imperialism in africa short essay

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Grade 8 - Term 3: The Scramble for Africa: late 19th century

The colonisation of Africa was part of a global European process reaching all the continents of the world. European colonisation and domination changed the world dramatically. Historians argue that the rushed imperial conquest of the African continent by the European powers started with King Leopold II of Belgium when he involved European powers to gain recognition in Belgium. The Scramble for Africa took place during the New Imperialism between 1881 and 1914. The focus of this lesson will be on the causes and results of European colonisation of the African continent, with special focus on the Ashanti kingdom (colonised by the British as the Gold Coast, and today the independent African country of Ghana).

European colonisation of Africa in the late 19th century

Africa before European colonisation

Due to worldwide insufficiency of world knowledge, the size and abilities of Africa as a continent was majorly undermined and oversimplified. Before colonisation, Africa was characterised by widespread flexibility in terms of movement, governance, and daily lifestyles. The continent consisted not of closed reproducing entities, equipped with unique unchanging cultures, but of more fluid units that would readily incorporate outsiders into the community with the condition that they accepted its customs, and where the sense of obligation and solidarity went beyond that of the nuclear family. Pre- colonial societies were highly varied, where they were either stateless, run by the state or run by kingdoms. The notion of communalism was accepted and practiced widely; land was held commonly and could not be bought or sold, although other things, such as cattle, were owned individually. In those societies that were not stateless, the chiefs ran the daily affairs of the tribe together with one or more councils. The colonisation of Africa through Europe brought about many forms of government that are still visible today. Before colonisation, however, there were many forms of government in Africa, ranging from powerful empires to decentralised groups of pastoralists and hunters.

The use of iron tools marks a significant turning point in African civilization. Iron tools enhanced weaponry, allowed groups to manage and clear dense and thick forests, plough fields for farming, and making everyday life more convenient. Because the iron tools allowed Africans to flourish in their natural environment, they could live in larger communities which led to the formation of kingdoms and states. With this creation came the formation of modern civilizations, common languages, belief and value systems, art, religion, lifestyle and culture. Another unique characteristic of pre- European Africa was the favouring of oral tradition within these societies. Stories were told and handed down generations in verbal form. This poses a threat to the survival of these stories because certain aspects could be forgotten or told in a different way. National borders were also not much of a concern before colonization. European countries fought over African countries mainly for their natural resources. Lines were drawn through African communities which had existed for many years, and these lines can presently be seen as national borders. “A brief history of European Colonisation in Africa”

Berlin Conference 1884

The Conference of Berlin and British ‘New’ Imperialism, also known as the “Congo conference” began. In 1884 at the request of Portugal, German Chancellor Otto von Bismark called together the major western powers of the world to negotiate questions and end confusion over the control of Africa. The countries represented at the time included Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway (unified from 1814-1905), Turkey, and the United States of America. Of these fourteen nations, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal were the major players in the conference, controlling most of colonial Africa at the time. Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, and Spain were competing for power within European power politics. One way to demonstrate national pre-eminence was through the acquisition of territories around the world, including Africa. Another reason for European interest in Africa is the industrialization when major social problems grew in Europe: unemployment, poverty, homelessness, social displacement from rural areas, etc. These social problems developed partly because not all people could be absorbed by the new capitalist industries. Europe saw the colonization of Africa as an opportunity to acquire a surplus population, thus settler colonies were created. With this invasion, many European countries saw Africa as being available to their disposal. However, several disputes took place regarding which European country would colonise a specific African country. Thus, in 1884, Portugal proposed a conference in which 14 European countrieswould meet in Berlin regarding the division of Africa, without the presence of Africa.

The initial task of the conference was to agree that the Congo River and Niger River mouths and basins would be considered neutral and open to trade. Despite its neutrality, part of the Kongo Basin became a personal Kingdom (private property) for Belgium’s King Leopold II and under his rule, over half of the region’s population died. At the time of the conference, only the coastal areas of Africa were colonized by the European powers. At the Berlin Conference the European colonial powers scrambled to gain control over the Interior of the Continent. The conference lasted until February 26, 1885 – a three month period where colonial powers haggled over geometric boundaries in the interior of the continent, disregarding the cultural and linguistic boundaries already established by the Native Indigenous African population. What ultimately resulted was a hodgepodge of geometric boundaries that divided Africa into fifty irregular countries.

“The Scramble for Africa and the Berlin Conference”

Causes of colonisation

The reasons for African colonisation were mainly economic, political and religious. During this time of colonisation, an economic depression was occurring in Europe, and powerful countries such as Germany, France, and Great Britain, were losing money. Africa seemed to be out of harm’s way and had an abundance of raw materials from which Europe could make money from. Due to cheap labour of Africans, Europeans easily acquired products like oil, ivory, rubber, palm oil, wood, cotton and gum. These products became of greater significance due to the emergence of the Industrial Revolution. Africa’s colonisation was also as a result of European rivalries, where Britain and France had beenin a dispute since the Hundred Year’s War. These countries became involved in a race to acquire more territory on the African continent, but this race was open to all European countries. Britain had had some success in halting the slave trade around the shores of Africa. But inland the story was different -- Muslim traders from north of the Sahara and on the East Coast still traded inland, and many local chiefs were reluctant to give up the use of slaves.

During the nineteenth century barely a year went by without a European expedition into Africa. The boom in exploration was triggered to a great extent by the creation of the African Association by wealthy Englishmen in 1788, and as they travelled, they started to record details of markets, goods, and resources for the wealthy philanthropists who financed their trips. With the beginning of colonisation in Africa, morality became an increasing issue. The Europeans could not comprehend the existence of the Muslim Swahili trade which made them want to implement the Three C’s: Christianity, Commerce, and Civilisation. First, Europe experienced a Christian revival in the 19th century.

Missionaries began to focus on the large working class with the goal of bringing spiritual salvation to the workers and their families. The bible was made available to workers. Due to their large successes, missionaries began to look beyond Europe. Missions were established all over Africa. Missionaries did not serve as direct agents of European imperialism, yet they drew European governments deeper into Africa. In their efforts to preach Christianity, to bring western-style education to Africa and to ingrain monogamy in African societies, missionaries often felt threatened by warfare within Africa. Hence, missionaries called on European governments for protection and intervention. Second, for centuries, European explorers have travelled throughout the African continent in their attempts to discover new things and to chart the African continent.

Trade would be well instantiated; the work of the Suez Canal Company at the north-eastern tip of Africa had been completed in 1869. Lastly, Livingstone believed that civilisation could be achieved through goodgovernment andeducation. The combination of these three elements, Livingstone believed, would end human suffering in Africa, and the ultimate level of civilisation would be achieved within the continent. .Christianity would therefore provide the moral principles that would guide Africans, while education and commerce would encourage Africans to produce their own goods to trade with Europeans. For this to work a functioning and legitimate governing system was needed to ensure the civil rights of the people.

Patterns of colonisation: which countries colonised which parts of Africa

By 1900 a significant part of Africa had been colonized by mainly seven European powers—Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. After the conquest of African decentralized and centralized states, the European powers set about establishing colonial state systems. The colonial state was the machinery of administrative domination established to facilitate effective control and exploitation of the colonized societies. Colonial states were authoritarian, bureaucratic systems, partly due to their origins in military conquest and the racist ideology of the imperialist enterprise. The French directed their attention to the active economies of the Niger Delta, the Lagos Hinterland and the Gold Coast.

