Causes Of European Imperialism In Africa

Angela Young 12/19/2016 CP:World History A Change of Life: African Imperialism In the late 1800s and early 1900s, seven European countries (France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Portugal) were active in claiming African territory as their own. In order for these European countries to gain control they needed a reason. European’s new economic and military strength lead them to a path of aggressive expansion. European Powers wanted to own everything and every human being be like them, white.
European Powers took Charles Darwins’ idea of natural selection and survival of the fittest to human
["What Were the Causes of European Imperialism in Africa?"]. Due to the Industrial Revolution factory businesses were booming. Customers began to demand natural resources - rubber, petroleum, manganese for steel, and palm oil for machinery. European countries did not have these items, or at least not enough, so they reach out to Africa. [ World History The Modern Era, Chapter 12 section 1]. When reaching out to Africa European powers did not want to travel anywhere past the perimeter in other words they didn't want to enter the “Dark Continent” the inside of Africa. European power were terrified of the idea, they had no clue what was inside there. So European Powers came up with a deal African colonies had to follow. First, they were intended as a market for the goods manufactured in the European “home” country. The colonies acted as “protected” marketplaces where
To make it far they had a conference to see what countries got what land of central Africa of what they needed from that land. For example, Berlin wanted copper, rubber, and ivory so Berlin went for land around the Congo River. The conference was held in Berlin. No Africans were invited. The rules were the European countries couldn't claim it unless they had had set up a government including a european ruler. Another rule was that the Congo River was shared as a purpose free trading route. In the 20 years after the Berlin Conference , the European powers were almost all in control of of the continent. As European carved out their claims, they established new boundaries and frontiers. With European powers ruling in on Africa there were some benefits- advance technologies, doctors leading to better health, education, and more life changing abolishment to slavery. Even though there was good benefits of Europeans powers taking over there was still a lot of bad going on. Europeans destroyed the beauty of nature's beautiful creation (example: rainforest, etc). They built railroads to create a better trade route, they did this to benefit the Europeans NOT the Africans. Some European countries created a nicer, more humanely government where others would be harsh and still treat them like slaves. [ World History The Modern Era Chapter 12