From the 1870’s to 1900’s, Britain had one of the largest and most powerful armies in the world. With that sort of potential, it would’ve been a mistake not to colonize Africa. Taking control of the tip of Africa was extremely strategic of Britain, as from there they could control the trading routes and begin settling for future invasions and in the end, colonization. Also, the new Capitalist society forming because of Britain’s industrial revolution developed social problems many obvious social problems. The gap between the rich and the poor was larger than ever, and homelessness was on the rise as cities became extremely dense and overpopulated.
Britain has set up a protectorate over Egypt but is really controlled by Great Britain. The British occupation of Egypt is the richest and most developed land in Africa, set off “African Fover” in Europe. To confirm its control and stability in the area, Great Britain has extended its control over the Sudan also. The French Empire in Africa is as large as the continental United States. France has conquered Algeria in North Africa.
In the early 1870’s, European countries began a race to secure and control as much African land as possible. European explorers established trade routes and set out in search of raw materials and commodities within the African continent. With all available land already being owned within Europe, there was nowhere for European countries to continue to expand, so many countries set their sights on Africa. In 1880 the region to the north of the river Congo became a French territory following an agreement between the King of the Bateke, Makoko, and the explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. In 1881 Tunisia became a French territory.
There were three main factors that contributed to the European colonization Africa which were, political, social, and economic. For political the British were fixed on expanding their empire and gaining control of every major city, state, or country in the world so they could govern every man or woman as they
European imperialism not only involved Africa, imperialism stretched from North America to Asia and Australia. Western Europe and the empires that existed within it, were the most advanced during the time of imperialism and colonisation and the reach of these empires was worldwide and their impacts are still seen today. Due to the comparatively late decolonisation in Africa, the effects are more prominent there than anywhere else today. This does not deduct from the fact that the effects of European imperialism cannot be seen elsewhere. Similar to Africa, colonisation allowed for infrastructure to be vastly improved and modern technology improved their lives.
Since the sixteenth century and throughout the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, the British had secured a virtual monopoly over the transatlantic slave trade, commenced by the Portuguese in the late fifteenth century, on Nigeria’s western coast. In the nineteenth century, at the time when the movement for the abolition of slavery was prevailing in Britain, the British share in the slave trade had been much greater than any other European nation in the Nigerian region. This long-standing commercial prosperity in human slaving, however, came to an end in 1807 when Parliament in Britain made it illegal for British subjects to be involved in the African slave trade and ultimately in 1833 when another Parliamentary Act was passed and fully abolished the institution of slavery throughout the British
In the 1870's, Europe developed an interest in colonizing Africa. There were many factors that may have caused this, one of them were believing in Social Darwinism, which is the belief that different types of people also apply to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, another being the competition between owning land, which would mean more power, and the need for resources, which Africa had plenty of. European imperialism started in the 1870's, when Africa started being colonized by w. The other countries began to notice with, wanting more power, they began to colonize in Africa as well. Due to Europe dividing up Africa, the countries set up an an agreement known as the "rule of occupation" which was a law that required the country that wanted to colonize a certain area to show the paperwork to justify their action. By 1914, nearly all of Africa was owned be Europe, the only independent countries left were Ethiopia and Liberia.
2. One of the key impact/effects of the European colonial rule in Africa was the integration of African economies into a global capitalist economy. Drawing from your textbook and discussions, explore the transformations of the African economy during the colonial rule. Be sure to discuss such sectors as agriculture, transportation, mining and labor. The systematic expansion of the Europeans which involves the control of territory and people across the world is what is known as “colonialism”.
Complete autonomy of said one’s territory incites the desire expand their own territory and gain control of new territories. The strong nationalistic feelings of an empire encourage the act of imperialism, to influence and demonstrate their power and superiority amongst other strong empires. As written in the Irish Anarchist paper ‘Workers Solidarity’, issue 76, Ancient empires, the Aztecs and Egyptians, both expressed Imperialistic motives, and commonly used military force to conquer areas of land (Workers Solidarity, 2003). The idea of Imperialism was not only introduced as an idea or concept, and expressed in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Aztec and Egyptian empires are examples of old Imperialism, amongst many others.
Europe’s imperial ambition that resulted in many deaths, corrupted states, famines and genocides During approximately the 1860’s the competitive Western Nations were in desperate need of domination and therefore started the expansion of their territories overseas. On account of the fact that they finally gained the essential privileges and advantages for a “successful” colonisation, for instance steamships, weapons and quinine medicine, they decided to place their countries’ individual interests in front of the importance of several nations’ futures. In the end of the 19th century (in 1870s) more than 10% of the African territory, mostly around the coastal lines, was controlled by the power-hungry colonial powers who saw this domination as a symbol of prestige and authority of their own nation. Less than 30 years later the possessions of European countries in Africa have already made as much as 90,4% of the continent. The Imperialistic division of the African continent was The scramble of Africa, committed by the Western Countries.