Why European Countries were able to colonise Africa so quickly

The European countries were able to colonise African countries rapidly because there were rivalries between African leaders. These kings and chiefs were competing with each other to be the richest and most powerful within their tribes. During these rivalries, European leaders would take advantage of the situation and persuaded some leaders to be on their side to fight against other leaders. Natural disasters also played a big role in the rapid and easy colonisation of Africa. In 1895, a serious drought reached many regions in Africa which was caused by a sudden decline in rainfall. Hardly any crops were produced, and the food shortage which followed caused the death of many people and animals. The little crops that were produced were destroyed by a plague of locusts. In addition to this plague, the cattle plague broke outduring the 1890’s which killed cattle, sheep and goats. This led to even more deaths of animals and people, and due to their physical and mental weakness, they were unable to fight against European powers.

European powers could easily take control of any source of land by using force and violence. They accomplished this by using more powerful weapons, and had the advantage of the newly invented machine gun called the Maxim gun which was invented in the 1880’s. This gun could fire eleven bullets per second, and outdid the weapons that the African forces had. African armies did not manage to get hold of European weapons because it was not sold to them. Thus Africans were at a military disadvantage. An outbreak of new diseases made an appearance during the late 1890’sand the first one was a range of smallpox epidemics. The Europeans who were already in Africa had developed immunity to these diseases due to past experiences of these outbreaks in Europe. The indigenous African population had no immunity or resistance to these diseases and thus weakened the African population. A large number of the African population thus died out, or became too weak to fight back.

Results of colonization

The impact that colonisation had on Africa can be described as both good and bad. In terms of European political practice in Africa, all colonising countries share similar attributes. Colonial political systems were un-democratic; Law and Order, as well as Peace, was a primary objective of colonial governments; Colonial governments lacked capacity and Colonial governments practiced "divide and rule." Firstly, colonial governments did not allow popular participation, and all political decisions were made by the small political elite with no or little input from the African population. Secondly, the African population was not satisfied with the way that Europeans imposed on their governing system without any proper representation, thus the maintenance of peace under the African population was made an important priority for the colonial government. Thirdly, seeing as most colonial governments were not rich, they did not fund the governing of their colonies fully. Although they were responsible for raising the money for their own colonies, they still lacked the incometo properly develop and maintain a successful governing system. This meant that colonial governments were not able to provide basic infrastructure, such as roads and communication networks, nor were they able to provide basic social services such as education, health care, and housing. Lastly, the principle of “divide and rule” meant that policies that intentionally weakened indigenous power networks and institutions were implemented.

Due tothe lack of revenue within the colonies, little attention was given to promoting social change or development. Although all the colonies did not experience the same extent of social change, these colonies share the same characteristics in terms of social change. Firstly, colonial and political practices caused a large scale movement of people. In some areas, migrations were primarily from one rural area to another. In other places, the migration was from rural areas to urban areas. These movements resulted in dislocation of peoples that impacted society and culture. Social and cultural beliefs and practices were challenged by these migrations. Long-held practices had to be adapted, and at times were completed abandoned, to fit the new colonial circumstances. Secondly, and partly due to the first consequence, the dislocation of families also occurred. Men mainly left the household to work in mines and on plantations, leaving their wives and children behind. As a result, women and adolescents were forced to take on new roles and to cope in absence of their husbands and fathers. Due to colonialism, the African family structure had been severely changed.

Prior to colonialism, the extended family structure (family that extends beyond the immediate family) was the norm in most African societies, but by the end of colonial era, the nuclear family (family consisting of a pair of adults/ parents and their children) was becoming the norm in many African countries. Thirdly, urbanization emerged as colonization was imposed. During colonialism, urbanization occurred fairly rapidly in many African colonies. A number of pre-colonial African societies had towns and small cities. However, even in these societies, most people were engaged in agriculture in rural villages or homesteads. Urban living resulted in changes in economic activities and occupation, and in changes in the way people lived. These changes often challenged existing values, beliefs, and social practices. Fourthly, the religious beliefs of Africans were adapted or changed. A small percentage of the African population regarded themselves as Christians, and today more than half of the African population is Christians. Colonial rule provided an environment in which Christianity, in many forms, spread in many parts of Africa. While Islam was widespread in Africa prior to the coming of colonialism, it also benefited from colonialism. British and French colonial officials actively discouraged Christian mission work in Muslim areas.

Lastly, the public education system of African was also changed. The majority of colonial governments did little to support schools. Most formal schooling African colonies were a result of the work of missionaries. Missionaries felt that education and schools were essential to their mission. Their primary concern was the conversion of people to Christianity. Missionaries believed that the ability of African peoples to read the Bible in their own language was important to the conversion process. However, most mission societies were not wealthy, and they could not support the number of schools that they really wanted. Consequently, with limited government support, most African children did not go to school during the colonial era. In fact at the end of colonial rule, no colony could state that more than half of their children finished elementary school, and far fewer attended secondary school.

“Colonialism’s impact on Africa”

Case Study: The Ashanti kingdom

The coast of West Africa before the arrival of Europeans

West Africans developed an extensive self-contained trading system, based on skilled manufacture. From the 8th century Muslim traders, from North Africa and Arab countries, began to reach the region. Gradually, communities began to convert to Islam. By the end of the 11th century some entire states, and influential individuals in others, were Muslim. At the same time, West African trade slowly expanded towards Egypt and possibly India. Arabic texts mention that from the late 8th century Ghana was considered 'the land of gold'. Mali also possessed great wealth. In 1324-5, when Mansa Musa, its emperor, made a pilgrimage to Mecca, he took so much gold with him that in Egypt, which he also visited, the value of the metal was debased. Prior to the European voyages of exploration in the fifteenth century, African rulers and merchants had established trade links with the Mediterranean world, western Asia, and the Indian Ocean region. Within the continent itself, local exchanges among adjacent peoples fit into a greater framework of long-range trade.

The Ashanti and their early contact with European traders and explorers

The Ashanti kingdom, or Asante, dominated much of the present-day state of Ghana. It was ruled by an ethnic group called the Akan, which in turn was composed of up to 38 subgroups, such as the Bekiai, Adansi, Juabin, Kokofu, Kumasi, Mampon, Nsuta, Nkuwanta, Dadussi, Daniassi, Ofinsu, and Adjitai. Gold Coast began encountering European traders in the mid-1400s, when the Portuguese began trading with coastal peoples. By the seventeenth century, many European trading giants including the British, Dutch and French began building fortifications along the coastline in order to assert their positions. These interactions were to have a profound effect on African coastal settlements and African institutions came under considerable European influence very early on. West Africa had a long history of connection to trans-Saharan gold trade, and from the 15th century was drawn into trade with Europe, in gold and increasingly in slaves. The Ashanti kingdom had emerged from the mid- 17th century, benefitting from access both to rich agricultural resources and gold, much of the labour for production of which was provided by a domestic slave trade.

Many parts of West Africa was still unknown to the rest of the world, thus By the late 15th century and early 16th century many European nations like Portugal started to send the missionaries and explorers to investigate various parts of Africa and West Africa in particular. As early as in the 19th century European powers like France, Germany, and Britain likewise sent number of missionaries, explorers, traders and philanthropists in West Africa. These groups were sent in Africa to investigate the needed knowledge about Africans, their history and culture, mostly knowledge about raw materials, visibility, potential areas and the nature of African population British traders had operated off what was to become known as the “Gold Coast” with little direct intervention by British authorities.

