Reasons why Europe Colonized Asia and Africa and not the Other Way Round
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Colonization is the governing influence, control or acquiring partial or full political control past another country, occupying it with foreign settlers and manipulating it economically. It also is when a group or society of people migrates from one area to another but keep their original homeland language and culture. Colonialism is establishment and preservation for a lengthy period, of rule over foreign people that are independent from and subordinate to a power ruling. Colonialism takes a variety of forms. There are three basic variations namely;
I. Internal colonialism
II. External
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Though there is no one distinct definitive answer to the question above but rather, it can be presumed that a combination of various aspects prominently featured in the process of decision making of the Europeans responsible for colonization of Asian and African continents.
At one point, Europe increasingly became involved in Africa and Asia. First and foremost, Europe experienced a revival of Christianity in the 19th century. Christian missionaries started focusing on the larger working class with the main objective of bringing salvation and spirituality to the laborers and their families. The bible was now openly made available to the laborers.
Due to their great success, the missionaries started to look beyond the borders of Europe. Missions were then established all over Africa and the Pacific. Although missionaries did not serve directly as agents of European colonization and imperialism, but they drew and brought the European governments deeper into Asia and Africa (Verlinden, 1970). In their unlimited quest and efforts to preach the good news of Christianity, to deeply ingrain monogamy in the African societies, to bring the western style of education to Asia and Africa, the missionaries more that often times felt threatened by the state of warfare in Africa. Thence, forthwith, missionaries called out to the European
One of the main reasons Europeans sought to explore the world was to spread Christianity. As far as they knew, the New World had never heard of Christianity, and the Spanish Cardinal Trinlini said that this made them “heathens [who] live a barbarous life”. His motivation for exploring these new lands was to save the natives from their ignorance
Christianity also helped steer us into the age of exploration. During the 1500s, Europeans set out traveling the high seas to every part of the world in order to spread Christianity. Many European countries believed that they could convert the non-Christians and Muslims throughout the world. They insisted on missionaries going to Africa and Asia to run Christian schools to teach the people about their religion. However, there are many churches that were established by non-Christians that were independent of the Roman
Additionally, the Europeans explorers also came with the idea of expansion of Europe religion. The Roman Catholic Church had made it their agenda to
Europeans sought out lands that provided new sources of raw materials, cheap labor, markets, areas of investment, and military boosters. As European nations became competitive with one another, there was an increased pressure to practice Imperialism to maintain power. New Imperialism was motivated greatly by the Industrial Revolution and its advancements, and efficiency of manufacturing and supplying products. European nations also focused on opening trade routes that would give them places to sell their goods. Also significant was the Europeans desire to Christianize and “civilize” other nations through missionary work and the enforcement of European cultures and beliefs. The new Imperialism brought on social changes as well. Many people urged the taking up of the “White Man’s Burden”, bringing the European version of civilization to the rest of the world, regardless whether they wanted it or not.
The Missionaries also served to civilise Africa, “They founded schools where sanitations and agriculture as well as the three R’s [reading, writing arithmetic] were taught”(document N). Thus benefiting Europe's excuse to extract the materials needed from Africa saying that they were just Civilising the natives.
During the 1800s, many European countries sent explorers to colonize Africa. Many European missionaries and explorers went to Africa in an effort to help their countries to achieve power, pride, and money. The main driving forces behind the imperialism that helped Europeans attain power, pride, and money were technological forces, politics, and economics.
The Europeans thought it was their burden as white men to bring religion and God to whom they thought were uncivilized people (Spielvogel and McTighe 227) . When coming to Africa the Europeans spread the word of God through missionaries and bible teachings and converted a lot of the Africans to Christianity. As explained through an African proverb, “When the whites came to our country we had the land and they had the Bible, now we have the Bible and they have the land” (Document 3). To justify taking African religion the Europeans said it was their job as white men to give the Africans God so they can experience what comes with it. Bringing new beliefs to the Africans it replaced the other religious ideas and in turn lost much of the culture the Africans held. Incoming Europeans were more concerned with protecting their traditions and culture and spreading it to this new region rather than respecting the Africans and their existing traditional culture. While the Europeans worked to conserve their culture, religions and traditions they were looking to gain economic stability from Africa to help them to become more powerful and overall have good economic
Before European countries began to compete for Africa and its land, before there was a struggle against imperialism, there was the demand of more material goods for the European lifestyle. Since the demand increased, the rate of which countries had to produce the goods increased. Africa was the top supplier for cotton, rubber, and petroleum. Since European countries needed these items they needed to take control of africa, which means they would also get more power. Militaries were crucial to have power, if a country has a powerful military and a lot of land then they have more power.
The Europeans began their expansion in the globe by taking up African and Asian colonies. During the 1870s, the world experienced imperialism as the Europeans established empires in Africa and Asia. Their aggressive expansion was as a result of industrialization. The move was made for economic, religious, political, humanitarian, and political reasons, amongst others (Hook and Spanier, p.19). Also, Africa was easy to access due to its geographical position. As a result, the Europeans could get into the continent through the ocean or the Gulf Canal. In addition, the Africans continent had vast lands that were beneficial for the Europeans. They started up companies and farming land that would produce their foods. Additionally, the Africans and
This is because they wanted to find more and more people that could convert to their religion. But the Europeans also wanted to find a place with religious tolerance and there wouldn’t have been any better way than to just start off fresh and conquer or even colonize new land. Many religious conflicts were happening in Europe; such as the religious crusade that took place, which caused those who denied Catholic faith to be thrown out and told to find a new land to occupy. In turn, to get out of that ill-treatment Europeans would travel overseas to find a place where religion wasn’t as big of an issue. Since, all these events were taking place the main reason, in respect to religion, for the Europeans to travel to the New World was to either enhance religion or just run away from the problems that it caused back
Africa was a country on the rise of becoming a full-functioning country. Africa was on the road to success with its large amounts of ethnicity, religion, and shared power. However, this was prevented by the European countries who imperialised in Africa. What is imperialism exactly? Imperialism is the basic act of taking total control over another country.
One of the primary reasons the Europeans colonized Africa was because they wanted to spread their influence throughout the world, and Africa gave them a means to do so. During the late 19th century, John Ruskin, a lecturer at Oxford
(open sentence) Racism big countries like United states and Russia thought they were the best and wanted to show their dominance and power. Paternalism they believed the little countries were inexperienced so they had to come and take over. “Survival of the Fittest” they excuse all sorts of very cruel behaviors on part of Europe. While political and economic factors were important to consider the way people think and feel often guides behavior, Social factors were primarily responsible for bringing about Western Imperialism in Africa and Asia.
During the Age of Imperialism, the Foreign Missionary Movement occurred. Religion played a large role in nation building during the 19th century. Many religious people in Europe traveled abroad in an effort to propagate the Christian faith. Christian missionaries established churches in conquered territories. In doing so, missionaries spread Western culture.
Due to the influence of Marxist principles, there is some level of confusion in the usage of the terms imperialism and colonialism. This is due to the similarities of their practice, ending in an interchangeably usage of both terms. First, both imperialism and colonialism involve political and economic involvement over a particular territory. However, in the past colonies and empires deferred drastically. colonialism practices the relocation of population to a new territory, while maintaining political adherence to their country. This implies a political control over a territory and a loss of its sovereignty, which involves the suppression of individuals. Referring to the extension of sovereignty over a territory establishing political control over it as a source of power. “The term colony comes from the Latin word