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Imperialism in the 19th century

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There was a great deal of Imperialism in the 19th century, led by mostly westerners from Europe. Imperialism is the act in which one nation extends its rule over another. Imperialism had a substantial effect on the 19th century throughout the entire world by bringing upon changes to many different countries, for better and for worse, especially to Africa.

Prior to the nineteenth century, westerners did interfere with many of the affairs of nations outside of their boarders, so signs of imperialism are shown many times throughout history. Examples of this would be the European colonies in the Americas and also influence in Asia. Whenever a western country was involved with the economy of an outside country,

There were many reasons for …show more content…

In addition to advances in medicine and in industry, new weapons were developed, which could easily defeat those of the Africans. This allowed for larger European settlements to be set up in Africa and hence, the race for territories began.

Another reason for the scramble for Africa was the fear of upsetting the balance of power. Every European nation was concerned about their rivals becoming more powerful than they were. The main nations involved were Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. During the late nineteenth century, all of these countries, and a few others went into a "scramble" to claim territories in Africa. (Mastanduno, Michael "Imperialism")

The scramble for Africa began with an attempt by King Leopold II of Belgium wanting to gain control of the area of the Congo Basin. Tensions arose between the British and the French, because of the British gaining more control over Egypt, which was the country they had once had joint control over the finances of. France was also competing with Italy in northern Africa, so tensions were strong everywhere. Germany felt pressured by the other European nations who were gaining control over territories on Africa. Bismarck, who happened to be ruler at the time, declared control over three territories in eastern and western Africa, which caused even more strain between European nations. Since the control for African territories arose very quickly, the Berlin Conference was

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