When the Ashanti kingdom showed ambitions to expand its control southwards in negotiating treaties with African authorities and protecting trading interests, the British invaded Ashanti in 1874 and burnt its capital. The majority of European Explorers spent their time to investigate and to detail the interior and coast of West Africa to help European powers that were searching areas with potential materials as European countries were experiencing mushrooming of industries. Explores assisted the European merchant groups; penetration of west Africa interior in 18th century was real a hard and difficult but with the aid of explorers, European merchant groups had advantage of trading in West Africa freely with assurance of security of themselves and their trading commodities.

The British and the colonisation of the Gold Coast

As Britain increasingly colonised more and more African countries, the British had become the dominant power along the coast, and they began annexing and laying claim to territory gradually. The expansion of the Asante kingdom towards the coast was the major cause of this, as the British began to fear that the Asante would come to monopolise coastal trade in their place. The British placed the Governor of neighbouring Sierra Leone, which was already annexed, in charge of British forts and settlements along the coast. He formed an unfavourable opinion of the Asante, and began the long process of attempting to bring them under British control. However, disputes over jurisdiction of the area known as Ashanti led to war between the British and the Asante, and in 1824, the Asante succeeded in killing the Governor as well as seven of his men. In retaliation, the British (with the help of tribes oppressed by the Asante, including the Fante and the Ga) beat the Asante back in 1826, and successfully ended their dominance of coastal regions. The establishment of British law and jurisdiction in the colony was a gradual process, but the 1844 Bond with the Fante is popularly considered to be its true beginning. This recognised the power of British officials and British common law in the Gold Coast and over the Fante people. In 1850, a Governor was appointed to Gold Coast who was not also Governor of Sierra Leone, and this is how the colony of Gold Coast was born. A supreme court was established in 1853, and led to British common law becoming enforced. However, all of this brought financial challenges, and saw the policy of making the colonies pay come in to force in the Gold Coast for the first time.

The British fought against the Ashanti four times in the 19th century and suppressed a final uprising in 1900 before claiming the region as a colony. The first Anglo-Ashanti War began in 1823 after the Ashanti defeated a small British force under Sir Charles McCarthy and converted his skull into a drinking cup. It ended with a standoff after the British beat an Ashanti army near the coast in 1826. After two generations of relative peace, more violence occurred in 1863 when the Ashanti invaded the British "protectorate" along the coast in retaliation for the refusal of Fanti leaders to return a fugitive slave. The result was another stand-off, but the British took casualties and public opinion at home started to view the Gold Coast as a quagmire. In 1873, the Second Ashanti War began after the British took possession of the remaining Dutch trading posts along the coast, giving British firms a regional monopoly on the trade between Africans and Europe. The Ashanti had long viewed the Dutch as allies, so they invaded the British protectorate along the coast. A British army led by General Wolseley waged a successful campaign against the Ashanti that led to a brief occupation of Kumasi and a "treaty of protection" signed by the Ashantehene (leader) of Ashanti, ending the war in July 1874. This war was covered by a number of news correspondents (including H. M. Stanley) and the "victory" excited the imagination of the European public.

In 1894, the Third Anglo-Ashanti War began following British press reports that a new Ashantehene named Prempeh committed acts of cruelty and barbarism. Strategically, the British used the war to insure their control over the gold fields before the French, who were advancing on all sides, could claim them. In 1896, the British government formally annexed the territories of the Ashanti and the Fanti. In 1900, a final uprising took place when the British governor of Gold Coast (Hodgson) unilaterally attempted to depose the Ashantehene by seizing the symbol of his authority, the Golden Stool. The British were victorious and reoccupied Kumasi permanently. On September 26, 1901 the British created the Crown Colony of Gold Coast. The change in the Gold Coast's status from "protectorate" to "crown colony" meant that relations with the inhabitants of the region were handled by the Colonial Office, rather than the Foreign Office. That implied that the British no longer recognized the Ashanti or the Fanti as having independent governments.

Results of colonisation of the Ashanti kingdom and Britain

In December 1895, Sir Francis Scott left Cape Coast with an expedition force. It arrived in Kumasi in January 1896. The Asantehene directed the Ashanti to not resist. Shortly thereafter, Governor William Maxwell arrived in Kumasi as well. Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh was deposed and arrested. Britain annexed the territories of the Ashanti and the Fanti in 1896, and Ashanti leaders were sent into exile in the Seychelles. The Asante Union was dissolved. Robert Baden-Powell led the British in this campaign. The British formally declared the coastal regions to be the Gold Coast colony. A British Resident was permanently placed in the city, and soon after a British fort.

As a final measure of resistance, the remaining Asante court not exiled to the Seychelles mounted an offensive against the British Residents at the Kumasi Fort. The resistance was led by Yaa Asantewaa, the Queen-Mother of Ejisu. From March 28 to late-September 1900, the Asante and British were engaged in what would become known as the War of the Golden Stool. On March 28, 1900 Governor Frederick Hodgson met with the chiefs at Kumasi and demanded that the Asante hand over the sacred Golden Stool to him. On April 25 the telegraph wires were cut, and Kumasi was surrounded. Thirty British were dying per day in June. On June 23 three officers and 150 made a sortie and managed to escape. Governor Hodgson reached Cape Coast on July 10. The British sent 1,400 troops from other parts of Africa, and the Asante’s nine-month struggle for independence failed. In March 1901 Governor Matthew Nathan visited Kumasi, and he deported 16 Ashanti leaders and imprisoned 31 at Elmina. The people were disarmed, and only licensed hunters could carry guns. The British annexed the Asante confederacy as a Crown Colony and did not allow chiefs to rule in Kumasi until Prempeh became Kumasihene in 1926. In the end, Asantewaa and other Ashanti leaders were also sent to Seychelles to join Prempeh I. In January 1902, Britain finally added Asante to its protectorates on the Gold Coast.

Asante was forcibly incorporated into the British Gold Coast colony in 1902, along with further territory to its immediate north which had not belonged to the kingdom itself. The later addition of British Togoland creates borders for the colony that are essentially those that exist for modern Ghana. When the British defeated the Ashanti people, they collected all the gold treasures of the area. In addition to this, the Ashanti people lost their independence. They did not receive any political rights in the Gold Coast and power was taken away from legitimate Ashanti leaders. People were forced off their land onto farms or factories which ultimately made the British richer. The British then spent money on things that will improve their ability to remove wealth and natural resources from the Gold Coast. They built railroads and roads, but only to their own benefit in order for products to be shipped off to Europe.

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"Expansion Was Everything"

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19th Century Imperialism

In the late 1800s, English businessman Cecil Rhodes made a fortune claiming huge tracts of land in South Africa—places rich in gold and diamonds—and brutally exploiting the labor of the local population, who he considered to be members of an inferior race. Thousands died as a result of the labor practices his businesses used in Africa. In his later years, he wrote that “the world is nearly all parceled out, and what there is left of it is being divided up, conquered and colonized. To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach, I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far.” 1

Rhodes was an imperialist, and to an imperialist, “expansion was everything.” Imperialism is the policy of expanding the rule of a nation or empire over foreign countries by force. In the 1800s, European nations acquired great wealth and power from both the natural resources of the lands they conquered and the forced labor of the people from whom they took the land. Imperialists used ideas from eugenics and Social Darwinism to justify their conquests. To imperialists like Rhodes, the idea that there would soon be no opportunity for further expansion was unsettling.

