By the 15th century, Western Europe was in a position to dominate Africa and the Americas economically and militarily. It is a fallacy that it was due to inferior African and American genetics and culture. I will explain you the many reasons for the difference in development levels and trajectories between Europe an Africa/the Americans around 1400 A.D.
The main reason for this difference in development levels is due to population density and I will explain why. In those times, high population density meant that vacant land was limited, thus making it very valuable, and sparking aggressive competition for it. Low population density means that land is available to everyone and not very valuable.
Herbst, in his book “State and Power in Africa”
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African countries have coasts, forests, desert, and a lot of arid land. It was too costly to develop models of control for each type of regions. Long distance transportation was an issue as well. There were few shorelines and river transportation was hard, especially because of rapids and seasonal shallows (Herbst, 2014). Overland travel was very difficult due to lack of good roads. For African states, the natural boundaries hindered trade, which means they didn’t have access to knowledge and technology like Europeans did. This provided an edge to European nations in …show more content…
The urban cities provided an impact on state formation due to trade with rural regions (Herbst, 2014). Such cities served as the principal point of collection and distribution of capital. Rulers raised funds by collecting customs and excise taxes. The urban cities shaped the states because the ruling classes imposed their influence through territories in the vicinity and across trading networks (Herbst, 2014).
In contrast, African leaders didn’t find it worth to expand their power far away from their capitals because it was too costly. Power was fragmented and decentralized. According to Herbst “even royal villages moved periodically as soil become exhausted or building deteriorated or as bad fortune indicated that the old site had lost its virtue” (p. 15).
Since land was too valuable for European states, they invested resources to build forts in their frontiers for protection. They saw the need to build such infrastructures even though they were likely to lose it in war. This helped consolidate their state power by protecting their land from external threats. The forts also served as principal points of control for their territory. Similarly, the Inca and Aztec empires built fortified cities to control their territories. There is some research that shows some North American tribes along the Mississippi river also had fortified cities for defensive and control purposes (Chacon
Diamond wrote this book to answer the question of a New Guinean politician, Yali. He asked “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own.” Diamond set out to find the answer to this question, to find out why history unfolded like it did. Diamond credits the inequalities in history to differences in environments not biological differences as so many people like to say. Most of the advantages the Europeans had were a direct result of geography. The main points that Diamond attributes to European dominance are early plant and animal domestication and as a result of close contact to animals the deadliest germs were given to the Europeans. As result of its East-West axis the diffusion of food production, technologies, humans and ideas were easily spread throughout Europe. The axis mean that there were similar climatic, geographic, and disease conditions to migrants and no barriers. So anything that could be grown in one area was sure to quickly spread and thrive in the neighboring locations. Moreover, political administration, economic exchanges, incentive for exploration and conquest, and making information available to every individual were facilitated after the development of writing.
steel and it was seen as one of the greatest colonial powers, thus allowing it to gain
New Imperialism began in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and was a time when European powers began to pursue a structured (more formal) political control over other areas. Yet it is important to keep in mind that informal empires tend to have an expiration date. As time progresses, history shows us that one of the parties involved will start pushing for change, whether that change is for power or independence is based on the side that provoked the change. In this case, the party that pushed for change was the superior one. The push for power was motivated by greed and an overwhelming desire to control every aspect of valuable foreign areas. One of the biggest moments in the history of colonization was the ‘Scramble for Africa’, as historians (and Professor Hopkins) refer to it as. As slaves were the biggest resource of the time, the banning of slave trade in Africa in the early nineteenth century caused European disinterest in continent that they were once heavily dependent on. Although there were localized replacements, like ivory trading, they were not as effective in keeping Europe’s interest. As a result, Africa was desperate to be relevant again, their economy depended on it. Because of the ban on the slave trade, there was a sudden demographic collapse of middle aged persons, which was also counterproductive to the growth of the continent. Before the scramble, Africa was naturally
The African empires, kingdoms, and cities had many achievements before the arrival of the Europeans. Some of these achievements had influences many other places in the world. Three major achievements were the trading systems, their military forces and strengths of its people, and the wealth and success.
