Did the British Empire improve people’s lives in Africa?
I will start off by defining the terms of this essay. ‘Improve’, in this context, means the African people’s lives developing and the standard of living getting better.
The British Empire in Africa was vast. It included lands in North Africa, such as Egypt, much of West Africa, and huge territories in Southern and East Africa. British rule had a huge impact on the lives of millions of Africans.
Before the British rule in Africa, African people were poor. They did not have proper towns, just little villages. They had no means of transport and no education. They had no or little knowledge about medications. It was merely uncivilized.
The Scramble for Africa was the
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It was the British that developed the Atlantic slave system known as the ‘Triangular Trade’. African and Arab slave traders brought slaves to slave markets on the West African coast. They would then be bought by European slave traders. These slave traders bought goods from Europe which exchanged for the slaves. The slaves were then transported to the Americas on a journey known as the ‘Middle Passage’. Between 1700 and 1807, around 12 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic. Roughly 15% of those transported died on the journey. The conditions on board the slave ships were horrific. Throughout the journey the slaves were chained together by their hands and feet and they were often kept below deck in the dark. In 1788, a slave ship called ‘The Brookes’ was carrying over 600 slaves from Africa to America. This was despite the fact that the ship was designed to carry only 451 passengers.
However, the impact on slave trade was considerable. Ports such as Liverpool and Glasgow were created from the profits of the slave trade. However, the British were not the only benefiters from this. In Africa, the slave trade led to the creation of powerful West African kingdoms as there was only a small number of Africans that profited from selling slaves to Europeans. In 1807 the slave trade was abolished by the British Parliament as it was under increasing pressure from the abolitionist movement. It became illegal to buy and
The Atlantic slave trade which was inevitably began by the Portuguese, but later in time taken over by the English, was the sale and exploitation of African slaves by Europeans that occurred in and throughout the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were transported from West Africa and Central Africa to the New World. Although slavery and slave trading already existed it became well known and practiced in all cultures. During this time while Europeans obtained most slaves through coastal trade with African states, some slaves
Imperialism is defined as one country’s domination of the political, economic, and social life of another country. In Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, imperialism was present and growing. The main countries involved in the imperialism in Africa were the French, German, and Great Britain. The French’s empire was mainly in North and West Africa while Britain’s colonies were scattered throughout the continent. Germany ruled over such countries as Tanganyika, Togoland, and Cameroon, until their defeat in World War I.
The Middle Passage (or Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade) was a voyage that took slaves from Africa to the Americas via tightly packed ships. The trade started around the early 1500s, and by 1654 about 8,000-10,000 slaves were being imported from Africa to the Americas every year. This number continued to grow, and by 1750 that figure had climbed to about 60,000-70,000 slaves a year. Because of the lack of necessary documents, it is hard to tell the exact number of Africans taken from their homeland. But based on available clues and data, an estimated 9-15 million were taken on the Middle Passage, and of that about 3-5 million died. While the whole idea seems sick and wrong, many intelligent people and ideas went in to making the slave trade
The Middle Passage, the second, or middle, leg in the triangular trading routes linking America, Africa, and Europe, was the name for the voyage of the slaves across the Atlantic Ocean. America was the popular destination for people selling slaves because they were sold for up to thirty times the price of the slaves sold in Africa. The higher amount of money made by selling the slaves in America caused a number of crammed vessels full of African-American men, women, and children to head through the Ocean towards America. The conditions on the ships were horrible for the slaves. The slaves were chained to the decks by their necks and legs, and the enslaved people were so packed that they could not even turn around. Death of many of the slaves
The british on two occasions proclaimed freedom to slaves who joined the loyalist. The slave trade was part of the triangular trade. Merchants forced and captured people from africa to travel the middle passage from africa to the west indies. The slaves were tightly packed on the ships, many died on the way. During the 1600s and 1700s hundreds of thousands of africans were forced to work as slaves in the colonies.
Imperialism in Africa began in the late 19th century. It began when King Leopold II began the Scramble for Africa. All of the major colonial powers went after Africa. Their goal was to gain the most wealth and to have the most territory. Having more territory and claiming valuable parts of the continent was a symbol of power. Imperialism in Africa had negative and positive consequences on both the Europeans and Africans, these can be shown through human rights issues, new industry and advancements, and wealth and influence.
Unfortunate Africans from different countries, ethnic, and cultural, was taken from their homeland. The Middle Passage took the enslaved Africans placed them in pairs handcuffs, leg shackles, and leg irons. The cargo ships were pledged, with the dangerous disease, seasickness, and overcrowded Africans. Therefore the Africans were taken across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. Once there they were sold and later work on the European-owned plantations.