The French held similar views. In a speech to the French Chamber of Deputies in 1884, Jules Ferry, who twice served as prime minister of France, said:

Gentlemen, we must speak more loudly and more honestly! We must say openly that indeed the higher races have a right over the lower races. . . . I repeat, that the superior races have a right because they have a duty. They have the duty to civilize the inferior races. . . . In the history of earlier centuries these duties, gentlemen, have often been misunderstood, and certainly when the Spanish soldiers and explorers introduced slavery into Central America, they did not fulfill their duty as men of a higher race. . . . But in our time, I maintain that European nations acquit themselves with generosity, with grandeur, and with the sincerity of this superior civilizing duty. 2

European Colonization of Africa

A few months later, France took part in an international meeting known as the Congress of Berlin. It was called by Otto von Bismarck, then chancellor of Germany, and was attended by 15 nations. They came to establish rules for dividing up Africa—the only large landmass Europeans had not yet fully colonized. By agreeing to abide by those rules, the group hoped to avoid a war in Europe. They paid little or no attention to the effects of their decisions on Africans or the people of any other continent. The results of their efforts can be seen in the following map. The inset shows Africa just before the Congress of Berlin; the main map shows the continent in 1914.

At the Congress of Berlin in 1884, 15 European powers divided Africa among them. By 1914, these imperial powers had fully colonized the continent, exploiting its people and resources.

In 1915, W. E. B. Du Bois, an African American scholar and activist, summed up the meeting held some 30 years earlier in an article in the Atlantic Monthly . In it, he revealed that the Congress of Berlin was having an impact on Africa nearly two weeks before the first group of delegates arrived in Germany.

The Berlin Conference to apportion the rising riches of Africa among the white peoples met on the fifteenth day of November, 1884. Eleven days earlier, three Germans left Zanzibar (whither they had gone secretly disguised as mechanics), and before the Berlin Conference had finished its deliberations they had annexed to Germany an area over half as large again as the whole German Empire in Europe. Only in its dramatic suddenness was this undisguised robbery of the land of seven million natives different from the methods by which Great Britain and France got four million square miles each, Portugal three quarters of a million, and Italy and Spain smaller but substantial areas. The methods by which this continent has been stolen have been contemptible and dishonest beyond expression. Lying treaties, rivers of rum, murder, assassination, mutilation, rape, and torture have marked the progress of Englishman, German, Frenchman, and Belgian on the dark continent. The only way in which the world has been able to endure the horrible tale is by deliberately stopping its ears and changing the subject of conversation while the deviltry went on. It all began, singularly enough . . . with Belgium. Many of us remember [Henry] Stanley's great solution of the puzzle of Central Africa, when he traced the mighty Congo sixteen hundred miles from Nyangwe to the sea. Suddenly the world knew that here lay the key to the riches of Central Africa. It stirred uneasily, but [King] Leopold of Belgium was first on his feet, and the result was the Congo Free State. . . . But the Congo Free State, with all its magniloquent heralding of Peace, Christianity, and Commerce, degenerating into murder, mutilation, and downright robbery, differed only in degree and concentration from the tale of all Africa in this rape of the continent already furiously mangled by the slave trade. That sinister traffic, on which the British Empire and the American Republic were largely built, cost black Africa no less than 100,000,000 souls, the wreckage of its political and social life, and left the continent in precisely that state of helplessness which invites aggression and exploitation. “Color” became in the world's thought synonymous with inferiority, “Negro” lost its capitalization, and Africa was another name for bestiality and barbarism. Thus, the world began to invest in color prejudice. The “Color Line” began to pay dividends. For indeed, while the exploration of the valley of the Congo was the occasion of the scramble for Africa, the cause lay deeper. . . . Already England was in Africa, cleaning away the debris of the slave trade and half consciously groping toward the new Imperialism. France, humiliated and impoverished, looked toward a new northern African empire, sweeping from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. More slowly, Germany began to see the dawning of a new day, and, shut out from America by the Monroe Doctrine, looked to Asia and Africa for colonies. Portugal sought anew to make good her claim to her ancient African realm; and thus a continent where Europe claimed but a tenth of the land in 1875, was in twenty-five more years practically absorbed. 3

• 1 W. T. Stead, ed., The Last Will and Testament of Cecil John Rhodes (London: William Clowes Ltd., 1902), quoted in Emanuele Saccarelli and Latha Varadarajan, Imperialism Past and Present (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2015), 15.
• 2 Jules Ferry, “Speech Before the French Chamber of Deputies, March 28, 1884," Discours et Opinions de Jules Ferry , ed. Paul Robiquet (Paris: Armand Colin & Clie., 1897), trans. Ruth Kleinman, available from the Fordham University/Modern History Sourcebook .
• 3 W. E. B. Du Bois, “The African Roots of War,” Atlantic Monthly , May 1915, 707–14.

Imperialist Cecil Rhodes

This caricature, “Rhodes Colossus,” depicts British imperialist Cecil Rhodes straddling the continent of Africa after announcing plans for a telegraph line from Cape Town to Cairo.

Colonial Presence in Africa

At the Congress of Berlin in 1884, 15 European powers divided Africa among them. By 1914, these imperial powers had fully colonized the continent, exploiting its people and resources. See full-sized image for analysis.

Connection Questions

• What motivated European nations to colonize Africa and Asia in the 1800s? How did they justify their conquest of other lands and people?
• What do you think it meant to Jules Ferry to “civilize the inferior races” of Africa? What effect was this policy likely to have on the culture and way of life of Indigenous Africans?
• W. E. B. Du Bois writes: “Thus, the world began to invest in color prejudice. The ‘Color Line’ began to pay dividends.” What does he mean by “invest”? In what sense was color prejudice an “investment” for imperialists?
• How might the legacies of imperialism and this period’s stereotypes about Africa influence the way people view the world today?

How to Cite This Reading

Facing History & Ourselves, “ "Expansion Was Everything" ”, last updated August 2, 2016.

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From Imperialism to Postcolonialism: Key Concepts

An introduction to the histories of imperialism and the writings of those who grappled with its oppressions and legacies in the twentieth century.

Imperialism, the domination of one country over another country’s political, economic, and cultural systems, remains one of the most significant global phenomena of the last six centuries. Amongst historical topics, Western imperialism is unique because it spans two different broadly conceived temporal frames: “Old Imperialism,” dated between 1450 and 1650, and “New Imperialism,” dated between 1870 and 1919, although both periods were known for Western exploitation of Indigenous cultures and the extraction of natural resources to benefit imperial economies. Apart from India, which came under British influence through the rapacious actions of the East India Company , European conquest between 1650 and the 1870s remained (mostly) dormant. However, following the 1884–85 Berlin Conference, European powers began the “ Scramble for Africa ,” dividing the continent into new colonial territories. Thus, the age of New Imperialism is demarcated by establishment of vast colonies throughout Africa, as well as parts of Asia, by European nations.

These European colonizing efforts often came at the expense of other older, non-European imperial powers, such as the so-called gunpowder empires—the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires that flourished across South Asia and the Middle East. In the case of the Ottomans , their rise coincided with that of the Old Imperialism(s) of the West and lasted until after World War I. These were not the only imperial powers, however; Japan signaled its interest in creating a pan-Asian empire with the establishment of a colony in Korea in 1910 and expanded its colonial holdings rapidly during the interwar years. The United States, too, engaged in various forms of imperialism, from the conquest of the tribes of the First Nation Peoples, through filibustering in Central America during the mid-1800s, to accepting the imperialist call of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden,” which the poet wrote for President Theodore Roosevelt on the occasion of Philippine-American War. While claiming to reject naked imperialism, Roosevelt still embraced expansionism, promoting the creation of a strong US Navy and advocating for expansion into Alaska, Hawaiʻi, and the Philippines to exert American influence .

