African American Transition

In the film, Africans in America: “The Terrible Transformation”, the narrator discussed the influence of certain criteria in which slaves had to meet in order to work for land owners in America. These criteria included: being African American, non- European, and non- Christian. The government created this criteria system to build a barrier between the land owners and the slaves. The individuals that owned property treated their slaves as if they were foreign/strange. The white Americans did not want African American people to have the same equality as they did; Therefore, America was ruled by the whites while the blacks were merely just servants to them.

During the late 1800’s, Europe was looking for a way to improve themselves as a whole. With growing population and a steady decline in available work, something new had to be done. Countries looked towards Africa to serve as new colonies for the Europeans in order to better their own countries. During the European acquisition of African colonies in the period 1880 to 1914 Europe’s attitude towards Africa was that Africa was the inferior race in comparison to the Europeans. With the help of a strong feeling of nationalism, Europeans were motivated to acquire new lands in order to improve their motherland’s

Europeans were able to colonize Africa because of the many advantages they had over them. Firstly, the Maxim gun had been acquired. This was the first automatic machine gun to be produced. The Europeans were able to travel much more easily due to the steam engine.

The European colonization of Africa, also known as the Scramble for Africa, Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, occurred between the 1870s and 1900s, and was the invasion, occupation, colonization, and annexation of African territory by European powers during a period of New Imperialism. European control of the continent increased from 10 percent (1870) to 90 percent (1914), with only three territories, Saguia el-Hamra, which was later integrated into Spanish Sahara, Ethiopia and Liberia remaining independent of Europe’s control. There were many reasons for the European colonization of Africa, including economic and political motives, with the Berlin Conference serving as a catalyst. Africans resisted the European invasions of their lands, with the two main methods of opposition were guerilla warfare and direct military engagement. European influence on Africa still remains today, though these influences are generally negative and hurt Africa’s overall development.

Africa was an essential for Europe to gain power in economics and trading position and land. It was a great leap in the civilized world as said by Beaulieu “This area of the world [Africa] needs civilized people to intervene.”(Document S). The Imperialism of Africa was a success in the eyes of Europe, them walking away with the goods of the new land, but was a step back for the people in Africa them entering a cycle of slavery and unjust rule as talk about in Document

Still between 1865 and 1876, there was a culture identity crisis for African Americans. We cannot explain the roots of African American culture without

Europe saw great profit in imperialising Africa. Africa had valuable natural resources that could make Europe rich.

Europe played a big part in Africa during the late 1800s and early 1900s. When Europe discovered Africa, they took the people as slaves, but when slavery was banned it became a scramble for land. Soon after the countries were competing against each other for the land of Africa because it contained many natural resources that they could sell. However, some countries had different intentions, some wanted to help people in Africa by feeding them or building schools. The main driving forces behind European imperialism in Africa, are, helping the natives, nationalism, and natural resources.

I would like to take you on a journey, a chronological journey through time of the African Americans in this country. This journey procede year by year, sometimes month by month, and day by day as we follow the life of the African American. This journey is about where we came from in Africa, and why we were brought to this country. Also, how the African came to the New World, and the contributions made by the African Americans to help build this nation. We will look at the laws that affected the African Americans, in and out of slavery. The journey will illustrate some of the positive, and some negative events in history, as well as, some of the movers and the shakers in the African American’s quest for equality. This is also a brief history

Change and continuity. To become different and to keep being the same. Contradictory terms that all in all describe the bulk of chapter four. If you were to read the first four paragraphs that make up the introduction, you would get the basis of this chapter. Change was happening, mass production and distribution were taking the world by storm. (Pg. 181) But even with all that change, continuity was still afoot: work conditions were still prevalently horrid, mass production may have made its’ market wider, but not enough so as to include rural African Americans, and women continued to do mainly domestic work. (Pg. 182)

Envision living in a world where you were viewed as a nuisance, To wake up in a country every day that you did not choose to be a part of but rather forced to join and then be a second class citizen in that country. Although the way we African-Americans have been treated has dramatically changed over the years we are still nowhere near the equal rights we have constantly had to fight for. From the individual tactics of leaders such as the Non-violent Martin Luther King Jr. to the fight fire with fire mindset of Malcolm X to the group efforts of the Black Panther Party the African-American community has always came together to voice our problems with the ways we are viewed, mistreated, and disrespected. In 2017 we now have the Black Lives Matter

Considering the Civil War was the first time that a large group of people were fighting for the freedom of African Americans, it would be true to state that the Civil War dramatically changed the lives of African Americans throughout the nation. This remark is accurate because, after the Union’s win, African Americans were given basic rights such as the right to vote, own property, and marry whites. However, because many Southerners continued to oppose these decisions, they created organizations such as the KKK that opposed these ideas and threatened the well being of African Americans. So, as a result of the African American lifestyle changing, many individuals in the South, mostly slave owners, lives change due to the major decrease in free-labor.

Before the Europeans began to explore Africa, little was known about the continent. However, after some initial exploration of Africa, the Europeans soon realized how economically important this area was, and how much they could profit from it. At the time, European countries had only small colonies in Africa, but after they realized that they could make money from the resources in the inner regions of Africa, they wanted to invade the African regions and assume control. This led to “ the race” and ultimately, the partition of Africa. There were many motives for the Europeans to imperialize Africa. There were humanitarian and religious goals, political goals, military goals, and most importantly, there were economic interests. During the Berlin conference, The European powers decided that they were going to spread the three C’s (Christianity, Commerce, and Civilization) in Africa. To do this, the conference had three aims “ Ensure free trade for all nations throughout the Congo, to ensure free navigation for all countries on the Niger River of West Africa, and agree to set rules by which the Europeans could proceed to divide the rest of the continent.” (Part II: The European Conquest, Pg 11). Later in the document it states that not one African representative was present at the Berlin Conference to discuss Africa's future. The European people tricked themselves into thinking that what they were doing

The scientist thought the Africans were stuck in the barbarism stage. The barbarism stage is accompanied by the beginning of settled agriculture. The Europeans thought the way that Africans worked made them fat and lazy. The Europeans thought this because Africans worked very slowly. They didn’t understand why the Africans worked the way they did. Europeans argued that by colonizing Africa they were also exporting civilization to a continent which they regarded as evolutionary backwards and undeveloped. The departing powers left behind few Africans equipped to lead their newly independent nation. On the eve of the Scramble of Africa only ten percent of the continent was under control of Western nations. One of the last regions of the world that was largely untouched by informal imperialism and civilization was Sub Saharan Africa. Europe saw this region as a great resource to get Great Britain out of the Long depression that lasted from 1873-1876. Toward the end of the scramble for Africa Europe really didn’t gain that much in investment as they thought they

One of the most important things that the colonial rulers could have done is think ahead of time to the transitions that were going to be taking place. If they would’ve been thinking ahead of time that one of their goals was to let them have their independence they could have made the transition go a lot more smoothly. One thing that they could have done is improved education in Africa. This way they would be more involved in the modern economy and be part of the world government. Also some Africans could have been put in a position of power so when the Europeans left they would have a clue of hoe to run things and could show future generations. Lastly they should have helped make the economy more diverse instead of just focusing on the export