transformed into the world 's driving slave trading power. It 's assessed that British water crafts were