The Great War is often considered the end of the new age of imperialism, marked by the rise of decolonization movements throughout the various colonial holdings. The writings of these emergent Indigenous elites, and the often-violent repression they would face from the colonial elite, would not only profoundly shape the independence struggles on the ground but would contribute to new forms of political and philosophical thought. Scholarship from this period forces us to reckon not only with colonial legacies and the Eurocentric categories created by imperialism but also with the continuing exploitation of the former colonies via neo-colonial controls imposed on post-independence countries.

The non-exhaustive reading list below aims to provide readers with both histories of imperialism and introduces readers to the writings of those who grappled with colonialism in real time to show how their thinking created tools we still use to understand our world.

Eduardo Galeano, “ Introduction: 120 Million Children in the Eye of the Hurricane ,” Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent (NYU Press, 1997): 1 –8.

Taken from the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this classic text, Eduardo Galeano’s introduction argues that pillaging of Latin America continued for centuries past the Old Imperialism of the Spanish Crown. This work is highly readable and informative, with equal parts of impassioned activism and historical scholarship.

Nancy Rose Hunt, “ ‘Le Bebe En Brousse’: European Women, African Birth Spacing and Colonial Intervention in Breast Feeding in the Belgian Congo ,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies  21, no. 3 (1988): 401–32.

Colonialism affected every aspect of life for colonized peoples. This intrusion into the intimate lives of indigenous peoples is most evident in Nancy Rose Hunt’s examination of Belgian efforts to modify birthing processes in the Belgian Congo. To increase birth rates in the colony, Belgian officials initiated a mass network of health programs focused on both infant and maternal health. Hunt provides clear examples of the underlying scientific racism that underpinned these efforts and acknowledges the effects they had on European women’s conception of motherhood.

Chima J. Korieh, “ The Invisible Farmer? Women, Gender, and Colonial Agricultural Policy in the Igbo Region of Nigeria, c. 1913–1954 ,” African Economic History No. 29 (2001): 117– 62

In this consideration of Colonial Nigeria, Chima Korieh explains how British Colonial officials imposed British conceptions of gender norms on traditional Igbo society; in particular, a rigid notion of farming as a male occupation, an idea that clashed with the fluidity of agricultural production roles of the Igbo. This paper also shows how colonial officials encouraged palm oil production, an export product, at the expense of sustainable farming practices—leading to changes in the economy that further stressed gender relations.

Colin Walter Newbury & Alexander Sydney Kanya-Forstner, “ French Policy and the Origins of the Scramble for West Africa ,” The Journal of African History  10, no. 2 (1969): 253–76.

Newbury and Kanya-Foster explain why the French decided to engage in imperialism in Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. First, they point to mid-century French engagement with Africa—limited political commitment on the African coast between Senegal and Congo, with a plan for the creation of plantations within the Senegalese interior. This plan was emboldened by their military success in Algeria, which laid the foundation of a new conception of Empire that, despite complications (Britain’s expansion of their empire and revolt in Algeria, for instance) that forced the French to abandon their initial plans, would take hold later in the century.

Mark D. Van Ells, “ Assuming the White Man’s Burden: The Seizure of the Philippines, 1898–1902 ,” Philippine Studies 43, no. 4 (1995): 607–22.

Mark D. Van Ells’s work acts as an “exploratory and interpretive” rendering of American racial attitudes toward their colonial endeavors in the Philippines. Of particular use to those wishing to understand imperialism is Van Ells’s explication of American attempts to fit Filipinos into an already-constructed racist thought system regarding formerly enslaved individuals, Latinos, and First Nation Peoples. He also shows how these racial attitudes fueled the debate between American imperialists and anti-imperialists.

Aditya Mukherjee, “ Empire: How Colonial India Made Modern Britain,” Economic and Political Weekly  45, no. 50 (2010): 73–82. 

Aditya Mukherjee first provides an overview of early Indian intellectuals and Karl Marx’s thoughts on the subject to answer the question of how colonialism impacted the colonizer and the colonized. From there, he uses economic data to show the structural advantages that led to Great Britain’s ride through the “age of capitalism” through its relative decline after World War II.

Frederick Cooper, “ French Africa, 1947–48: Reform, Violence, and Uncertainty in a Colonial Situation ,” Critical Inquiry  40, no. 4 (2014): 466–78. 

It can be tempting to write the history of decolonization as a given. However, in the immediate aftermath of World War II, the colonial powers would not easily give up their territories. Nor is it safe to assume that every colonized person, especially those who had invested in the colonial bureaucratic systems, necessarily wanted complete independence from the colonial metropole. In this article, Frederick Cooper shows how conflicting interests navigated revolution and citizenship questions during this moment.

Hồ Chí Minh & Kareem James Abu-Zeid, “ Unpublished Letter by Hồ Chí Minh to a French Pastor ,” Journal of Vietnamese Studies  7, no. 2 (2012): 1–7.

Written by Nguyễn Ái Quốc (the future Hồ Chí Minh) while living in Paris, this letter to a pastor planning a pioneering mission to Vietnam not only shows the young revolutionary’s commitment to the struggle against colonialism, but also his willingness to work with colonial elites to solve the system’s inherent contradictions.

Aimé Césaire, “ Discurso sobre el Colonialismo ,” Guaraguao 9, no. 20, La negritud en America Latina (Summer 2005): 157–93; Available in English as “From Discourse on Colonialism (1955),” in  I Am Because We Are: Readings in Africana Philosophy , ed. by Fred Lee Hord, Mzee Lasana Okpara, and Jonathan Scott Lee, 2nd ed. (University of Massachusetts Press, 2016), 196–205.

This excerpt from Aimé Césaire’s essay directly challenges European claims of moral superiority and the concept of imperialism’s civilizing mission. He uses examples from the Spanish conquest of Latin America and ties them together with the horrors of Nazism within Europe. Césaire claims that through pursuing imperialism, Europeans had embraced the very savagery of which they accused their colonial subjects.

Frantz Fanon, “ The Wretched of the Earth ,” in Princeton Readings in Political Thought: Essential Texts since Plato , ed. Mitchell Cohen, 2nd ed. (Princeton University Press, 2018), 614–20.

Having served as a psychiatrist in a French hospital in Algeria, Frantz Fanon experienced firsthand the violence of the Algerian War. As a result, he would ultimately resign and join the Algerian National Liberation Front. In this excerpt from his longer work, Fanon writes on the need for personal liberation as a precursor to the political awaking of oppressed peoples and advocates for worldwide revolution.

Quỳnh N. Phạm & María José Méndez, “ Decolonial Designs: José Martí, Hồ Chí Minh, and Global Entanglements ,” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political  40, no. 2 (2015): 156–73.

Phạm and Méndez examine the writing of José Martí and Hồ Chí Minh to show that both spoke of anticolonialism in their local contexts (Cuba and Vietnam, respectively). However, their language also reflected an awareness of a more significant global anticolonial movement. This is important as it shows that the connections were intellectual and practical.

Edward Said, “ Orientalism ,” The Georgia Review 31, no. 1 (Spring 1977): 162–206; and “ Orientalism Reconsidered ,” Cultural Critique no. 1 (Autumn 1985): 89–107.

As a Palestinian-born academic trained in British-run schools in Egypt and Jerusalem, Edward Said created a cultural theory that named the discourse nineteenth-century Europeans had about the peoples and places of the Greater Islamic World: Orientalism. The work of academics, colonial officials, and writers of various stripes contributed to a literary corpus that came to represent the “truth” of the Orient, a truth that Said argues reflects the imagination of the “West” more than it does the realities of the “Orient.” Said’s framework applies to many geographic and temporal lenses, often dispelling the false truths that centuries of Western interactions with the global South have encoded in popular culture.

