What Was The Driving Force Behind Imperialism In Africa

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.

In the Mid-1800s the Europeans Imperialised Africa for three main reasons. Those reasons being Cultural, Political, and Economic. The Europeans were encouraged by all the resources, and a way to find a peaceful way to divide Africa up. What motive did the Europeans have about taking over Africa? The best motive for the Europeans was economic because they needed the natural resources for the benefits.

Imperialism influenced the Europeans in many ways, for example they advanced in technology, they took over African colonies and their imports and exports. Europeans traded for slaves, gold, and ivory along the west coast of Africa. In the 1800’s it all changed when the European explorers advanced their way to the interiors of central and western Africa resulting to be under full attack as the European nations fought with one another for control. The Europeans expanded for power and resources such as rubber, slaves, ivory, and any goods Africa held. Technology and imperialism took a big part in Africa.

Africa was a nation that was based off of selling slaves in which the Europeans were familiar with but by 1807, slavery was abolished which made King Leopold II move onto a different resource to line his pockets. The resource he started production on was rubber because of the widespread want for rubber for tires and other manufactured goods. Around the 19th century when Leopold acquired even more land and expanded his production on rubber and sometimes ivory his managers proceeded to force labor and strip away daily cleanliness which eventually led to the widespread disease of malaria which killed as many as 10,000,000 people. With a absolute infectious disease clouding Africa and the seemingly brutal army brought up by Leopold, what really was the driving force behind European Imperialism in Africa?

Africa was imperialized in the 1880s. Before imperialism, African countries socially had thousands of different tribes, nations, cultures and languages. Africa was also economically active before imperialism by having complex trade. Europeans imperialized Africa to spread Christianity, abolition of slavery, their beliefs in cultural and racial superiority and to open new markets. Europeans also wanted Africa’s natural resources like their ivory, gold, rubber, diamonds, fruit minerals, palm oil and others.

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.

The driving force of imperialism in Africa would start off to help the empires grow and keep steady economic security for the future but with conflicts on the horizon to great power

Before the Europeans began to explore Africa, little was known about the continent. However, after some initial exploration of Africa, the Europeans soon realized how economically important this area was, and how much they could profit from it. At the time, European countries had only small colonies in Africa, but after they realized that they could make money from the resources in the inner regions of Africa, they wanted to invade the African regions and assume control. This led to “ the race” and ultimately, the partition of Africa. There were many motives for the Europeans to imperialize Africa. There were humanitarian and religious goals, political goals, military goals, and most importantly, there were economic interests. During the Berlin conference, The European powers decided that they were going to spread the three C’s (Christianity, Commerce, and Civilization) in Africa. To do this, the conference had three aims “ Ensure free trade for all nations throughout the Congo, to ensure free navigation for all countries on the Niger River of West Africa, and agree to set rules by which the Europeans could proceed to divide the rest of the continent.” (Part II: The European Conquest, Pg 11). Later in the document it states that not one African representative was present at the Berlin Conference to discuss Africa's future. The European people tricked themselves into thinking that what they were doing

Originally, the Europeans wanted little to do with Africa; that all changed when they found slathers of natural resources. Natural resources were very appealing to greedy Europeans, so naturally they would try to go to, or colonize, areas with them. "At the same time, the nature of European interest in Africa changed dramatically. Impressed by the continent's abundant supply of natural resources, Europeans sought to exploit* the potential wealth. To achieve this goal, they attempted to overpower African peoples and force them to accept foreign rule," (Colonialism in Africa). These resources were worth a lot, and if they had the areas with such resources the Europeans would be very wealthy.

In the late 1800’s Europeans took over Africa, took their resources,enslaving the Africans, and changed the course of history. The Europeans took over Africa, which is called The Scramble For Africa, in 1884-1914. The Europeans took over because Africa was rich in raw materials, they wanted power, and they thought their culture was superior. The driving force behind imperialism was need for resources, political competition, and technological advances. One driving force behind imperialism was need for natural resources. Document E uses a bar graph to show imports and exports in 1854, and 1900 between Great Britain and South Saharan Africa. Great Britain made 3 million British pounds in 1854, and 21

In the late 1800’s the Europeans decided to conquer other countries, and they started with Africa. They needed more resources to run factories, missionary’s wanted to spread religions, and some people just wanted more power. Africa was greatly impacted by imperialism in three main ways. Their political systems were often taken over, social impacts included racism and slavery, however economic systems grew because of their natural resources.

Imperialism in Africa During the age of imperialism, European powers were fighting to have the most territory. To have the most was to be the best. These countries did everything to gain new territory in Africa and many other places around the world. European imperialism of Africa from 1880 to 1914 was motivated by greed for power and the image of power given by these gained territories, a desire for financial gain and the gain of resources, and the idea of “the white man’s burden” that it was the Europeans’ fundamental right to educate and civilize the people in the conquered lands. Every country in Europe wanted to imperialize to be stronger than all of the others.

There are many factors that played an important role in the process of taking over Africa for various European countries. Between 1870-1890 European powers such as Great Britain, France, Germany,

There are many reasons why Europeans colonized Africa. One reason why they colonized Africa is so they could take people and use them as slaves. Europeans got slaves by either, buying people from their tribes or, using force and taking them. The Europeans did this so they could take the slaves to mines and farms in Africa or they took them back to Europe and use them as laborers for themselves or they would sell the slaves to other Europeans and make money off of selling them. They did this because people needed slave laborers to manage their farms or help work in their mines. Another way Europeans wanted to colonize Africa was for economic reasons like new markets, trade and they wanted raw materials. They took

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.