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Colonialism in africa and its effects
Colonialism in africa and its effects
A short note on apartheid in south africa
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For as long as Africa has existed, others have sought to wield power over the land, resources and inhabitants. In earlier days, Africans were abducted away into the slave trade and more recently, Africans were utilized as built in labor with their territories during the era of colonization in the 1800’s. However any discussion of Africa after this point of achievement of independence to current day has been grossly underwhelming. Author Frederick Cooper seeks to change our view of African today with his book Africa Since 1940; His writings demonstrate the severely warped manner in which Africa is viewed and seeks to show that despite supposed independence Africa has still been suppressed and therefore put at a disadvantage. This in turn has negatively impacted the way in which we as outsiders view the continent. One of the reasons Africa was so easily infiltrated by European powers was their use of propaganda and dehumanizing efforts of the citizens, thereby prompting less impediment from European citizens. This as well as the slave trade in the United States has left unconsciously unfavorable view of the people of African, people in …show more content…
Failure to resist the consuetude of tyranny was seen in the apartheid regime that was allowed to rise in South Africa, “with its explicit policy promoting white supremacy” (Cooper 2002, 1). As a result of this establishment, non white Africans were forced to live separate and in poor conditions for years by the all white government. This yet again encumbered any chance for augmentation of self and society for the African people. While the rest of the world was creating mass transit and health care systems, Africa was being held down, it’s potential to develop as a state of power and influence,
Since the 1880?s, when European nations colonized Africa, Europe had almost complete control over the continent, but this changed during the 1950?s and 60?s. By 1958, ten African countries had gained their independence, and sixteen more joined the list in 1960 alone. Although these nations? gain of independence demonstrates the ability of blacks to overpower their white oppressors, Baldwin argues ?The word ?independence? in Africa and the word ?integration? here are almost equally meaningless; that is, Europe has not yet left Africa, and black men here are not yet free? (336). While black people had been legally free in the United States since 1863, two decades before the European colonization of Africa, they were still not truly free, almost a century later.
Europe, in the late 1800’s, was starting a land grab on the African continent. Around 1878, most of Africa was unexplored, but by 1914, most of Africa, with the lucky exception of Liberia and Ethiopia, was carved up between European powers. There were countless motivations that spurred the European powers to carve Africa, like economic, political, and socio–cultural, and there were countless attitudes towards this expansion into Africa, some of approval and some of condemnation. Europe in this period was a world of competing countries. Britain had a global empire to lead, France had competition with Britain for wealth and so did other nations like Germany and Russia.
When the Age of Imperialism began in 1875, it effected Africa in many ways. Nowhere was the competition for colonies more intense than in Africa. Europeans went after North and South Africa splitting up the continent. Egypt and Sudan were taken over by Britain to obtain the Suez Canal. Imperialism helped to develop Africa’s economy and turned it into a continent of colonies.
Before the British arrived in Africa, they had sustainable economic, social, and political systems. These existing systems were destroyed the European’s quest to use Africa’s wealth for their own economic gains (Alcott). Prior to colonization many African states relied on agriculture to meet the level of subsistence, and selling or trading excess crops. The British did not recognize this type of economic system as a sufficient alternative method. They did not respect the African’s cultural differences and lifestyles; instead, they saw the lack of technology and modernization as merely unacceptable. They began to implant their own economic methods on the African’s without accounting for or respecting other lifestyles and methods of building a society. Instead of respecting ethnic differences across the continent, the British began to exploit them for their own
Gilbert, Erik & Reynolds, Jonathan T., Africa in World History. Third Edition. Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, 2012.
"The wind of change is blowing through this [African] continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it" (Macmillan). This speech, made by the prime minister of England in 1960, highlights the vast changes occurring in Africa at the time. Changes came quickly. Over the next several years, forty-seven African countries attained independence from colonial rule. Many circumstances and events had and were occurring that led to the changes to which he was referring. The decolonization of Africa occurred over time, for a variety of complex reasons, but can be broken down into two major contributing factors: vast changes brought about in the world because of World War II and a growing sense of African nationalism.