Sara Danius, Stefan Jonsson, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “ An Interview with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak ,” boundary 20, No. 2 (Summer 1993), 24–50.

Gayatri Spivak’s 1988 essay, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” shifted the postcolonial discussion to a focus on agency and “the other.” Explicating Western discourse surrounding the practice of sati in India, Spivak asks if the oppressed and the marginalized can make themselves heard from within a colonial system. Can the subordinated, dispossessed indigenous subject be retrieved from the silence spaces of imperial history, or would that be yet another act of epistemological violence? Spivak argues that Western historians (i.e., white men speaking to white men about the colonized), in trying to squeeze out the subaltern voice, reproduce the hegemonic structures of colonialism and imperialism.

Antoinette Burton, “ Thinking beyond the Boundaries: Empire, Feminism and the Domains of History ,” Social History 26, no. 1 (January 2001): 60–71.

In this article, Antoinette Burton considers the controversies around using the social and cultural theory as a site of analysis within the field of imperial history; specifically, concerns of those who saw political and economic history as “outside the realm” of culture. Burton deftly merges the historiographies of anthropology and gender studies to argue for a more nuanced understanding of New Imperial history.

Michelle Moyd, “ Making the Household, Making the State: Colonial Military Communities and Labor in German East Africa ,” International Labor and Working-Class History , no. 80 (2011): 53–76.

Michelle Moyd’s work focuses on an often-overlooked part of the imperial machine, the indigenous soldiers who served the colonial powers. Using German East Africa as her case study, she discusses how these “violent intermediaries” negotiated new household and community structures within the context of colonialism.

Caroline Elkins, “ The Struggle for Mau Mau Rehabilitation in Late Colonial Kenya ,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies  33, no. 1 (2000): 25–57.

Caroline Elkins looks at the both the official rehabilitation policy enacted toward Mau Mau rebels and the realities of what took place “behind the wire.” She argues that in this late colonial period, the colonial government in Nairobi was never truly able to recover from the brutality it used to suppress the Mau Mau movement and maintain colonial control.

Jan C. Jansen and Jürgen Osterhammel, “Decolonization as Moment and Process,” in  Decolonization: A Short History , trans. Jeremiah Riemer (Princeton University Press, 2017): 1–34.

In this opening chapter of their book, Decolonization: A Short History , Jansen and Osterhammel lay out an ambitious plan for merging multiple perspectives on the phenomena of decolonization to explain how European colonial rule became de-legitimized. Their discussion of decolonization as both a structural and a normative process is of particular interest.

Cheikh Anta Babou, “ Decolonization or National Liberation: Debating the End of British Colonial Rule in Africa ,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science  632 (2010): 41–54.

Cheikh Anta Babou challenges decolonization narratives that focus on colonial policy-makers or Cold War competition, especially in Africa, where the consensus of colonial elites was that African colonial holdings would remain under dominion for the foreseeable future even if the empire might be rolled back in South Asia or the Middle East. Babou emphasizes the liberation efforts of colonized people in winning their independence while also noting the difficulties faced by newly independent countries due to years of imperialism that had depleted the economic and political viability of the new nation. This view supports Babou’s claim that continued study of imperialism and colonialism is essential.

Mahmood Mamdani, “ Settler Colonialism: Then and Now ,” Critical Inquiry  41, no. 3 (2015): 596–614.

Mahmood Mamdani begins with the premise that “Africa is the continent where settler colonialism has been defeated; America is where settler colonialism triumphed.” Then, he seeks to turn this paradigm on its head by looking at America from an African perspective. What emerges is an evaluation of American history as a settler colonial state—further placing the United States rightfully in the discourse on imperialism.

Antoinette Burton, “S Is for SCORPION,” in  Animalia: An Anti-Imperial Bestiary for Our Times , ed. Antoinette Burton and Renisa Mawani (Duke University Press, 2020): 163–70.

In their edited volume, Animalia, Antoinette Burton and Renisa Mawani use the form of a bestiary to critically examine British constructions of imperial knowledge that sought to classify animals in addition to their colonial human subjects. As they rightly point out, animals often “interrupted” imperial projects, thus impacting the physical and psychological realities of those living in the colonies. The selected chapter focuses on the scorpion, a “recurrent figure in the modern British imperial imagination” and the various ways it was used as a “biopolitical symbol,” especially in Afghanistan.

Editor’s Note: The details of Edward Said’s education have been corrected.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section British Colonial Rule in Sub-Saharan Africa

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British Colonial Rule in Sub-Saharan Africa by Timothy H. Parsons LAST REVIEWED: 27 November 2013 LAST MODIFIED: 27 November 2013 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0019

The British Empire in Africa went through several distinct phases. From the heyday of the Atlantic slave trade to the mid-19th century, the British imperial presence was limited to a small handful of trading forts on the West African coast, the seizure of the Cape Colony from the Dutch, and a protectorate over the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Britain acquired its substantial African holdings during the era of “new imperialism” of the late 19th century, when it played a substantial role in the European conquest and partition of the continent. While British Africa may have appeared ordered and coherent from London, where a pinkish red usually marked its component territories on maps of the empire, it was in fact a highly diverse and varied entity. Empires, by their very nature, embody and institutionalize difference. Moreover, they are hierarchical institutions that appear quite different from the perspective of the metropole, a colonial capital, and local subject communities. In the decades before the First World War, British Africa included protectorates over theoretically sovereign states, a handful of West African coastal enclaves with Crown Colony status, settler colonies, the self-governing dominion of South Africa, and territories governed by anachronistic charter companies that belonged to an earlier imperial era. While there were small but politically influential communities of European descent in eastern, central, and southern Africa, the vast majority of Britain’s subjects in Africa were Africans. According to the widely accepted stereotypes of the new imperialism, Britain had a moral responsibility to govern these subject peoples because they were at a less advanced stage of human development. This doctrine of trusteeship became harder to justify as social Darwinism went out of fashion over the course of the 20th century, and it proved incompatible with institutionalized racial discrimination in the settler colonies and policies that privileged British economic interests. These realities explain why much of the literature on British Africa appears contradictory, for historians writing about imperial topics are often writing about very different things. The substantial diversity and variety in the form and function of British rule has made it difficult for historians to draw broad conclusions about Britain’s African empire. See also the related Oxford Bibliographies articles on German Colonial Rule and Belgian Colonial Rule .

Most general surveys that pay substantive attention to British Africa are histories of either the entire British Empire or Africa in general. Eldridge 1984 and Hyam 2002 are broad histories of the British Empire that pay good attention to Africa. For an in-depth examination of why Britain took part in the new imperialism, which included the conquest of Africa, see Cain and Hopkins 1993 . For a dated but still informative overview of British rule in Africa see the two edited collections, Gifford and Louis 1967 and Gifford and Louis 1971 . Hyam 2006 is a good introductory history of the British Empire’s demise that pays sufficient attention to the African colonies.

Cain, P. J. and A. G. Hopkins. British Imperialism . 2 vols. London: Longman, 1993.

This highly influential survey of British imperial history attributes Britain’s imperial expansion to an alliance between landed aristocrats and London bankers and businessmen. Vol 1, Innovation and Expansion, 1688–1914; Vol 2, Crisis and Deconstruction, 1914–1990.

