Andy Bartlett 11-19-06 DBQ Imperialism in Africa In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries European imperialism caused its countries to divide up the rest of the world, each country claiming bits as its own. Due to its large amounts of resources, Africa was one of the main areas in which European nations established colonies. Imperialism in Africa had both positive and negative results for not only the Africans in the colonies, but the European colonizers as well. Some positive effects on Africans were that they were provided with security by their ruler and new technology was brought to them. Some negative effects from them were the Africans loss of freedom, slavery, the loss of their land and natural resources to the colonizer, and a decrease in African nationalism.
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.
During the 19th century, Britain had a huge empire, extending throughout the world. Up into 1869, Britain only controlled very little land in Africa. Their main focus was to develop imperialism in their more profitable places. Places that gain opportunity for increase in their economy. The main reason the British practiced imperialism in Africa was to bring forth Christianity and many European civilizations to African countries.
Consequent to the political and economic rivalries among the European empires in the last quarter of the 19th century, the partitioning of Africa was how the Europeans avoided warring amongst themselves over Africa. The later years of the 19th century saw the transition from "informal imperialism", by military influence and economic dominance, to the direct rule of a people, which brought about colonial imperialism. The social and economic effects of European Imperialism in Africa are, economy, military, and social class. Africa was a new market for manufactured goods that could be sold for high prices, and was also a source of raw materials that could be manufactured. Although, in the grand scheme of the African economy, it grew to a more global position, the social or individual part, suffered greatly.
Plantation masters argued callously that it was cheaper to work the slaves to death and then buy new ones than it was to allow them to live long enough and under sufficiently healthy conditions that they could bear children to increase their numbers. Skills and networks established from the slave-trading business enabled the traders to acquire managerial abilities associated with nascent global capitalism. They were able to develop awareness and knowledge of commercial networks beyond the South and
Cultural Imperialism in Africa European imperialism had a strong influence over African culture in many ways. Essentially all of Africa fell victim to the very influential and dominant European nations. The process of imperialism on these economically and militarily weak countries of Africa was obviously simple for the Europeans. In most of Africa, there were no countries, only clans and tribes, which made the imperialization much easier as well. These imperialist nations, such as Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany, showed African nations many new ideals and tools that spread like a cultural virus.
His struggle made him a household name, and stimulated the attitude that it was Britain’s moral mission to help native people. This attitude of ‘moral mission’ however, was to pave the way to a legacy of undesirable consequences against the native people whom the explorers were trying to help: the enduring legacy of slavery. Unfortunately, European interference in Africa would soon involve more than the activities of explorers and missionaries, the continent was soon to be entangled in the world of European politics and the scramble for Africa. By the 1870s politicians like Benjamin Disraeli were tapping into a growing public enthusiasm for Empire, he himself previously referred to colonies as ‘millstones around our necks’. Disraeli and many European politicians came to see the domestic political usefulness of imperialism.
In addition, imperialism "also brought jobs and industry to the colonies [and it] introduced the ideas of constitutional government to the Africans," (pg 578 AGS World History). Imperialism caused major negative aspects in Africa. In this case, Africans felt "they that Europeans got more of imperialism than they did," which suggests labors were treated as slaves. " The first step towards whiteness" (History Alive), this is a racist comment from an advertisement. The Europeans saw themselves as superiors over those who are not civilized.
The Slave Trade had a big impact on Europe, Africa, The West Indies, and almost the rest of the world. But towards the end people started to believe that the slave trade wasn’t such a good thing. This was for more than one reason. For example: • It was believed that paid slaves worked harder than slaves who had been captured and forced to work, or had been bred into slavery. Also, if you hired slaves, you didn’t have to pay for their housing or food, and so people started to think that paid saves were cheaper and more profitable.
European imperialism in Africa was partly due to rivalries between the different European countries involved, with Britain, Germany and France the dominant powers. As Professor Richard Evans of the University of Cambridge observes, by the 1880s “rivalries and interventions had been building up already over several decades.” Each country aimed to increase its own prestige by accumulating territories in other parts of the world. Such was the rivalry between European powers that, in 1884 and 1885, the