Europe wanted to set up and colonize in Africa, mainly because of Africa's raw materials it was purely economic. . (Iweriebor, 2011) The African's did not take kind to this, and it provoked not only African political responses but also diplomatic responses and military resistance. A lot of treaties of protection for the leaders of African societies, states, and empires went out. There was a lot of controversy about these treaties and eventually the military had to step in.
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.
The First Anglo-Boer War was a fight to keep sovereignty by the South African Republic against British invasion. When the British annexed Transvaal in 1877 the Boers were angered. In 1877, the Pedi attacked the Boers of Transvaal, and Boers claimed the British had not adequately assisted them. The British wished to bring Transvaal by force into a union, which furthered chances of war. There were several causes of the First Anglo-Boer War and the cause were the expansion of the British Empire, problems within the Transvaal government, the British annexation of the Transvaal and the Boer opposition to British rule in the Transvaal.
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.
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.
Some of the first civilizations started in Africa, and forever after other civilizations wanted to conquer Africa as a means of showing their global superiority. Africa's worst domination, however, came from the Europeans. European colonization set the stage for imperialism that Africa deals with to this day. Before the resurgence of imperialism Africa was a resourceful continent. During imperialism, Europeans went into Africa and stripped its land of its resources and this also changed the climate negatively.
4) They also provided “security of person and property in lands that had known little or either.” (Document 4) D) For the colonizers, there were multiple positive effects Lachman 2 1) African colonies provided raw materials that boosted supply in Europe, improving the economy 2) Colonizers benefited through trade because foreign trade routes were introduced through the colonies III) Negative Effects E) The African peoples who were colonized were economically exploited by the invading Europeans. 5) “The white rulers of the colonies live at the expense of the natives” (Document 1) 6) The Europeans would not only take the natives’ land, but take hold of their resources, made the natives work them, and “take the wealth out of the country” (Document 1) 7) Africans were reduced “to poverty in the midst of plenty” (Document 3) 8) Although Africa was abundant in resources, the colonizers used and benefited from them for their own good,
Imperialism: The Scramble for Africa (1880-1900) was a period of rapid colonization of the African continent by European powers. But it wouldn't have happened except for the particular economic, social, and military evolution Europe was going through. In the end Britain and France had the most colonies and Germany lost out so it was also a major contributor to tension in Europe. Nationalism: Triple Entente, an informal alliance among Great Britain, France, and Russia in the period before World War I. It opposed the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
In turn these changes affected attitudes of the British government and public opinion and undoubtedly influenced key decisions about both expansion and dismantlement in Africa. Britain's first intervention in Africa occurred in Egypt. Egypt was part of the Turkish Empire in 1882 but discontent lead to national revolts that scared Britain. Following the purchase of the Suez Canal shares in 1875, British financial and trading interests had grown in the area. Britain could not allow her investments in Egypt jeopardized, as Egypt was a vital route to India.
To what extent did the Suez Crisis of 1956 lead to the end of the British Empire from the year’s c1956-1965? The Suez Crisis of 1956 was more of an effect rather than a cause of decline, the crisis brought to light the true problems that Britain was facing. Various other factors such as political pressure from America and fear of communist ideology being spread in Africa impacted the rate of progress towards decolonisation. Furthermore change of ideology due to the Second World War had influenced the rise in nationalism in Britain’s African Empire which proved to be a challenge for Britain. Therefore even though the Suez Crisis sparked a rise in nationalism which effectively hindered British imperialism, factors such as economics and economic debt pressures from abroad significantly impacted the decolonisation of Britain’s African Empire.