Factors Of Colonialism In Africa

The first source that I have chosen demonstrates the long lasting effects Africa endured due to imperialism. The illustration shows the countries that were involved in colonizing Africa and what they contributed to how the continent is prospering currently. Also, the cartoon shows how severely the presence of imperialism affected Africa. For instance, when countries exploited Africa during 1880-1913, the people who inhabited the land experienced poverty and starvation due to countries claiming and controlling their land. During the scramble of Africa, countries saw the great amounts of natural resources they were able to exploit, such as a large quantity of diamonds, gold, salt, iron, etc. The extraction of the continents resources increased poverty in Africa which resulted in their economy to plummet. Imperialism is a major factor to Africa’s lack of development and instability due to the injustice that was exhibited towards the population of Africa. African’s were forced into slavery and cheap labor which as a result destroyed the African community. The citizens are still presently trying to rebuild their government and salvage the damage that was done by the British. In the second source that I have selected explains the benefits that Britain gained through imperializing sections of Africa and the results it has led to presently. Africa’s resources were left mainly untouched by natives and largely accessible for the country to extract. The country’s economy greatly

Most of the world’s civilized societies today were established through colonialism. It was brought about through greed, necessity for expansion, and discovery. It has left its mark in various ways by the languages we speak, cultural influence, not to mention the lines on the map. Although it has shaped much of history, colonialism is an unequal exploitation of settlements or countries that has left a lot of problems in its wake.

Amongst the 1870s and 1900, Africa confronted European imperialist hostility, political pressures, military assaults, and ultimately the conquest and colonization. At the same time, African civilizations put up numerous methods of resistance against the effort to inhabit their countries and enforce foreign control. By the early twentieth century, however, much of Africa, except Ethiopia and Liberia, had been inhabited by European powers. The European imperialist drive into Africa was encouraged by three main factors, economic, political, and social. It established in the nineteenth century following the collapse of the profitability of the slave trade, its abolition and suppression, as well as the expansion of the European capitalist Industrial Revolution. The requirements of capitalist development—including the request for guaranteed sources of raw materials, the search for definite markets and profitable investment passages—encouraged the European scramble and the partition and ultimate conquest of Africa.

Colonialism is defined as “the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically” (Google). It was a practice demonstrated in the 1700s and the people that experienced this type of control were mostly individuals that came from other countries such as Africa and were brought to the colonies. By taking individuals from their homes back and transforming them into something that is “civilized” and “normal” to the colonies standards were apparent with two writers by the name of Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley. These two African individuals took in what they were being taught by their captors and infused with their writings. This demonstrates that colonialism is a way of erasing ones true background and integrating teachings of something they can truly never be a part of. The two texts to support this thesis will be Olaudah Equiano’s text The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself and “On Being Brought from Africa to America” & other select poems by Phillis Wheatley.

The second colonialism's legacy is its economic influence on the life of the African people. Every colonial system interrupted the existing economic policies and the disruptions have varied from state to state. The most well known example is that their production was charged for food-crop to cash-crop. The colonialism also acts as a bridge which connect economically between Africa and the European colonial powers. It is obvious that the European countries were more beneficial than African colonies. Robinson (2013) explained, “This history of economic exploitation has played an important role in shaping the way independent African governments have attempted to develop their own economies.” According to the World Factbook, because of the colonial rule, a

Colonialism is the control of governing influence of a nation over a dependent country, territory, or people, and that is exactly what the Europeans did the Africans. Africa was once a beautiful country with an abundant amount of resources but when the Europeans came and colonized Kenya they took that all away. Yes the colonization did help Africa a lot but even though it brought a lot of good it wasn’t able to overcome all of the negative it did, colonialism effected Kenya in a negative way in the areas such as government, education, and culture

