Narrate the incidents during the Scramble for Africa 5. Describe the results of the Scramble for Africa 6. Identify countries that were colonies by European countries in Africa European imperialism Imperialism is a term that refers to the economic and political domination or control of one country or nation by another one which is technologically and economically more advanced. Therefore, European imperialism was the economic and political domination of other nations world over by European powers. For more than three centuries the European nations had extended their influence and imperialism into other continents such as Asia, Latin America, the West Indies, and Africa.
After witnessing two thriving centers of capitalism, Nkrumah returned home with hopes of turning his homeland around. One thing that was occurring in Africa and not the United States was a process known as “balkanization”. The United States were strong because they realized that even a confederacy was not adequate to maintain a successful capitalist state. Africa was continually being exploited due to the many isolated governments that could be swayed by powerful foreign investors. One of the examples Nkrumah used was cocoa production.
This need is commonly satisfied through the expansion of power, and in this case, Imperialism. Another common idea throughout history has been that because one nation is more civilized or successful than another, they seem to have the right to champion their ways throughout the world by taking over less powerful nations. The justification for this in Heart of Darkness, as said by Kurtz in his report to the International Society for the suppression of Savage Customs, is that “’by the simple exercise of our will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded’” (Conrad 92). These initial motives brought Europe into Africa, though both ideas set a scene for prejudice and suppression as Europe came to exert their power and obtain
He was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people yet his good deeds cover up his bad deeds, which is idiotic. He should not be remembered for being the owner of the Congo Free State; he should also be remembered for causing the genocide of many Congolese people. After Leopold had relinquished the Congo the Belgium government still governed a substantial amount in the Congo (" Afterward..."). After years of the Belgium government running the Congo they
Since the Congo was relatively unknown to most Europeans, Leopold II turned to Henry Morton Stanley, the man responsible for opening up Africa for colonization when he successfully crossed Africa from east to west. With Stanley’s help, it was possible for Belgium to colonize the central African country. Leopold II believed that a colony had to make money for the mother country. Unlike the other colonizing countries, he did not believe in investing in colonies to maintain them. For Leopold II, the end always justified the means, and the end was always money.
Belgian colonial leaders and the Catholic Church deepened the racial divide between the majority Hutu populated country of Rwanda, by awarding Tutsi ethnic group better job and education opportunities. The reason why the Belgians favored the Tutsis was because of their European look and thus judge Tutsi more superior than the Hutu. The Tutsi, the minority race in Rwanda took advantage of the Belgium favor and put themselves in position to deny Hutus access to education, land ownership and government representation to maintain control of the country for the next forty years. However, according to the website “United Human Rights Council”, soon after Rwanda’s independence from Belgium in the 1960s, the Hutu majority seized power from the Tutsi minority and unleashed forty years of resentment on the Tutsis. This event caused thousands of Tutsis to migrate to Uganda because of rise of Hutu violence against Tutsi.
“King Leopold’s Ghost” by Adam Hochschild tells the story of King Leopold of Belgium and the terrible things he did in the Congo. Many subjects are discussed in the book. I think two important subjects that were discussed were how the new technology available at the time helped Leopold in his conquest of the Congo, and the reasons why the mass killings and atrocities that took place in Congo remain virtually unknown in Europe and the United States today. This book is also very accurate to the time period it is written about. There were many technological advancements that helped King Leopold and his troops conquer and exploit the natives in Congo.
The countries involved in the ‘Scramble for Africa’ were Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Italy. A key economic feature of colonialism was producing and exporting raw materials either agricultural or mineral, precious metals such as gold, silver and copper. Tropical products for luxury consumption such as coffee, sugar, spices, timber and fabrics like cotton. Later when Britain, France and Germany were competing against each other for colonies in Africa in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the international market had changed rapidly with a huge demand for raw materials for manufacturing such as jute, cotton, rubber and sisal (Bernstein, 1992:48). Mass consumption demand such as tea, sugar and vegetable oils (Bernstein, 1992:48).
One factor that helped economical expansion was industrialization. During colonialism, Africa experienced a rise in its economical power due to new means of exploring natural resources, such as railways and new mining technology, brought in by the Europeans. Even though the colonists took away a large amount of the resources, it still had a massive impact on Africa’s economy as Leander Heldring and James A Robinson stated in their article “Colonialism and development in Africa”. Another factor that helped Africa to expand its economy was the introducing of the African goods on the international market. Education was another good effect of colonialism.
This was acheived by promoting the use of three major African languages, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba, to attract citizens together through cultural lines. “Mobutism swiftly became the new national ideology, and since a constitution written specifically to please him provided the president unlimited powers, Mobutu's words took on the force of law.” The remarkable mineral prosperity of Shaba, with 80 percent of the world's cobalt assets and 20 percent of its copper provisions, aided Mobutu’s safe global military and monetary support. The West, and Washington had been using Zaire as a weapons source and staging area for support of the anti-communist Unita rebel movement. Mobutu, acting with strong CIA encouragement, had been supporting rebel programs fighting Angola's Marxist administration. The first involvement was a terrible CIA-backed effort to snatch Angola's oil-producing Cabinda enclave, which began in 1975.