European Effects On African American Imperialism

Africa has had a long and tumultuous road of colonization and decolonization the rush to colonize Africa started in the 17th century with the discovery of the vast amounts of gold, diamonds, and rubber with colonization hitting a fever pitch during World War I. However, the repercussions of colonization have left deep wounds that still remain unhealed in the 21st century. Early on, European nations such as Britain, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany and Belgium scrambled for territories. Countries wanted land so they could harvest the resources, increase trade, and gain power. The European colonization of Africa brought racism, civil unrest, and insatiable greed; all of which have had lasting impacts on Africa.

Problems began for Africa when there was the “scramble for Africa. Africa was extremely divided throughout the continent. There was no nation intact. Even though they were divided into colonies, they still had no sovereignty. Since they had no form of nationalism it made it impossible to succeed as a

Following the end of the Industrialist Era and the emergence of countless technological advancements, the United States entered the world stage as a dominant power. The United States was attempting to create an empire by imperializing land outside of its own borders in order to benefit the country’s economic interests. Many citizens, whose views were greatly influenced by their understandings of national identity, saw this overseas expansion in conflicting ways. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these groups differed in their opinions on the idea of imperialism due to either their wanting to remain a democratic country built on the ideals of freedom and liberty, or their wanting to expand for economic reasons and nationalism.

In the 19th and 20th centuries Europe was thriving and wealthy while most of their colonies in Africa were suffering under their rule. The Europeans all wanted a piece of Africa’s land with its plentiful resources and free labor. Around this time, Europe was going through the industrial revolution and because business was booming the European countries need more resources than they already had. The Africans had the land the Europeans wanted to use to continue having booming businesses, they also had African slaves and workers that they can use so they don’t have to pay for labor. In the 19th century leader of the Europeans countries want to discuss how they will divide Africa without the leaders of Africa knowing. The Europeans then started to invade Africa and take control over the citizens. As the Europeans got more powerful, the Africans become more miserable. Unable to match the guns Europe had, African countries began getting claimed, one by one with the exception of two. The Europeans ruled in a cruel way that left many Africans dead or suffering. Many countries tried and successfully broke away from Europeans after many years under colonization. The Europeans had a negative impact on the lives of many Africans in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially with racism and assimilation. People were taught to be a human they had to be like a European which led to many racist views on African people and culture and is why some nations like France used assimilation to make

Industrial imperialism (a product of the industrial revolution) ,began in roughly 1880. During this time, people (predominantly europeans) began searching for land to colonize. Imperialism could also be tied to racism, with europeans believing that they were above everyone, and that they therefore, needed more land. These racist beliefs were often connected to social darwinism. This belief could be summed up with “Survival of the Fittest”, with the europeans believing that they were the “fittest”. Europeans also would believe that they had a different bone structure than people of color; more specifically, they would illustrate cartoons that compared african americans to themselves, giving the other a smaller brain.

During a period with death frequently caused by famine, lack of resources, and conflict the colonial Americans had to implement limited warfare in order to reduce wasted assets whether it be food or lives. The intent of limited warfare is multiple in that it decreases the use of supplies, it is not the goal to destroy the enemy, and it allocates soldiers to be able to accomplish other needs. The colonist used limited warfare by not creating professional soldiers, not dedicating all resources to fight wars, and by not engaging in an active mission of total elimination of the Native Americans.