Colonialism, by definition is “the control or governing influence of a nation over a dependent country, territory, or people, but colonialism is much more sinister than simply influencing a “dependent country, territory, or people” as the above definition would have us believe. If we were to form our own definition of colonialism based on the current refugee crisis in Europe or the horrors that took place in Africa and America in the past, we can say that colonialism is the exploitation of a territory’s natural resources, taking full political control by force over a territory, and the forcing of these people to assimilate to their beliefs

Colonialism occurs when one nation takes control over a group of people or certain territories. During the Berlin Conference in 1885, the European countries divided Sub-Saharan Africa into regions that they would control. These countries included Belgian, Italy, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, and France. Most of Africa was divided and controlled by the European powers. The only independent countries at this time were Ethiopia and Liberia. These new boundaries caused many problems for the African people, as they were separated from their families, placed with hostile groups, and taken away from their groups in society. In conclusion, the colonization of Africa had many negative effects on the African people.

Take a look at the past, our history; although there is only one factual outcome, there are an infinite number of opinions, perspectives and almost always more than one side to a story. I will be taking a look in to the novel, Colonial Africa, written by Dennis Laumann, as well as, African Perspectives on Colonialism, by A. Adu Boahen, and hopefully through this, we can gain a stronger understanding of Colonialism in Africa and how Boahen and Laumann compare and differ.

Colonialism is the policy or practice of taking over a country and changing it economically. This relates to the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, because the book itself is based off of colonialism and different types of cultures and people. I agree that colonialism strips the person of their cultures and soul.

Colonialism is a word that is hard to universally define. It is the practise of taking full or partial control of other people’s land and goods and exploiting it economically. Colonialism took place all over of sub-Saharan Africa, with Great Britain, France, Belgium and Germany all taking large parts of this area. This all started in the mid 1880’s and has arguably never stopped since. People believe that colonialism is still happening today but in a different way, as the colonisation of sub-Saharan Africa was so brutal. Britain took from Cairo to Cape Town, Nigeria and a few West-African regions. France took an east/west slice of Africa and also Madagascar. Belgium took Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo whilst Germany took Cameroon and Tanzania

the Berlin Conference to divide Africa into colonies, which created the country known as Kenya.

The reasons for the European powers to proceed with the partition of Africa, and change from an informal dominium to a formal colonial policy, has been a topic of extensive research and debates among scholars. Furthermore, the creation of colonial empires has been interpreted in different ways according to different authors and theoretical traditions: on one hand, it has been seen as new era of national expansion, in which political and economic aspects were no longer separable, and the role of the state had increased; and on the other, as a new phase of capitalist development .

Colonization is the term derived from the Latin word colere, which means “to inhabit”, in colonization the colonizers will travel to distant land as migrants and take control of a colonial area. (Greco, 2011) The migrants will obtain special privileges over the native who are very naive and primitive with minimum education while the migrants are more knowledgeable and were often from a big empirical powers country. The migrants or colonizers may not be in a very big group but a strong military force is something sufficient to a colonial area.

The aftermath of colonial rule on Sub-saharan Africans has been debilitating. It is present in the statistics, cultural changes, politics, and the historical unrest in the post-colonial state. European colonists concentrated on the export of Africa’s resources, production of cash crops, and profit gained by displacement of ethnic groups, with no focus on African development. In fact, the complete disregard for African nations lead to modern day dependency on foreign economy, hindering Africa even in its emerging independence. W.O. Maloba explains, “Economically, colonialism had linked Africa tightly to the world capitalist system dominated by Europe and later the USA. African countries, it needs to be repeated, produced raw materials and imported selected manufactured goods – each largely determined by Colonial Capitalism” (Decolonization 8). Post-colonization did not lead to complete independence for many countries, including Kenya, but a new form from within: Neocolonialism, which carries the power of colonialism under “Kenyan” rule. On independence and exploitation, Maloba continues, “the inherited economical institutions in many countries do not have the capacity to lead to sustained growth development. They were established to exploit and not develop these countries” (Decolonization 13). Colonialism, though short-lived, entrenched Africa into underdevelopment.