In the first segment of his film series, Different but Equal, Basil Davidson sets out to disprove the fictitious and degrading assumptions about African civilization made by various Western scholars and explorers. Whether it is the notion that Africans are “savage and crude in nature” or the presumed inability of Africans to advance technologically, these stereotypes are damaging to the image and history of Africa. Although European Renaissance art depicts the races of white and black in equal dignity, there was a drastic shift of European attitudes toward Africa that placed Africans in a much lower standing than people of any other culture. The continent of Africa quickly became ravished by the inhuman slave trade and any traditional civilization
European imperialism in Africa caused Africans to lose their independence and culture. After a long time, “the wave of Independence across Africa in the 1950s and 1960s brought to the end around 75
“The sun never sets on the British Empire,” Great Britain often bragged. By 1914, about 85% of the earth’s surface was colonized by Europe. Between 1884 and 1885, The Berlin Conference took place to carve up the African continent (Background Essay). Europeans saw high potential in Africa and thought the continent was empty, even though it was not. It was roughly “untouched” and they thought they could do anything they wanted (Doc.1). Great Britain’s colonization in Kenya affected the country’s religion and culture, education, and government.
Africa has had a long and tumultuous road of colonization and decolonization the rush to colonize Africa started in the 17th century with the discovery of the vast amounts of gold, diamonds, and rubber with colonization hitting a fever pitch during World War I. However, the repercussions of colonization have left deep wounds that still remain unhealed in the 21st century. Early on, European nations such as Britain, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany and Belgium scrambled for territories. Countries wanted land so they could harvest the resources, increase trade, and gain power. The European colonization of Africa brought racism, civil unrest, and insatiable greed; all of which have had lasting impacts on Africa.
This paper explores one of the most significance revolutions in Africa’s history: the anti- apartheid liberation movement in South Africa. In the late 1940s, the white government of the National Party implemented laws that supported white supremacy and segregation in South Africa. The series of discriminatory laws were referred to as the apartheid laws, and created a society in which blacks were, essentially, denied the rights to succeed economically, politically, and educationally. For decades, black South Africans were subject to unfair treatment by police, denied the right to vote, and denied the right to live where they chose. Nearly 50 years of protests led by political activists and liberation organizations persisted before apartheid
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney, was one of the most controversial books in the world at the time of its release. The book seeks to argue that European exploitation and involvement in Africa throughout history. This is the cause of current African underdevelopment, and the true path to the development is for Africa to completely sever her ties with the international capitalist economy. Rodney describes his goal in writing the book in the preface: “this book derives from a concern with the contemporary African situation. It delves into the past only because otherwise it would be impossible to understand how the present came into being and what the trends are for the near future” (vii). Rodney writes from a distinctly Marxist perspective by arguing that the inequalities inherent in European capitalism and required exploitation of certain countries in order to sustain capitalism.
Africa’s struggle to maintain their sovereignty amidst the encroaching Europeans is as much a psychological battle as it is an economic and political one. The spillover effects the system of racial superiority had on the African continent fractured ...
An overwhelming majority of African nations has reclaimed their independence from their European mother countries. This did not stop the Europeans from leaving a permanent mark on the continent however. European colonialism has shaped modern-day Africa, a considerable amount for the worse, but also some for the better. Including these positive and negative effects, colonialism has also touched much of Africa’s history and culture especially in recent years.
Throughout history, Africa has been a vulnerable player in the eyes of the rest of the world. From the slave trade to various civil right injustices that have taken place over in every century, from what we have studied in this class, we have been able to see the lasting impact on the continent as a ramification of certain events occurring. Using various sources from the text, which serve as evidence, and help prove how the western world exercised its power in order to capitalize on the African continent and exploit the African people and land.