African Imperialism

Imperialism is a process that occurs when a more powerful country takes over a less powerful country and this could be through the use of force or threats (Young & Alcock, 1974). Imperialism can either be Political, Military, Cultural, Communication and Economic or it can be a combination of these kinds of Imperialism’s. Imperialism led to opportunities for profit accumulation, trading and investment opportunities (Freund, 1984). The need for raw materials in Europe for manufacturing gave small African traders and small African farmers the opportunity to be involved in international trade. The change from slave trade to a more legal trade led to a crisis and Europeans assumed that the only solution to this crisis was to make all non-European

African families focused on surviving, providing food for their families, even though surplus production was exchanged through the system of barter. This ‘barter’ system was later developed from individual barter to rather a more regional barter. This can be evident in the relationship Sudan and the Mediterranean region had, Sudan supplied the Mediterranean region with raw materials in exchange for Mediterranean goods which were manufactured (Iliffe, 1983). African economies were mostly made up of hunter-gathering economies. This traditional economic system led to the development of various tools and weapons used by hunters for hunting. African development did not occur at the same time and this was due to geographical reasons such as part of the lower Nile valley, which is closely located and share the same environmental conditions with the Middle East and secondly Egypt which ended up adopting development strategies from Western Asia (Austen, 1987). Western transport developments played an important role in African economic development. Stabilized food production is the driving force behind establishing new complex societies (Iliffe, 1983). Changes occurred in the ways of food production due to changes in the environment and change in human populations. Human populations were rapidly increasing, so the demand for food started to increase and this caused a strain on

Discovery of gold in South Africa led to the British investing in South Africa and Europeans migrated to SA which led to industrialisation thus resulted in economic growth. During the development in SA, the country followed policies and formed institutions which were similar to those of the developed countries. In the South African case, the policies played a role in creating inequality and the policies sustained the inequality. According to Feinstein (2005), during the 1920’s there was a change in the policies of economic development which resulted in the formation of the Pact Government. The Pact Government looked to promote industrial development and the government had support from the fellow Afrikaners who also looked to benefit from this by being employed. The Union Government established the protective tariffs to promote development of the manufacturing sector and protect the local industries. Policies came into place to protect the local products, making sure that imports are not too high and import products had high