Europe's Domination on Africa DBQ

King Leopard expressed his desire for a slice of “African cake”. Leopard compared Africa with a piece of cake because he believed Africa to be a very “delightful” continent as a cake would be, so he becomes hungry to establish his own colony in a country of Africa. Between the 1870s and 1900s, Africa faced European imperialist aggression, diplomatic pressures, military invasions, and eventual conquest and colonization. The driving forces behind European domination in Africa included political power, economic and industrial reasons, and national pride. However, the most important cause of imperialism was Europe’s economic and industrial reasons. A driving force behind European imperialism in Africa is political power. In document A, a map is shown, showing the number of African colonies dominated by European countries. This shows Europe’s lust desire for power in Africa’s government because, the amount of land back then, meant the amount of political power one had of the African government. Another reason that Europe dominated Africa was because of their national pride. Short excerpts from Document B show that Europe had a lot of national pride by explaining that European countries need to rule a lot of colonies so that each county’s pride doesn’t “die”. Document F shows a poem introducing the idea of a white man’s burden of civilizing other people. This shows national pride because it is explaining that white men are an example to other people, resulting for it to be the white man’s job to civilize other human beings. An important cause of imperialism in Africa was Europe’s economic and industrial reasons. Document D shows the resources exported from an African colony to Europe. This shows that a European country colonized an African country for its resources. Also, in Document F, it shows the number of imports and exports between Africa and Europe. The number of imports and exports both increased, but the exports to Africa increased greatly, surpassing the number of imports from Africa. The two documents show that Europe colonized African countries for its resources to better their industries and economy. For Europe’s benefit, Europe exported things to Africa to make money in both places; Africa and Europe. Although other forces were behind European imperialism in Africa, in the 19th century, like, technology, resources, and Europe’s cultural pride, the three most important were political power, national pride, and economic reasons. These three driving forces caused Europe to dominate Africa for the benefit of Europe’s countries.