Western Imperialism In Africa

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Corrina Pereira HN World Cultures Cino 22 January 2011 Western Imperialism in Africa By the end of the 19th century, many strong world powers were racing to dominate and colonize in weaker areas. This now common action was known as imperialism. Imperialism is a process that can affect one small country or even the whole world and in many cases has done as much destruction as development. Africa in particular was one of the most imperialized of all places. Following the Islamic crusades that spread through the continent, Western nations began scrambling to take over and colonize it for economic, nationalistic, military, or humanitarian reasons. Those nations that imperialized were Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany and most drastically,…show more content…
They, like other nations that imperialized there, new it had much needed resources that other places did not have. They also believed colonizing there would help gain back their power and superiority that was lost at the end of the French Revolution. With these reasons in mind, France tried and succeeded in gaining many huge parts of Africa. However, their accomplishments did come at a price. While trying to conquer Algeria in North Africa, France fought with the people living there. In the 1830’s, France invaded Algeria. Although the French were victorious, they did lose a great amount of lives in the making. Yet France still continued to reestablish its power by taking land, including Tunisia and colonies in West and Central Africa. The French empire in Africa would soon become as large as the continental United…show more content…
Colonizing in Africa gave nations resources, land, and labor, but it still wasn’t easy, especially when they received unexpected resistance. African natives lost basically everything during this time and have spent years trying to gain it back. Imperializing in another country is not a good idea whether or not you are trying to help the people there, because the country most likely doesn’t want your involvement. Doing it for your own gain is selfish and tyrannical, and it usually means you plan on taking whatever you want from that place by any means. I would not recommend imperialization because it is unnecessary and risky. Based on this examination, the United States should keep to ourselves and focus on bettering our country before we even consider interfering with another
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