Eldridge, C. C., ed. British Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century . New York: St. Martin’s, 1984.

A collection of introductory essays on British Empire building in the 19th century.

Gifford, Prosser, and William Roger Louis, eds. Britain and Germany in Africa: Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1967.

This collection of essays resulted from the first of a series of scholarly conferences, organized by the noted historian William Roger Louis, which examined various aspects of European imperial rule in Africa. The chapters cover Anglo-German imperial competition and cooperation, comparisons of German and British colonial policies regarding “native administration,” missions, taxation, and the British acquisition of some of Germany’s African colonies after World War I.

Gifford, Prosser, and William Roger Louis, eds. France and Britain in Africa: Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1971.

Gifford and Louis’s sequel to Britain and Germany in Africa 1967, this collection compares British and French colonial policy in Africa. Topics include the French and British imperial rivalry, comparative systems of administration, education, and economic development.

Hyam, Ronald. Britain’s Imperial Century, 1815–1914: A Study of Empire and Expansion . 3d ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

DOI: 10.1057/9781403918420

An excellent introduction to the origins of Britain’s African empire, for students and general readers.

Hyam, Ronald. Britain’s Declining Empire: The Road to Decolonization, 1918–1968 . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Written by one of the foremost specialists on the British Empire, this narrative survey is a compelling explanation for the empire’s short life and unexpectedly rapid demise in the 20th century.

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Imperialism — The History of Imperialism in Africa

The History of Imperialism in Africa

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Positive and Negative Effects of Imperialism in Africa

This essay will explore the dual impact of imperialism in Africa. It will discuss the colonial exploitation of resources and its long-term economic effects, cultural changes, and the reshaping of African political boundaries. Conversely, it will also address any infrastructural improvements and administrative systems introduced during colonial rule. Moreover, at PapersOwl, there are additional free essay samples connected to Africa.

How it works

Imperialism is the act of a larger, stronger country taking over a smaller, weaker country politically, socially, and economically. The 18th and 19th century marked the Age of Imperialism, as European countries strived for more land and power. This was due to many reasons such as economic power, glory, religion, and nationalism. Nigeria is one of the various countries that were imperialized during this time period. Although imperialism happened in 1901, some of its consequences and effects still shape Nigeria today. The long term effects of imperialism in Nigeria include the lack of national identity and terrorism.

Short term effects include the loss of traditional customs and the benefits of unification. Most of the effects of imperialism in Nigeria carried until today are negative.

Out of the many effects such as poverty and corruption, the most impactful effects are the lack of national identity and terrorism. However, some argue that imperialism was beneficial to Nigeria. In fact, the country Nigeria itself could not have existed at all if it wasn’t imperialized. After Nigeria formally became a British Protectorate in 1901, it was unified by Lord Frederick, a british governor in 1914. Before, the land of Nigeria included diverse ethnic groups and empires, who in fact, did not get along at all. However, because Nigeria was forcefully united despite the strong cultural differences and diverse ethnic groups that were not in peace, Nigeria lacks national identity, even today.

The main purpose of this idea of nationality is to unite all the social, religious and ethnic groups to make them identify as Nigerians all together despite their distinct differences. This a very hard task for Nigerians to accomplish today for there are many conflicts existing between groups that prohibit them from having peace with each other. Furthermore, this has caused terrorism, especially by Nigeria’s militant Islamist group Boko Haram, who are fighting for their desire of Nigeria being Islamic. This group has caused havoc in not only Nigeria, but also in Africa’s most populous countries, through a campaign of bombings and attacks. Not only has this problem caused many deaths, but is further leading the country into poverty. If the different groups weren’t forcefully unified to be Nigeria, this state of chaos might have been prevented. Both of these long term effects are very harmful and negative, thus suggesting how imperialism in Nigeria was harmful.

Some effects that occurred when Nigeria was imperialized include the loss of traditional customs and the benefits of unification. One of the many reasons why Britain wanted Nigeria was to spread christianity. So when Nigeria was colonized, Britain forced its religion and traditions on Nigerians, converting them into Christians. Furthermore, as before imperialism tribal leaders were elected by its people, chiefs were being appointed by a governor who was appointed by a British. Thus, Britain was controlling all of Nigerian tribes indirectly through their leaders. This way, Britain forced its traditions and cultures on the Nigerian tribes.

There were in fact, some positive effects to imperialism in Nigeria. Because Nigeria was united, it was able to gain its independence from Great britain. One of the reasons why it was so easy for Britain to imperialize Nigeria was because it was consisted of diverse tribal groups who were not unified. But as the groups had the same goal and were unified by the British, with them fighting all together, were able to achieve independence.

However, this is a short term effect for Nigeria’s unification was harmful on the long run, as mentioned in the previous paragraph. I believe that effects of imperialism in Nigeria were overall very negative, for Nigeria does not have a stable government. Nigeria is a federal republic whose government operates as a representative democracy. However, the government only looks out for the wealthy, as they strive for wealth and power, ignoring the country’s serious problems such as poverty, and are weak in fighting the terrorists. Nigeria, due to the effects of imperialism, is in crisis today. 

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What is imperialism in history?

Does imperialism still exist today, did imperialism cause world war i.

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imperialism

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Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other territories and peoples. Because it always involves the use of power, whether military or economic or some subtler form, imperialism has often been considered morally reprehensible. Examples from history include Greek imperialism under Alexander the Great and Italian imperialism under Benito Mussolini .

Today the term imperialism is commonly used in international propaganda to denounce and discredit an opponent’s  foreign policy . International organizations, including the United Nations, attempt to maintain peace using measures such as collective security arrangements and aid to developing countries. However, critics say imperialism exists today; for example, many in the Middle East saw the U.S. -led Iraq War as a new brand of anti-Arab and anti-Islamic imperialism.

Following the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, European nations sought to extend their economic and political power overseas, especially in Africa, in a period dubbed “the New Imperialism .” This competition led European elites and the broad literate classes to believe that the old European  balance of power  was over and a new world order was dawning. Some scholars argue that this process intensified imperial rivalries and helped provoke World War I .

imperialism , state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas. Because it always involves the use of power, whether military or economic or some subtler form, imperialism has often been considered morally reprehensible, and the term is frequently employed in international propaganda to denounce and discredit an opponent’s foreign policy .

Imperialism in ancient times is clear in the history of China and in the history of western Asia and the Mediterranean—an unending succession of empires. The tyrannical empire of the Assyrians was replaced (6th–4th century bce ) by that of the Persians , in strong contrast to the Assyrian in its liberal treatment of subjected peoples, assuring it long duration. It eventually gave way to the imperialism of Greece . When Greek imperialism reached an apex under Alexander the Great (356–323 bce ), a union of the eastern Mediterranean with western Asia was achieved. But the cosmopolis, in which all citizens of the world would live harmoniously together in equality, remained a dream of Alexander. It was partially realized when the Romans built their empire from Britain to Egypt .

This idea of empire as a unifying force was never again realized after the fall of Rome. The nations arising from the ashes of the Roman Empire in Europe, and in Asia on the common basis of Islamic civilization ( see Islamic world ), pursued their individual imperialist policies. Imperialism became a divisive force among the peoples of the world.

Three periods in the modern era witnessed the creation of vast empires, primarily colonial. Between the 15th century and the middle of the 18th, England, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain built empires in the Americas, India , and the East Indies . For almost a century thereafter, relative calm in empire building reigned as the result of a strong reaction against imperialism. Then the decades between the middle of the 19th century and World War I (1914–18) were again characterized by intense imperialistic policies.

