Cause And Effect Of Imperialism In Africa

The seizure of the African territories was enabled by industrialization in the stirred Ambitions of the Europeans that wanted more resources to help boost economy for their benefit. Due to being more powerful and well-equipped they were allowed to take over most of the land in Africa for raw resources they desired. As competition grew more intensifying each country wanted to plant its own flag on as much of the world as possible. This was what we call the beginning of imperialism, which formed when the Scramble for African territory begun about 1880 due to the discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1866, and no European power wanted to be left out of the race.

The cause of imperialism started in the Berlin Conference in 1884 through 1885 to lay down rules for division of Africa because the fierce competition that European countries feared among themselves they wanted to prevent conflicts. So 14 European nations met and agreed that any European country could claim land in Africa by notifying other nations of its claims and showing it could control the area. The European nations divided
Furthermore they lost thousands resisting the Europeans, while famines resulted from the change to cash crops and place of subsistence agriculture breakdown of the traditional cultures. Then traditional authority figures were replaced, homes and property were transferred with little regard to the importance of the people, men were forced to leave villages to find ways to support themselves and their families and admiration of European life cause identity problems for Africans. The most harmful political Legacy from the colonial period was the division of African continent, this plagued many African colonies during European occupation and created problems for the Nations that evolved from former