Africa is a land of riches like no other, so as expected, European countries would have some sort of desire to conquer properties in whatever way they did. As stated in African Colonies and their Exports Chart, countless of natural resources are found in different areas in Africa. Not only does the data show plenty of resources, but also a variety (Doc D). This confirms that Africa is a wealthy land that Europeans grew fond of and hoped to take over. Specified in Imports and Exports Graph, following the 1900’s, after the conference to divide up Africa was held, Britain decided to use Africa’s natural resources and specialize in many industries. The imports doubled from 4 million pounds, while the exports boosted from 2.5 million all the way to 21 million pounds (Doc. E). With this lucrative increase in trading and selling, it is fair to conclude that not only were resources a factor of beginning imperialism in Africa, but also a successful result.
In conclusion, during the 15th and 16th centuries Europeans visited the Atlantic Coast in the African states to observe for gold and silvers. They took advantage of the Africans to get their desires when the Africans acknowledged them to be equal which drove into Africa’s downfall.
Prior to the arrival of European traders, the continent of Africa had developed sophisticated society as it demonstrated its ability to maintain advanced civilizations, withhold three major empires, and gain wealth through trade. Although European traders did advance organized society in Africa, it would be false to say that prior to their arrival Africa was underdeveloped.
The American colonist of the seventeenth century were primarily which white european men who moved to the America’s to increase family wealth by owning large plantations that were used for farming. These farms were humongous, these lands needed to be worked on a daily to produce profit for the owner. American colonist throughout the years realized that indentured servants at the beginning seemed to be a good way where both the servant and plantation owner could be happy with the outcome. Plantation owner would sign a contract with the servant and the servant would pay off his journey from Africa and jain a reward at the end either with land or supplies. Ater the years many laws were passed among other colonies that really hurt the few freedoms some of these black individuals had. The seventh century was not what the twenty first century was were people of all colors were
One of the main reasons Europeans colonized Africa was for their useful resources. There are countless assets in the African landscape that were wanted by other nations. The European countries had access to some of the worlds most needed resources such as cotton, oils, coal, gold, and diamonds because they controlled Africa. This is shown on a chart of African colonies and their exports. ("Selected African Colonies and Their Exports" 269). This shows how the European countries carefully selected the land they did, to get certain resources they needed or wanted to use to benefit from. Another chart from a book by Trevor Lloyd, (Lloyd, The British Empire), displays the large jump of exports to Africa from 1854 to 1900. What that means is once Great Britain established complete control of South Saharan Africa, they began to export the resources they found that they could use. These charts are proof of how the European's wanted resources, and that is one of the main reasons for the imperialization of Africa. Not only did the European nations want the continent's resources, but they had an equal hunger for power.
In Africa, there were achievements in the empires or kingdoms and their cities before the Europeans arrived and took control. In the Kingdom (Empire) of Axum they developed a trade route. In the Kingdom of Ghana they had characteristics of powerful nations today. In the city of Timbuktu they had great morals and developed the center of Islamic Art. There are many other things that Africa achieved in.
In From Slavery to Freedom (2007), it was said that “the transition from slavery to freedom represents one of the major themes in the history of African Diaspora in the Americas” (para. 1). African American history plays an important role in American history not only because the Civil Rights Movement, but because of the strength and courage of Afro-Americans struggling to live a good life in America. Afro-Americans have been present in this country since the early 1600’s, and have been making history since. We as Americans have studied American history all throughout school, and took one Month out of the year to studied African American history. Of course we learn some things about the important people and events in African American history, but some of the most important things remain untold which will take more than a month to learn about.
Problems began for Africa when there was the “scramble for Africa. Africa was extremely divided throughout the continent. There was no nation intact. Even though they were divided into colonies, they still had no sovereignty. Since they had no form of nationalism it made it impossible to succeed as a nation. This really hurt Africa economically. If they would have been able to come together as a nation they could have pulled all of their assets together and exploit them in order to make money. By not doing this it allowed the government to exploit the people. This is why there are starving people in Africa on television. The states of Africa were created in order to make money by exporting all the various resources, whether it was slaves, minerals, or agriculture. There was much to gain by owning a chunk of land in Africa. This reason being because Africa is so rich in their resources for trade. After the race was over it left Africa severely divided.
After the initial conquest of Mexico and South America it was time to develop the
countryside and follow the jobs, which led them to move to the cities. Economics weren't the
Military architecture like castles and forts were built for mainly defence. They helped defend the region by having a place to watch over the land to see if any tribes or Vikings were invading. This protected the land and therefore the people were more prepared for