Russia , Italy, Germany, the United States , and Japan were added as newcomers among the imperialistic states, and indirect, especially financial, control became a preferred form of imperialism. For a decade after World War I the great expectations for a better world inspired by the League of Nations put the problem of imperialism once more in abeyance . Then Japan renewed its empire building with an attack in 1931 upon China. Under the leadership of Japan and the totalitarian states—Italy under the Fascist Party , Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union —a new period of imperialism was inaugurated in the 1930s and ’40s.

In their modern form, arguments about the causes and value of imperialism can be classified into four main groups. The first group contains economic arguments and often turn around the question of whether or not imperialism pays. Those who argue that it does point to the human and material resources and the outlets for goods, investment capital, and surplus population provided by an empire. Their opponents—among them Adam Smith , David Ricardo , and J.A. Hobson—often assert that imperialism may benefit a small favoured group but never the nation as a whole. Marxist theoreticians interpret imperialism as a late stage of capitalism wherein the national capitalist economy has become monopolistic and is forced to conquer outlets for its overproduction and surplus capital in competition with other capitalist states. This was the view held, for instance, by Vladimir Lenin and N.I. Bukharin , for whom capitalism and imperialism were identical. The weakness in their view is that historical evidence does not support it and that it fails to explain precapitalist imperialism and communist imperialism.

A second group of arguments relates imperialism to the nature of human beings and human groups, such as the state . Such different personalities as Machiavelli , Sir Francis Bacon , and Ludwig Gumplowicz , reasoning on different grounds, nevertheless arrived at similar conclusions—which Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini also endorsed , though not for intellectual reasons. Imperialism for them is part of the natural struggle for survival. Those endowed with superior qualities are destined to rule all others.

The third group of arguments has to do with strategy and security. Nations are urged, proponents of this viewpoint say, to obtain bases, strategic materials, buffer states, “natural” frontiers, and control of communication lines for reasons of security or to prevent other states from obtaining them. Those who deny the value of imperialism for these purposes point out that security is not thereby achieved. Expansion of a state’s control over territories and peoples beyond its borders is likely to lead to friction, hence insecurity, because the safety zones and spheres of influence of competing nations are bound to overlap sooner or later. Related to the security argument is the argument that nations are inevitably imperialistic in their natural search for power and prestige .

The fourth group of arguments is based on moral grounds, sometimes with strong missionary implications . Imperialism is excused as the means of liberating peoples from tyrannical rule or of bringing them the blessings of a superior way of life. Imperialism results from a complex of causes in which in varying degrees economic pressures, human aggressiveness and greed, the search for security, the drive for power and prestige, nationalist emotions, humanitarianism, and many other factors are effective. This mixture of motivations makes it difficult to eliminate imperialism but also easy for states considering themselves potential victims to suspect it in policies not intended to be imperialistic. Some states of the developing world have accused the former colonial powers and other nations of neocolonialism . Their fear is that the granting of aid or the supply of skilled personnel for economic and technical development might be an imperialist guise.

Under international organizations , attempts have been made to satisfy by peaceful means the legitimate aspirations of nations and to contain their illegitimate ones. Measures for these purposes have included collective security arrangements, the mandate and the trusteeship system for dependent areas, the stimulation of cultural relations between nations, aid to developing countries, and the improvement of health and welfare everywhere. See also colonialism .

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Imperialism in Africa Poem Short Summary

Imperialism in AfricaImperialism is defined as one country’s domination of the political, economic, and social life of another country. In Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, imperialism was present and growing. The main countries involved in the imperialism in Africa were the French, German, and Great Britain. The French’s empire was mainly in North and West Africa while Britain’s colonies were scattered throughout the continent. Germany ruled over such countries as Tanganyika, Togoland, and Cameroon, until their defeat in World War I.

There were many reasons for the European countries to be competing against each other to gain colonies in Africa. One of the main reasons may be that Europeans believed that the more territory a country was able to control, the more powerful and important they were believed to be. Other reasons for countries to be competing include the many natural resources that could only be found in Africa and a need for markets in surrounding places so that manufactured goods could be sold for a large profit. When the European manufacturing plants were built, the raw materials from Africa were extracted and the company owners developed and indigenous labor force, which was managed by foreigners. This all lead to the Africans being taken over by the foreigners. A poem by David Diop explains what it was like once the foreigners had taken over Africa.

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“The White Man killed my father,My father was proud.

The White Man seduced my mother,My mother was beautiful.

The White Man burnt my brotherBeneath the noonday sun,My brother was strong.

His hands red with black bloodThe White Man turned to me;And in the Conqueror’s voice said,”Boy! A chair, a napkin, a drink.”In Southern Africa, there were mineral discoveries in the 1860, 70, and 80’s. These discoveries had an enormous impact on Southern Africa. These discoveries lead to a “rush” of many fortune hunters and the establishment of the town of Kimberly, which grew quickly and soon became the largest urban society in the interior of Southern Africa. Soon the diamond industry was controlled by one monopolistic company. This was one negative effect of imperialism in Africa.

While the foreigners were diamond hunting, the African people continued to mine for gold. Soon, though, the diamond industry lost its popularity which an enormous amount of gold was found near present day Johannesburg. Many of the businessmen that had made fortunes in the diamond industry left and established a series of gold-mining companies. Once again the native African people were being taken over by the foreigners.

Europeans viewed Africa as a place where there were more jobs as well as investment opportunities doe the middle class, and a place where the lower class was offered higher status, better job opportunities, and a chance to leave life behind and start again fresh. They also believed that the African people were people who needed to be helped so the Europeans went over on various church missions. Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “White Man’s Burden,” captures the mentality of the Europeans:”Take up the White Man’s burdenSend out the best ye breedGo bind your sons to exile,To serve your captive’s need;To wait in heavy harness,On fluttered folk and wildYour new-caught sullen peoples,Half devil and half child.”Not all Europeans felt the need to “save” the Africans. Cecil Rhodes was a British born imperialist who had established the diamond company that controlled 90 percent of the world’s diamond production. He abided heavily by laissez faire capitalism and British superiority. Although not thinking of the African nation as needing to be changed, he looked at everything a different way. A quote from him explains that he, although not like the others, still believed that African nations were there to be taken over and used for their resources by higher and more superior countries.

“Africa is still lying ready for us. It is our duty to take it. It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race more of the best the most human, most honorable race the world possesses”Not only negative came out of the Europeans coming into African and colonizing. It could be argued that it was good for the Africans to get more civilized and see what industry is like. Mostly, though, there was a lot of negative. The Africans were forced to be avid participants in the imperialism that took place in Africa, and because of lack of weapons, there was no way to defeat the foreigners and win back the areas that they originally ruled. A quote by John Hobson, a British reformer and economist, sums up the period of Imperialism in Africa quite well.

“The decades of Imperialism have been prolific in wars; most of these wars have been directly motivated by aggression of white races upon “lower races,” and have issued in the forcible seizure of territory. Every one of the steps of expansion in Africa, Asia and the Pacific has been accompanied by bloodshed; each imperialist power keeps an increasing army available for foreign service; rectification of frontiers, punitive expeditions, and other euphemisms for war are incessant progressThe condition of the white rulers of these lower races is distinctively parasitic; they live upon those native, their chief work being that of organizing native labor for their support”The Europeans played part in making the native of Africa a horrible and gruesome time, filled with wars, bloodshed, and poverty. This was a truly negative times because it is obvious that the negative outweighs the positive of the imperialism in Africa.

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