Imperialism was the start of decolonization, it is the rapid expansion of territory. Decolonization affected different countries in different ways. Some were forced to become independent and some independence came peacefully. Economics, political, and ideological are three major components of imperialism. After world war two the European powers attempted to restart their empire across Asia and Africa. Despite the Pan Africanist that are located outside of the united states they draw in many of their ideas from African Americans. Pan-Africanism is a movement that can change between the focus of politics, ideology, organizations, or culture. Pan-Africanism mainly

From the birth of the United States of America until the mid 1800’s many citizens owned African slaves. Over two hundred years white men owned and dominated these africans. These Africans did not have any land but this is still a form of imperialism. African Americans were not equal in the white man's eyes, they weren’t humans they were merely property, they were pets more or less. This could easily be described as skin tone imperialism. Even though slavery was abolished in the 1860’s African Americans were still oppressed by the white man. African Americans were still not seen as equal, they could not dine in the same room or more common the same restaurant as white people, they had to use “colored” bathrooms, “colored” swimming pools, segregated

In the late 1800s to the early 1900s, the Government of European countries quests to acquire colonies resulted in the brutal treatment of nonwhite native people. Many Europeans of the time believe that they were superior humans and this played a major role in the rationale for Imperialism. There were a few Critics that stood out among the rest and ultimately became a thorn in the side of Imperialism. Imperialism was bad for most of the humans on the African continent.

The time period of Imperialism in Africa began in the 1870s and ended in the 1910s. It involved a group of European countries that wanted to expand and gain new territories and the materials found in those territories. As the definition of imperialism implies, the powerful nations wanted to control the political, economic, and cultural affairs of another nation or region. They divided the territory during the Berlin Conference and began the process of attempting to colonize the new additions to their nations. The imperialist powers were Europe, the United States, and Japan with the affected regions of Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America.

European Imperialism heavily impacted the African continent through culturally, economic, and political ideas. This era of history is heavily drenched in the aspect of ethnocentrism, which is the belief that one’s own culture is superior that of another. The Europeans colonized Africa believing that they could bring civilization, but they were often ignorant of Africa’s very complex societies. The European powers divided up the continent of Africa among themselves, without any consent from the people who actually lived there. The tribal stratification was changed to a caste system where racial, ethnic, and religious differences were of utmost importance, as delegated by European rule. The structure and business of the African economy was

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

Imperialism caused more problems than progress due to the destabilization of existing African tribes through unnecessary conflict caused by Europeans. In 1877, Sir Henry Frere decided that the only way to gain total control over the South African area was to defeat the Zulus, who were bordering several independent Boer and tribal states (Herbert). While warfare between African tribes did exist, it was usually fought over matters such as land. The British however, entered Africa and attempted to destabilize a tribe to make seizing power over the area easier for them. The Anglo-Zulu War wouldn’t have been fought had the British not invaded Africa and instigated the Zulu tribe. Commandment S Bourquin wrote several journal entries detailing the

African’s lives have long been affected by slavery, colonization, and decolonization. Their traditional lives have been forever changed by the actions of Europeans and other groups. Hunter-gatherers lifestyles have changed tremendously. Their focus on equality, reliability on the land for food, and continuous travel has been altered to support a more permanent lifestyle. As outsiders invaded nearby areas, they brought with them more modern means of survival. Neighboring groups of hunter-gatherer !Kung lived a more sedentary lifestyle and worked directly with Europeans. The !Kung slowly began to implement the sedentary lifestyles of the other African groups that had been affected by European colonization. There does tend to be subsistence differences

The British and French had essentially lived by different systems of ethnic European power that still had competition between each other. Both of these systems had wider areas control yet they had completely different systems of ethnic stratification. Europeans had imposed territorial boundaries throughout Africa in 1885 that divided many groups. Colonies were built under a direct or indirect rule of countries colonizing the colonies. The levels of governments were controlled by the colonial masters in the direct rule as opposed to the indirect rule where governors and council advisors were appointed through colonial’s countries. If there were leaders who resisted the colonization, traditional leaders that were loyal to governors would be appointed leadership. Certain areas of Africa were divided up and given to different colonies. This broke up a lot of boundaries that were already in place and placing new boundaries on top of this forced groups to merge together regardless of their tribes. This created a lot of tension amongst the African groups that had different cultural beliefs, peace treaties and any other boundaries that were set. With these two systems in place. There became a centralization of territories having no central government or, where centralization already existed there was already domination of a pre-colonial central government.