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Impacts of imperialism worldwide
Imperialism and its impact
Impacts of imperialism worldwide
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In the nineteenth century, Europe finally exerted dominance over Africa, after 300 years of trying to do just that. Their eventual success was mainly due to technological advancements that the Africans didn’t have at the time. The major European powers (Great Britain, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, and France) had many reasons for imperializing the African continent including: economic, political, and technological factors which all contribute to a country’s success. Some people would argue that Europeans took over Africa to improve African quality of life. However, it is clear that the main driving force behind European imperialism in Africa was the fact that Africa was rich in valuable resources. By tapping into this sort of wealth, Europeans were able to consolidate even greater power and prosperity.
Europeans were mainly driven to imperialize in Africa due to its abundant and valuable natural resources. According to the chart from Document D, many countries in Africa had many useful resources that, if exploited, would increase the wealth of Europe. For example, Rhodesia
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Imperialism, when a country takes over another colony beyond its borders, caused many positive and negative effects on Africa. Some positives include the push to end slavery, introduction to education, medicine, and technology, and improved infrastructure. Negative effects include mass deaths, robbing of raw materials, exploitation of labor, and prevention from industrializing or gaining civil service. Today, Africa is struggling as a whole due to what happened about 200 years ago. Many states are landlocked, blocked from traditional migration routes and trade routes, and contains mixed, diverse cultures. Overall, imperialism of European countries was a negative event in African history. It plays a big part in how successful and structured Africa is
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.
Conquest and colonization has always played a role in the history of European powers. Throughout the centuries many different European empires have attempted to make their mark on multiple different continents. Some have found success, while others have failed. One case in particular, in which European nations could not quite find stability, was in North America. Factors such as the American Revolution, U.S. westward expansion, and the Monroe Doctrine pushed European nations out of North America. Afterwards, the late 19th century marked the beginning of New Imperialism. As New Imperialism began, Africa became important to European nations in their “Scramble for Africa”.
Throughout the 19th century, European Imperialism had a major effect on Africa. As countries expanded in terms of wealth, resources, and innovation, more territory and workers were needed. The first solution to solve these problems was to begin colonizing in Africa. The driving force for imperialism in Europe and Africa was mainly economical. This economical approach was established through many ways including cultural and nationalistic ideas.
Introduction: The epoch of imperialism cannot be defined simply as a proliferation of inflated egos tied to the hardened opinions of nationalists, but also a multi-faceted global rivalry with roots of philosophies tainted with racism and social Darwinism. The technique of each imperialist was specific to the motivations and desires of each combative, predominantly Western power and subsequently impacted the success of each imperialist and its colonies. Driven by industrialization, Europeans are aware of the urgent need for raw materials and new markets to maintain a constant rate of expansion and wealth. Imperialism became a competition; in general, the European countries led with fervor while the non-Western regions deemed likely to be stepped on.
Throughout the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, almost every country in Africa was imperialized by other countries in Europe. To imperialize is to conquer another country, whether it be in the means of politics, economics and/or culture, and control that land. The aftermath for the imperialized country was either beneficial or harmful. The amount of African countries that a European country imperialized varied. Great Britain imperialized fifteen countries in Africa, including Egypt in 1882, Sierra Leone in 1808, and the Union of South Africa in 1910. Although Great Britain’s reasons to imperialize were selfish, Britain helped each country progress afterwards.
In conclusion, the motives concerning imperialism in Africa are a matter of expanding empires, helping natives, and natural resources. Europeans countries constantly tried to compete with their neighbors in fair ways to become the most dominating country. Just as much as they took possession of Africa, their will was also to assist Africa on their right path and put an end to any dilemmas they may be
A true saying is “Colonization often does more damage than contribution.” Colonialism encouraged Africa’s development in some areas, but in many others it severely damaged the natural progress of the continent. If colonialism was never imposed on Africa, Africa’s developments would be significantly different and many of the problems that the continent faces now would not exist today. In conclusion, at first it seems that colonialism has both positive and negative effects, but the truth is it only damages the colonized nation.
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.
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.
Source one states, “Impact of colonization: Negative一... Breakdown of tradition.” Africa was no longer able to keep all of their traditions, therefore changing their culture into someone else’s. Africa has kept much of its culture, but because of imperialism much of it has also been lost. Source four states, “Partly as a result of their origins in military conquest and partly because of the racist ideology of the imperialist enterprise, the colonial states were authoritarian, bureaucratic systems,” (Paragraph 13).
Often imperialism is criticized for the exploitation of foreign markets. While it is true that this exploitation of raw materials and foreign markets had a negative impact on the native culture, especially in Africa, its impact on the world had far more positive effects. For example, in 1900 the world population was roughly 1.650 billion people. Africa made up around 8.1% of the world population, and Europe made up roughly 24.7%. Just in te...
Throughout history, imperialism has led countries to extend their rule over weaker countries and then colonized those countries to expand their own power. Imperialism allows the ruling countries to use the weaker countries for their resources. Colonizing other countries would then lead to growth and a better reputation for the dominating country. There are many examples of imperialism throughout European history. When many European countries “scrambled” for Africa, it seemed as though Africa had no say in anything. During the 19th century, Europe found a way to use Africa for their own growth and power. Using Africa for their resources, the Europeans colonized Africa without a second thought. European imperialism in Africa had a negative impact because of social disarray, cultural loss, and death it caused.
For example, it led to the partitioning of several ethnicities across African states that were newly created, and partitioned ethnic groups suffered longer and more damaging civil wars. Some positive effects were that education in Africa improved, there was industrialization in Africa, and the enhancement of infrastructure such as sewage systems, railroads, and mail deliver. Unfortunately, the down side of it was Africa’s food and land started to become scarce, the Europeans were so fast to give them high taxes, and most importantly Africans began to felt inferior because they were brutally abused. There political systems are still held, but they were brought to the idea of a constitution and democracy. In addition, nationalism introduced social distinctions which led to racism following the brutal treatment of African laborers till this
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.