The unbalanced relationship between Africa’s resources and European and American financial interest can first be analyzed from 1600 to 1860 leading up to the emancipation proclamation. This era was characterized by Africans giving up their human capital, or human resources in the form of slaves to European’s to trade over to the Americas to support the plantation economy. This was the largest loss of humans for Africa as they sent millions through the slave trade. Many Europeans, such as the Dutch West Indian Company and the Royal African Company, made an enormous amount of money running the slave trade while African’s got little to nothing in return. American’s profited by having free labor for a one time fixed payment to acquire the slaves. This fueled the plantation economy in which Americans deepened their pockets leading up to the civil war. Overall, this relationship heavily favored the westerners and caused Africa to lose a great deal of human resources. The next time period in which the unbalanced relationship between Africa’s resources and European and American financial interest can be shown though is from 1884 – to the late 1950s/early 1960s. This period was started by the Berlin Conference and ended with the civil rights movement and African countries’ independence movements. The Berlin Conference started a period of European colonization in Africa where European countries got together to “chop” up Africa with no consideration for cultural lines. The division of African countries effectively ended any potential conflicts and Europe that would be caused because of colonization clashes between countries, so this also effectively benefitted Europeans. But what was wrong is that Europeans took over and formed these new co... ... middle of paper ... ... at which they can grow as a society. Also, in all instances, the consumers (western consumers) have turned their heads and allowed this type of activity and exploitation to continue. From 1600 – 1860, the consumer’s could have rejected slavery as a source of labor. During the next era, we could have chosen to receive our natural resources from non-colonized areas, or even pay a premium for such products to support the native workers. And in today’s society, as Awon as stated in class, we as consumer’s vote with our dollars. It is up to us to choose which multinational corporations to support with our dollars. If consumers choose to not support coffee shops until they offer fair trade coffee beans, then they will listen or else they will go out of business. It is up to scholars like us who are aware of this blatant exploitation to make a difference in our society.
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.
Though the Atlantic Slave Trade began in 1441, it wasn’t until nearly a century later that Europeans actually became interested in slave trading on the West African coast. “With no interest in conquering the interior, they concentrated their efforts to obtain human cargo along the West African coast. During the 1590s, the Dutch challenged the Portuguese monopoly to become the main slave trading nation (“Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade”, NA). Besides the trading of slaves, it was also during this time that political changes were being made. The Europe...
After the discovery of the new continent, the colonists brought the black men from Africa to America, driving them to work in order to earn a fortune. In that society, slaves were subject to their owners like property and so exploited that they did not possess any...
Every year, more and more money is donated to Africa to promote democracy in order to get rid of the powerful coups in many countries through out the continent. While the coups are declining and democratic governments are being established, the economic growth and development of Africa is not anywhere it should be considering the abundant natural resources and coastline that the continent possesses. Even though countries, like the United States of America, donate millions of dollars they are a large reason why Africa is underdeveloped economically. The Trans-Atlantic Slave trade is the most devastating event in the history of the world. Nearly 14,000,000 men, women, and children were displaced, sold into slavery, and killed by the trade routes.(
“In the history of the Atlantic slave trade, the French turned four times as many Africans into slaves as the Americans did, they continued the slave trade -- legally -- until 1830, long after the rest of Europe had given it up” (“French Slavery”). The negatives and positives of slave trade come to a stalemate because slave trade both increased the economies of France and Britain, while undermining the human work force. As slave trade began to be questioned by morality, France became the dominant slave trade power. While European political leaders encouraged the colonization of Africa in order to collect cheap labor to compete with neighboring countries, British and French societies suffered from internal disputes, leading to the termination of slave trade in Europe.
The Triangular Trade was the fundamental foundation of many economic and social developments of this nation. However, this historical turning point in America’s history did not develop overnight. In Africa, the practice of enslavement had been occurring internally for centuries, but as the Triangular Trade developed between the Old World and New World, the slave labor system transformed and began to become an integral part of many nation’s economic systems. As the demand for agricultural products, such as tobacco and sugar, increased, the Atlantic Slave Trade also expanded as the need for laborers proliferated. Thus, the Triangular Trade was the building blocks of the United States, economically affected the world, and ultimately impacted racial
Du Bois in his essay, “Andromeda” he asks two rhetorical questions: “Does the world need Africa? Does Africa need the world?” (Andromeda 144). If we think about the evolvement of America, we cannot forget that America was mainly built on Africa and its riches. It grew into a mere stopping place between Europe and Asia and even a treasure house of gold and diamonds. America developed through African labor; the center of the sugar empire and the cotton kingdom. It became an integral part of the world industry and trade, which caused the Industrial Revolution and the reign of capitalism. The world has always needed Africa in order to gain power and expand their country.
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.
... The Economic History Review, by Behrendt, Stephen D. David Eltis, David Richardson that stated, “…second impact of Africans that goes beyond violence on slave ships followed from the natural Africans assumption of equal status in the trading relationship…came in the wake of holding Europeans…”(Source 9). The result of considering the equal status between the Africans and the Europeans from Africa’s point of view was the Atlantic slave trade which millions of African people’s live had been jeopardized and their fate had been seal to work in the fields for the rest of their lives.
With Europe in control, “the policies of the governing powers redirected all African trade to the international export market. Thus today, there is little in the way of inter-African trade, and the pattern of economic dependence continues.” Europeans exported most of the resources in Africa cheaply and sold them costly, which benefited them, but many Africans worked overtime and were not treated with care.
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.
Some of the effects of slavery in America were positive, but almost all of slavery’s impact in Africa was harmful. One major change in the areas that slaves were exported from is shown in demographics. Thousands of males were taken from their families and communities, and the tribes were expected to survive without many of their local leaders or role models. Not only did local tribes in Africa have hardships, but the leadership in many of the countries’ governments weren’t stable. The cruel trade demonstrated “how the external demand for slaves caused political instability, weakened states, promoted political and social fragmentation, and resulted in a deterioration of domestic legal institutions” (Nunn) in Africa. In addition to the crumbling political aspects of the tribes, there were cultural and native conflicts. Many wars and disagreements occurred, and those conflicts significantly slowed down development and economic growth in African countries
This class was filled with riveting topics that all had positive and negative impacts on Africa. As in most of the world, slavery, or involuntary human servitude, was practiced across Africa from prehistoric times to the modern era (Wright, 2000). The transatlantic slave trade was beneficial for the Elite Africans that sold the slaves to the Western Europeans because their economy predominantly depended on it. However, this trade left a mark on Africans that no one will ever be able to erase. For many Africans, just remembering that their ancestors were once slaves to another human, is something humiliating and shameful.
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.
There are a lot of causes of the scramble for Africa, and one of them was to ‘liberate’ the slaves in Africa after the slave trade ended. The slave trade was a time during the age of colonization when the Europeans, American and African traded with each oth...