Colonisation and Decolonisation of Britains Africa

1960 Words8 Pages
To what extend was the colonisation and decolonisation of Britain’s Africa driven by individuals within Africa? Before the 1870’s Africa was largely unknown to the outside world but, in the 1880’s the scramble of Africa began, where European counties, especially Britain all wanted to colonise Africa. Was the whole reason for British colonising Africa economically or strategically driven or was it led by individuals in Africa (men on the spot) or was it more of a top down process led by the government in Britain? And even though Britain fought so hard to control large parts of Africa it is clear that after World II Britain’s empire was declining especially after India gain independence in 1947. However, the British did try to revive their African empire in the late 40’s and early 50’s but their sudden fall into a steep imperial decline with the Suez crises saw individuals like Macmillan to acknowledge that decolonisation was the only way forward, as it would be more beneficial for Britain to decolonise than to resist the rise of nationalism. However, was the road to decolonisation solely due to the British economic decline or did African nationalist such as Kwame Nkrumah drove the British out of Africa? When looking at the colonization of British Africa, Cecil Rhodes played a major part with his British South African Company. His “Cape to Cairo” dream envisioned British rule stretching from south to north. Through the whole of Africa bringing trade opportunities for the British South African Company with it and the only way he saw this was possible was to colonise this land. However Rhodes was also politically motivated as he wanted to expand northwards from South Africa to forestall the Germans, as he wanted to make sure that the ascendency would be with the British and not the Germans after they colonised South East Africa he wanted to make sure that the Boers
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