White Man's Burden Imperialism

Africa was an essential for Europe to gain power in economics and trading position and land. It was a great leap in the civilized world as said by Beaulieu “This area of the world [Africa] needs civilized people to intervene.”(Document S). The Imperialism of Africa was a success in the eyes of Europe, them walking away with the goods of the new land, but was a step back for the people in Africa them entering a cycle of slavery and unjust rule as talk about in Document

Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, people around the world lived with awful conditions, as they lacked more modern innovations. Such innovations included indoor plumbing, roads, and faster means of transportations (Hobson 103). With the Europeans introducing the native people to these types of inventions, it’s clear that positive development ensued, as only good can come from many things that the Europeans had brought with them. Especially in Africa, which came almost completely under European control in 1884 following the Berlin Conference, the territories developed for the better. Indoor plumbing, among many other things brought better sanitations, ultimately leading to less disease (Lynn). Developed roads and faster means of transportation, including steam boats to move goods from continent to continent, meant it was considerably easier to maintain international trade. With faster transportation, Africans were introduced to a number of products that had previously been unavailable, because of the length of time needed to ship them. They were also able to export goods, typically through the European nation that was controlling them, which brought in a new source of income (Said 114). Imperialism often did good for the people living in in areas that were significantly

Europeans imperialized Africa by cooperating with local leaders, taking advantage of African conflicts and because they had more weapons than Africa. The effects of European imperialism on Africa were socially negative and economically negative.

Imperialism drastically changed the political, economic, social, and cultural landscape of Africa indefinitely. Europeans built various forms of infrastructure and implemented several technological advancements in Africa in order to expand the economy. Additionally, many Africans lost their sense of self identity as a result of the Western culture that the Europeans imposed upon them. Lastly, Africans lost control of their lands and their independence due to European imperialism. There are three main reasons why the Europeans imperialized Africa: 1) political competition, 2) cultural motives, and 3) economic interests.

That was the cause of A lot of deaths to African natives. Due to the wars, the tribes were gone, and more were forced to give their land to Europeans because they're too weak. these Europeans then looted the land of its natural resources, and brought them back to their home country just to more money to their already huge bank of money and treasury.

This partition of Africa had implicated that Europeans were superior than and could rule over the Africans, opening the door for the idea of racism to manifest in the minds of western civilizations. This made it seem acceptable to completely white-wash nearly an entire continent solely because they weren’t the same as Europe. The same concept continued through the years, especially in the western hemisphere, making the continent adopt the culture, politics, and economy of Europe, a change they never wanted. It was as if Africa had no say in what happened to their land and people. Africa’s original inhabitants were overruled, starved, and enslaved as their villages were burned with many people still

After the Europeans had secured land in Africa, all the seven European countries imposed harsh authoritarian rule over the people of Africa. These rules ensured that the people of the land did not further resist as they did in the past and to maintain total control over resources. Not only did Europeans enforce this harsh rule upon African citizens but they also imposed provincial taxes upon them which extorted more resources from these nations also on top of what natural resources they previously extorted.

According to J.A Hobson, “The white rulers of the colonies live at the expense of the natives” (Hobson 1965). This illustrates that the natives were exploited from imperialism. This is bad because taking advantage of people is an immoral thing to do, and the Africans do not deserve to work for someone else as slaves. Moreover, imperialism only brought trouble for the natives and they would have been better off if it had never occurred. The natives were also stripped of their natural rights. According to Paul Halsall, “Whereas fundamental human rights…are denied to the African through the activities of Imperialists” (Halsall 1998). This shows that not only did the Africans had to toil for the Europeans, but they were not even treated as human beings. Such terrible mistreatment cannot go unpunished. The natives were humans but the Europeans could not recognize that, which is why imperialism was an evil that plagued

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

The indigenous people of Africa suffered many setbacks, when the Europeans arrived. When the Europeans arrived in Africa they made the indigenous people feel inferior, lack self-confidence, and be stripped of their responsibility. As shown by Document 2, when it says, “...convince us that our civilization was nothing less than savagery, thus giving us complexes which led to our being branded as irresponsible and lacking in self-confidence.” Some people may agree, that this seems like something out of a genocide. Originally the indigenous people of Africa were supposed to be cheap labor. However, this soon changed when the Europeans enslaved the African people. This is portrayed in Document 6, when it says, “...Beneath the noonday sun, My brother was strong…” By doing this they stole all of the human rights from the Africans, who had done nothing wrong. This is shown in Document 3, when it says, “Whereas fundamental human rights...are denied to Africans.” During this extremely horrific time in African history men were worked to death, and women were raped. This is found in Document 6, when it says,”The White Man killed my father,My father was proud, The White Man seduced my mother, My mother was beautiful.” This shows the negative effects are much worse for the Africans, than for the Europeans. But, there are some positives in this dark hour. When the Europeans arrived in Africa, they provided the

Historical globalization did not benefit indigenous groups, like the Africans because they were stripped of their rights and the ability to conduct their own affairs. Europeans wanted to colonize Africa to obtain the natural resources and slaves. This need for slaves and territory sparked the scramble for Africa and soon the whole country was controlled by the Europeans. Countries like Belgium forced the Africans to work in mines harvesting natural rubber. If they resisted they were brutally punished, tortured and killed. The Africans that were not forced into slavery in their home

While imperialism in Africa significantly hurt the native inhabitants physically and economically, it did contribute to Africa’s ethnically diverse culture

The Europeans all scrambled to colonize Africa for t’s raw materials and land. THey had justified it as the White Man’s burden. They believed that is was their responsibility as a more developed race to help Africa catch up in technology, government, economics etc. Rhodes even said, “-and that the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race.” (Doc, 1) With this mindset, Europeans colonized Africa and started to export raw materials such as rubber, diamonds, gold, palm oil etc. White man’s burden led to Imperialism because they thought taking over other countries was the only to help them move forward. In doing so, they also spread their power and influence throughout the world. The White man's burden was also accompanied

Because of Africa’s large deposits of natural resources, many of the natives were being exploited for their resources. One of the biggest offenders of this was the British East India Company, who got control over the natives by using missionaries to coerce them into cooperation with Europeans (Maboyi). Another problem brought about by race was slavery. People cared so little about the natives that they did not even consider them people, but property. Many people just saw slavery as another economical benefit to the colonization of Africa, while the natives of Africa

Beginning in 1880, there was a growing desire for European countries to expand and control their rule. The only continent at that time that was left uncontrolled and, in the European's eyes uncivilized, was Africa. This was the start of Western Imperialism. All European countries wanted their piece of Africa and to get it, they would let nothing stand in their way. They would change the entire government, religion, market, and behavior of most of the African nation and affect almost every person living there. An account of the impact of Imperialism is given in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. This book shows the changes that occurred in Africa during Imperialism and its affect on the community and the people