Why Was European Imperialism Called The Scramble For Africa

In the video, “The Magnificent African Cake” by Basil Davidson, Africa was divided up into new colonies by Europeans. After the end of slavery in Africa, Europeans wanted to expand their empires for industrialization and commerce. This period of time was called the “scramble for Africa” because many European countries were claiming as much land from Africa. In 1884, the Berlin Congress was held and these European countries “sliced” up the African countries like a cake where each country got its portion of land. The opinions and representation of Africans was non existent. In fact, Europeans considered Africans as “helpless children or lazy settlers.” This led to the feeling that Africans were inferior to Europeans and killings of Africans

In the film, “This Magnificent African Cake” by Basil Davidson, it explains how Africa was divided into colonies by Europeans country. What the Europeans country want was to expand their manufacturing and trade by colonizing Africa this period was called “scramble for Africa” the reason that they called it that because a lot of European countries were taking most of the lands in Africa. There was a lot of Global events that were the reason that scramble for Africa started a lot of these events had to do with European countries not with Africa, but the most important one that the documentary talks about was the Berlin Congress in 1884 where European countries were able to get their portion of African land they sliced up the African

In the 19th and 20th centuries Europe was thriving and wealthy while most of their colonies in Africa were suffering under their rule. The Europeans all wanted a piece of Africa’s land with its plentiful resources and free labor. Around this time, Europe was going through the industrial revolution and because business was booming the European countries need more resources than they already had. The Africans had the land the Europeans wanted to use to continue having booming businesses, they also had African slaves and workers that they can use so they don’t have to pay for labor. In the 19th century leader of the Europeans countries want to discuss how they will divide Africa without the leaders of Africa knowing. The Europeans then started to invade Africa and take control over the citizens. As the Europeans got more powerful, the Africans become more miserable. Unable to match the guns Europe had, African countries began getting claimed, one by one with the exception of two. The Europeans ruled in a cruel way that left many Africans dead or suffering. Many countries tried and successfully broke away from Europeans after many years under colonization. The Europeans had a negative impact on the lives of many Africans in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially with racism and assimilation. People were taught to be a human they had to be like a European which led to many racist views on African people and culture and is why some nations like France used assimilation to make

There are several motives behind New Imperialism varying from economic, political, cultural, and ideological reasons. During this period, Africa experienced many territorial acquisitions by European powers. To them, Africa was a land to expand their power and exploit further resources. For economic reasons, European powers sought to maximize profits. This includes monopolizing over new resources, opening up new markets, and so forth. This economic expansion demanded cheap labor, so naturally slavery was the solution prompted. Slaves would be forced to labor over the production of valuable products and materials like coffee, opium, tobacco, and chocolate (New Age of Empire: Economic & Political Explanations, October, 16th). With the introduction

Europeans had been involved with africa since the 16th century. When the portuguese used their cannons to take control of cities on coast to set up trading post empires,but in the second half of the 19th century europe suddenly and spectacularly succeeded at colonizing basically all of africa. Why?, well, the biggest reason the europeans were able to extend their grasp over so much of the world was the same reason they wanted to do so in the first place: industrialization. Nationalism played its parts of course. Europeans states saw it as a real bonus to say they had colonies so much so that children's rhymes in an ABC for baby patriots went “C is for colonies. Rightly we boast that of all the great countries britain has the most” but it was

During the years between 1878 and 1914, European nations increasingly sought overseas empires in Africa. The majority of government officials leading the countries believed in colonization because they felt it necessary to gain and maintain a global influence. Some people during the time period were concerned over African colonization and deemed it as the result of overly greedy capitalists searching for new markets. However, a third faction believed in a more radical approach, that colonization was needed to civilize the “barbaric and backwards” peoples of Africa. While political leaders encouraged the colonization of Africa in order to promote their nation’s influence, others argued that it was merely a financial exploitation of a resource

The Europeans took the land from the Africans for not only for commercial use, personal use as well. The Africans also lost their independence and as a result, they were put to work as cheap labor. Stated in Modern World History Patterns of Interaction, “Africans lost control of their land and their independence.” The Europeans took away their lands, used them for cheap labor, and treated them terribly.

In the late 1800’s to early 1900’s European countries ached for power and saw the African continent as their opportunity. European colonization started with the diffusion of Catholicism and Islam through missionaries. Europe thought that if Africa adopted these religions they would see things the way Europe saw them and resistance would be non existent. Violence was unavoidable when it came to colonization; eventually European countries used war and ethnicity to their advantage . European colonization was the reason for negative and positive affects politically, socially, and economically in the African continent.

During the time periods from 19th to 20th centuries, European countries had snatched away most of the lands in Africa from the people of African descent. They felt that they had the right to claim these foreign lands in order to use them for their own reasons. The Europeans considered themselves as far more superior and better than everyone else. They decided to colonize their lands and treated the Africans as the inferior race from then on. Not only did the status of African people become inferior after the colonization, but they were also enslaved by the Europeans. The Europeans wanted to civilize the African people because they looked different from them as of skin tones. Moreover, Africans had lost all of their rights, along with their freedom as a result.

With the ability to reach new territories and a drive to quickly colonize inferior people’s land for monetary gains, Africa became sought after by many European countries.

Just like James Ferguson said “Western societies have found in Africa a radical other for their own constructions of civilization, enlightenment, progress, development, modernity, and, indeed, history” Africa was a place that was seen as a means to judge the standards of western progress and culture (Ferguson 2). This meant that Africa and the people who lived there were reduced to a lower standing on the social ladder. Africa was a testing ground for western nations to test their ability to bring culture to the uncultured. Even today most of the world judges their way of life, their culture, and prosperity based on how they compare to a 3rd world country like Africa.

The Scramble for Africa had a massive impact on the lives of the citizens that lived there. In the 1870’s when Germany became the new leader in the European industry with chemicals and electrical products. This time was known as the second industrial revolution when transportation in the country came about it effected routes of trade became easily available thus making. The growth of European colonization of Africa which was unique because they started to colonized later than everyone else. For many years, African tribes had freedom, being able to expansion without worrying about other tribes. The reason for the lack of interest in Africa because they only used a select few of Africa’s ports, and didn’t see any other interests for the

Much of the story of European colonialism in Africa puts and emphasis on the control that Europe exerted over the African people. While there was a great degree of resistance from Africans against European imperialism, this was not the only means of acclimating to Europe’s influence within Africa. Many African people adapted and accommodated with this ever increasing colonial influence. Rather than violently resisting, they worked with the colonial regimes.

Africa was one of the main targets, in this race for land, and by the early twentieth century, most of Africa had been colonized by Europe. “Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, and Spain were competing for power within European power politics”. Thus, acquiring land, was one way for them to show off how much power they really had. But all this colonization without problems, since the industrialization was such a large part of this change, social problems such as unemployment, poverty, homelessness, etc. grew bigger because there wasn’t a place for these people in the new industrializing world. One way some

Many European countries in the end of the nineteenth century had imperialistic goals of exploring and settling Africa. Also, they believed that it had little of the settled land, and it was populated by uneducated and ‘‘uncivilized’’ African cultures.