East African Americans Before Colonial Kenya

During the late 1800’s, Europe was looking for a way to improve themselves as a whole. With growing population and a steady decline in available work, something new had to be done. Countries looked towards Africa to serve as new colonies for the Europeans in order to better their own countries. During the European acquisition of African colonies in the period 1880 to 1914 Europe’s attitude towards Africa was that Africa was the inferior race in comparison to the Europeans. With the help of a strong feeling of nationalism, Europeans were motivated to acquire new lands in order to improve their motherland’s

There was a great question asked by numerous individuals in the eighteenth century with what happens to people’s lives when their country is a colony of another country. This was very important to Americans when they were being ruled by Great Britain, and even to this day it remains important when countries find themselves controlled by more powerful outsiders. But what is colonialism? Colonialism occurs when one nation takes control of another. Kenya’s experience as a colony of Great Britain gives us more of an idea of what being colonized meant both to the people being controlled and to those who control them. Although it seems hard to believe, Kenya was created by the Europeans and generally this had a positive on effect on Kenyans because it began development.

Africa was an essential for Europe to gain power in economics and trading position and land. It was a great leap in the civilized world as said by Beaulieu “This area of the world [Africa] needs civilized people to intervene.”(Document S). The Imperialism of Africa was a success in the eyes of Europe, them walking away with the goods of the new land, but was a step back for the people in Africa them entering a cycle of slavery and unjust rule as talk about in Document

“The partition of Africa map” presents the competition of powers between the seven european countries that were competing for land, and their land victories thus far. (Document A) The land victories lead to discoveries in the industrial revolution that benefitted European imperialism. A technological development, such as the steam engine gave a stronger pull of power towards europeans due to it’s “forceful source of power” on it’s “ships or horse drawn carriages”. (Document C) Technological developments weakened African territories and simplified colonization for

The Great African Land Race: Expanding European Territory Since the 1500’s, Europeans have been utilizing Africa as a center for trading and slavery. But in the early 1880’s, Africa became more of an interest to Europeans like King Leopold who wanted to expand their control over the world. The rush to conquer the mysterious continent began. Many factors caused Europeans to take part in land grabbing; however, the largest force driving Europeans towards imperialism in Africa was the desire for power through riches and natural African resources, which allowed Europeans to expand their economy and territory. Europeans quickly began to seize as much land as they could in Africa in order to win the great race for power.

Africa DBQ     Africa is an extremely large continent filled with 54 countries. European occupation of Africa has shaped the very structure and function of many of these diverse countries. Socially and economically, European influence is very obvious through imperialism, the act of one country extending power and rule over another, as well as colonization, the act of establishing a colony in another country. The effects of European imperialism and colonization have greatly damaged Africa in many different aspects of life.     European imperialism as well as colonization worked to control much of Africa.

Africa was a country on the rise of becoming a full-functioning country. Africa was on the road to success with its large amounts of ethnicity, religion, and shared power. However, this was prevented by the European countries who imperialised in Africa. What is imperialism exactly? Imperialism is the basic act of taking total control over another country.

People of the early African kingdoms were able to create successful trade routes with Europe and Asia, become very wealthy from conquering and gaining land, and were able to have a strong central government. All of this was done before the Europeans had reached Africa. Trade flourished on the East African coast, especially when trading was established with India and Arabia. African kingdoms were prosperous, because of their success with not only trading but also with their ability to conquer land. A governmental structure is key to allowing any kingdom to thrive, and the African people were able to achieve this.

Although imperialization indeed altered the political landscape of Europe it was no comparison to the radical transformation it brought to the populations that fell under colonial rule. Over time colonization successfully deteriorated the previous social, political, and economic norms these societies once had. Such dramatic shifts in lifestyle were due largely in part to a forced change in the land tenure system. European administrators sought to create colonies which were profitable and cohesive to the western economic system— capitalism. However, when colonist first arrived the land was not “legible” to the Europeans as village members didn’t independently or indefinitely own a piece of land. Instead, in many societies land was not viewed

This can be shown in Document C, which features excerpts from one of John Ruskin’s novels. “(T)his is what [England] must either do or perish: she must found colonies as fast and as far as she is able, formed of her most energetic and worthiest men;—seizing every piece of fruitful waste ground she can set her foot on, and there teaching these her colonists … that their first aim is to be to advance the power of England by land and by sea” (Ruskin). From this, the reader can understand what European’s primary motives were. This excerpt illuminates the fact that European countries took over the country of Africa to harvest their own profits and succeed economically, and would take down other European countries for their own

Before the Europeans began to explore Africa, little was known about the continent. However, after some initial exploration of Africa, the Europeans soon realized how economically important this area was, and how much they could profit from it. At the time, European countries had only small colonies in Africa, but after they realized that they could make money from the resources in the inner regions of Africa, they wanted to invade the African regions and assume control. This led to “ the race” and ultimately, the partition of Africa. There were many motives for the Europeans to imperialize Africa. There were humanitarian and religious goals, political goals, military goals, and most importantly, there were economic interests. During the Berlin conference, The European powers decided that they were going to spread the three C’s (Christianity, Commerce, and Civilization) in Africa. To do this, the conference had three aims “ Ensure free trade for all nations throughout the Congo, to ensure free navigation for all countries on the Niger River of West Africa, and agree to set rules by which the Europeans could proceed to divide the rest of the continent.” (Part II: The European Conquest, Pg 11). Later in the document it states that not one African representative was present at the Berlin Conference to discuss Africa's future. The European people tricked themselves into thinking that what they were doing

When Europeans moved into the bush of Southern Africa and realized that they were hopelessly outnumbered, they had to develop ways to create and maintain their authority over the native population. They had tremendous advantages in the obvious areas, as author Jared Diamond writes in his Pulitzer Prize winning book:

The British colonization of Kenya destroyed the culture and economy of the native people, but it established a democratic government and left Kenya a more modernized country.[1] During the 1880’s through 1914, the start of WWI, was an age of imperialism. One place that felt victim to this imperialism was Africa. At this time Africa was a wholly unmodernized continent. The reason the Europeans went after Africa was the introduction of the idea of social Darwinism and the “white man’s burden”. Social Darwinism is the belief that only the strongest and the most cunning can make it to the top of the social ladder, and it was the White Man’s Burden to step in for these undeveloped countries

The scramble for Africa represents the most thorough and systematic process of colonialism in world history. The European colonial powers managed to conquer and control almost the entire continent of Africa in a short, twenty-five year period from about 1875 to 1900. Some of the European states involved were already well-established global powers; the others were up and coming nations that desired to emulate and compete with the dominant imperial states. Various factors allowed for and contributed to the conquering of the whole of Africa by European states. The slow, but ever-growing European presence on the perimeter and the completion for dominance between the major European states acted as the platform for the inevitable quest for

One example of ethnic cleavage which can be traced directly to colonial foundations is that of the African/Asian(Indian) divide in Kenya and Uganda. Paul Vandenberg explains the racial privileges which the Asians enjoyed under British rule, leading to their concentration as a relatively successful ethnic group. As migrants flowed within the British empire, Asians who arrived in Kenya were given greater access to social, educational and capitalist opportunities by the colonials, as a result of higher 'racial' status(also Bennell 1982, p131). This expanding community naturally reinforced itself, in part due to the issues of trust and networking, in the absence of openly available commercial institutions(Vandenberg 2003, p450).