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The Powers Of Colonialism : Reasons For The Colonization Of Africa

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The powers of colonialism are moderately responsible for Africa's problems today. In the nineteenth century, European authorities drew political boundaries that cut across native cultural and territorial divisions, aggravating social tensions. Great areas of land were occupied over by colonial governments or European companies and persons. Involuntary moved off their ancestral land, tens of over 10,000 Africans became workhands and migrant labors. When the colonial era finished in the 1950s and 1960s, Sub-Saharan countries only had a few trained personnel and minor groundwork. Manipulative policies extracted Africa's minerals and other ordinary wealth for the advantage of outsiders. National economies were pushed toward developing goods - including such cash crops as coffee, palm oil, and cocoa - for European shops. Colonial leaders, as well as those who replaced them, devoted little attention to improving the grain and root crops upon which most Africans have depended. As well, Europeans lived at the expenditure of the Africans, who were given little or no pay for the work they had to put up with. One of standard reasons offered by the Europeans for their colonization of Africa was the honorable and technological preeminence of the western world. As the Europeans saw it, the range of the European lifestyle would significantly increase living standards for the peopled. While economic motives were obviously the primary motivation for colonial development, the Europeans thought that they were not only refining the natives’ conditions, but they were redeeming their mortal souls by bringing Christianity to them. Politics played a big role in colonialization, seeing colonies as a sign of power and global supremacy; however, every country had their own strategic reasons. One of the main factors, in my personal opinion, is the Europeans belief in white- supremacy. Books and academic journals in this period were chuck full of pseudo- science about how Africans were subhuman to their white counterparts making it more acceptable to them to colonize or “civilize the savages”. Over time, the technologically progressive way of life came to be related with Europe, and with Europeans. This is the cause of the racist and

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