African Empires

The Europeans colonized colonized many parts of the world but the most colonized was the continent Africa. The European explorers started imperializing Africa after exploring into the interior of Africa and finding the resources that African countries had. What is imperialism? Imperialism is the policy of taking control of another country. There were three main reasons for European imperialism in Africa: Political reasons, technology, and economic reasons.

Africa, like many other continents, was a very tremendous and a very diverse civilization that is very complicated to introduce due to all its wonderful but also diverse features and beliefs. From the differences between its society and language to its religion and politics, Africa always had the reputation that its empires, cities, and kingdoms never progressed in the developments and achievements for their civilization. Many people believed that the Europeans were actually the cause of Africa’s achievements and advanced developments for their civilizations. However, this is further than the whole truth. Before the arrival of the Europeans between the 15th and 16th century, African kingdoms, empires, and cities had many achievements and accomplishments

During the European Scramble for Africa, in the early 20th century, Africans had a peaceful reaction with anti-imperialistic sentiments (docs. 2, 3, 4, and 7), peaceful actions through the approach of diplomacy (docs.1, 2, and 3) and also a rebellious anti-imperialistic reaction (docs. 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) towards the Scramble for Africa.

“West African societies were shaped by competition for wealth and the search for independence from more powerful kingdoms” (History 2011). Most of Africa’s oldest kingdoms originated from West Africa. These old kingdoms contributed to the development and growth of Africa in many ways, especially trade and economic growth. As the new kingdoms replaced the old ones, they experienced a vast change. Conquest and warfare along caused these transformations to occur. It was also influenced by the patterns of trade. The earliest civilizations were in West Africa south of the Sahara desert. These civilisations grew at a time when most of the outside countries were experiencing The Dark Age. “After the fall of the Western half of the Roman Empire around

Under Mansa Musa, Mali became the the largest and one of the most renown kingdoms in Africa. Gold was abundant and the empire was prosperous; what more could one ask for? Though as it turns out fame and prosperity can be fleeting. The empire

Throughout history, many can see differences in the empires of America and the empires of Africa, but some fundamental similarities exist among these empires that make them successful. While each of these empires is deeply rooted in promoting economic growth and spiritual connectivity, they go about these tasks in different ways due to their individual and unique circumstances.

In Africa there were three great empires, first the Ghana Empire who domesticated camels and carved trade routes all across the Sahara then

People of the early African kingdoms were able to create successful trade routes with Europe and Asia, become very wealthy from conquering and gaining land, and were able to have a strong central government. All of this was done before the Europeans had reached Africa. Trade flourished on the East African coast, especially when trading was established with India and Arabia. African kingdoms were prosperous, because of their success with not only trading but also with their ability to conquer land. A governmental structure is key to allowing any kingdom to thrive, and the African people were able to achieve this.

Prior to the movement of European Imperialism in Africa, a major law was passed. In 1807, the British government banned the Transatlantic slave trade. As a result, in 1833, slavery as a whole was completely demolished. Slavery was a very profitable trade for not only Britain, but many other European powers. Without the slave trade, many European nations were looking for a new way to expand their power of others. Therefore, many European nations switched their focus and claimed their share of the African continent, in order to continue their economic and social dominance (Document A).

European powers shamelessly exploited the people and resources of Africa in the 19th century. They often tried to justify their actions by using ideology, religion and moralism. After the end of the African slave trade, the development of steam power, and medical discovery, European nations started exploring not only the coast but also the unmapped interior of the continent. In this essay, I will explain the main driving forces behind African Imperialism. The Western europeans countries all competed for land and resources because of their self interest. They sought natural resources, and technology gave them the ability to exploit them. The philosophy of national pride however, was the primary reason. (Main document) (Doc C, D & B)

Q6. In my opinion, without the occurrence of the Industrial Revolution, conquering Africa would have been a much harder goal to achieve for the Europeans. The Industrial Revolution brought many new advancements for the Europeans, it gave them an edge over the Africans. I believe that if the Europeans had tried to take over Africa it would've been a much harder and longer process. Many different aspects would be changed without the Industrial Revolution.

They were not able to control their people because the Europeans took their responsibility. Africans began having a negative mindset because they were controlled. Their freedom of having power was taken from them. In result, Europeans robbed the freedom from Africa but they also got

In Africa, there were achievements in the empires and their cities before the Europeans arrived and maintained control. In the Kingdom of Ghana they had characteristics of powerful nations today and made fortunes due to the gold and salt trade. In the city of Timbuktu they had great stories, and developed the center of Art. There are also many other things that Africa achieved in.

Amidst the thriving chaos of the Industrial Revolution and subsequent to the politically volatile French Revolution, Europe in the 1800s was an ever-changing realm of new systems, machines, methods of transportation, ideas, and leaders. Those leaders faced a plethora of challenges both internally and externally, as both their subjects and other countries were angry with them for various reasons. One of the problems these rulers faced was the matter of imperial power on other continents. So, the more relevant European leaders met at the Berlin Conference to decide what each country was allowed to colonize. In doing so, the rulers they legalized the Scramble for Africa, therefore allowing colonization

Going back to the 1860s, Africa was an unknown continent to many Europeans. Most Europeans only had colonies on the coastline, such as current day Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal etc. The only people to go into the interior of Africa was missionaries, reporters and traders. As people of Europe discover more about Africa, discoveries will begin the Scramble of Africa, an event in which very rapidly, Europe was able conquer most if not all of Africa. They did this with technological and medical advances, economic reasons, and the motivation of prestige and White Man’s Burden.