In the early 1880’s, the powers of Europe started to take control of regions in Africa and set up colonies there. In the beginning, colonization caused the Africans little harm, but before long, the Europeans started to take complete control of wherever they went. The Europeans used their advanced knowledge and technology to easily maneuver through the vast African landscape and used advanced weapons to take control of the African people and their land. The countries that claimed the most land and had the most significant effect on Africa were France, England, Belgium, and Germany. There were many reasons for the European countries to be competing against each other to gain colonies in Africa. One of the main reasons was that the
After they were sold they would work in mines or fields. Most women and children worked in the house or at least near it so they could help the owners wife maintain the house. Many lived in small huts and had little food. They worked longs days and suffered many, many beatings from their owner. In most of the new world, slavery was a lifelong condition for Africans. The voyage that brought captured Africans to the West Indies and later to the North and South America was known as the middle passage. It was considered as the middle leg of the Atlantic Slave Trade. In African Ports, European traders packed africans into the dark holds of large ships. On board, they endured whippings and beatings from merchants, as well as diseases that swept through the vessel. Many Africans died from disease or physical abuse aboard the slave ships. Others committed suicide by drowning. It is estimated that 20 percent of the Africans aboard each slave ship perished during the brutal trip.
The trade of Africans was part of Triangular trade, from Europe to Africa, Africa to the Americas, and the Americas back to Europe. The journey from Africa across the Atlantic was known as the Middle Passage. For many months, enslaved Africans were treated terribly on the voyage. Slaves were packed on top of each other into the bottom of the ship. African men wore iron chains around their wrists and legs and had little room to move. The chains and cuffs prevented revolts and escapes. Revolting slaves would be shot or drowned. Women and children were sometimes
The Atlantic slave trade (1441 A.D.) refers to the transportation of black Africans from their homelands to the New World (James 1). It is estimated that all together approximately 12 million Africans were transported by force from Africa to the Americas (James 1-4). Even though many people pointed out the immorality and the cruelty of slavery, very few could afford to renounce it as a social institution. Slavery was an inseparable part of 17th-18th century world economy (James 1-4). The Atlantic slave trade was very important for the 18th century world economy because it was one of the three elements of a so-called triangle of trade. There was a three-way exchange between America, Europe, and Africa. European traders would ship textiles, muskets, and manufactured merchandize to Africa and exchange it for slaves. Then they would take slaves to the Americas and exchange them for cotton and tobacco. Finally, they would sail home to Europe where they would exchange American goods for more arms, and manufactured goods (James 1-4). On each side of the triangular trade, ships made huge profits. Plus, they provided the necessary merchandise to conquer and develop both the African continent and the Americas (James in Class Presentation). Thus, the Atlantic slave trade was vitally important to the 18th century economy.
In the past hundred years, the British colonized over 100 countries including South Africa. Did it leave any positive impact on South Africa? The colonization of South Africa began in the sixteenth century. With around one hundred and seventy years of colonization, the British had taken control of the Cape which brought bad impacts to the South African people ("British Takes Control of the Cape”). These negative impacts affected the South African people socially, politically and economically. These three elements were also the reasons that the South African people suffered greatly during the colonization.
Africans were less defenseless to numerous European ailments than Native American slaves. Starting in 861, a great part of the Caliphate was tossed into Civil War, and the Zanj accepted the open door to revolt between 869-883-1.5-2.5 million executed. After the Portuguese arrived, slaves were frequently exchanged for European products specifically firearms. The Portuguese utilized slaves on their Sugar Plantations in Sao Tome and Madeira. The Portuguese first conveyed African slaves to the New World as right on time as 1500 to take a shot at sugar estates, and they overwhelmed the early exchange. They were immediately supplanted by the Dutch in 1600 who initially foreign made slaves routinely into North America. They were supplanted by the English in the 1700s.The slave exchange produced an ever more prominent interest for slaves prompting to more wars between African tribes to keep up the request; journey from Africa to the New World. Considered the middle section of the triangular trade, also known as The Middle Passage. Slaves were payload and regarded all things considered. Frequently packed into boats and stacked on top of each other. On a few boats, they were either laid level and couldn 't sit up. Anchored together with a team of around thirty people. Ailing health, congestion, and terrible sanitation prompted to many slaves passing on before they ever arrived. Dead bodies were
The transatlantic slave trade was an economic system involving all the major European maritime nations, most notably the British North American colonies, which prevailed from the sixteenth century and went effectively unchallenged for three centuries. It was often known as the Atlantic Triangular Slave Trade due to its three-sided route in connecting the peoples and economies of three continents – Europe, Africa, and the Americas. A variety of manufactured goods from Europe were traded with an enormous number of people in Africa to be imported and work under a harsh labouring environment of the
The Atlantic World slave trade gave birth to an Atlantic world of people, goods, and cultures that spread, collided, and melded together to lay the foundations for much of our modern world. The Atlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly from Africa to the Americas, and then their sale there. The 18th century was the great period of importation of slaves from Africa throughout the whole new world and most of the slaves brought to Colonial North America came in the18th century. Roughly 280,000 slaves are brought from Africa to the North American colonies between 1700 and 1770. More than three times as many Africans had boarded ships for the New World than Europeans. This fact that highlights the importance of African contributions to everyday life and culture in the early Americas. The slave trade was a vital part of world commerce. All the European countries in the New World used slave labor and battle for control of this profitable trade. Except for the king of Benin, most African rulers took part in the slave trade. The slave trade was concentrated in western Africa, greatly disrupting its society and economy.