Europeans and Africans have always had some form of interaction mainly through trade, at the time Africans either traded goods or their own people. This lead to Europeans establishing trading post all over Africa, such as El Mina where they traded slaves all around the world. The Europeans became greedy and wanted not only slaves, but Africa’s natural resources. They began to battle over land, Africans did not have the weaponry to win these battles. This helped Europe to increase in land and power throughout Africa. They began to illegally divide the land, throughout Africa in the early 1800s, it was not till the Berlin conference that Africa was legally divided. This was the known as the Scramble for Africa, presented by King Leopold, who convinced them that by dividing land they would help Africa. He promised to promote philanthropy, end Arab slave trade, free trade and increase scientific enterprises. By 1905 most of Africa was under European rule except Ethiopia and Liberia. Europeans managed to suppress the early efforts by most Africans to resist the establishment of colonial rule.
The rise of African resistance towards colonial rule came around the close of World War II, although there were many different reasons and forms of resistance it eventually lead to the decolonization of Africa. Around this time national parties began to resurface, to put forth efforts to create peaceful tactics to end the colonial rule. Europeans never took them seriously because of the methods they used, one of these organizations would be the African National Congress (ANC), who believed in nonviolence resistances. In 1952, the ANC formed a peaceful protest called the "Defiance Campaign" this was to fight the injustice laws of forced segregat...
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...viduals without evidence and without providing a trial. Nelson Mandela leader of the ANC was one of these individuals who was arrested, Mandela pleaded guilty but explained that it was the only way to get the governments attention, he and his colleagues were given a full sentence. Although released from prison twenty seven years later, it did not necessarily mean he had his freedom.
It took over one hundred years for Africans to reclaim the continent that was stolen and occupied from European imperial powers that were pushed by greed. It was a major step in the year 1994 when Nelson Mandela became the first president of an independent South Africa. For many years they had to fight for equality and justice in their own homeland. In the year 2000 Africa was recognized as a continent full of independent nations, and were self-ruled by their own indigenous people.
Nationalistic ideas made European countries want to take action in the colonization of Africa. In Document B, the English John Ruskin says, “…seizing every piece of fruitful waste ground she can set her foot on, and there teaching these her colonists … that their first aim is to be to advance the power of England by land and by sea.” This quote shows how the Europeans were proud of their countries and wanted to spread their territories in order to be the best. It can be seen in Document A how the Europeans had already colonized a lot of Africa by the 20th century, with seven countries holding territories by 1914. The idea of nationalism helped push European countries into colonizing Africa, which led to more land for resources and ultimately helped Europe economically.
During the late 19th century and the early 20th century many of the European nations began their scramble for Africa which caused Many Africans to suffer from violence like wars, slavery and inequality. Although the Europeans felt power as though they were doing a great cause in the African continent during the Scramble for Africa; Africans had many reactions and actions including factors as rebellion for freedom, against the white settlers and violent resistance.
By 1885, little to no independent countries existed throughtout the whole African continent. This was due to the imperialism done by strong European countries. Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, and Spain are to blame. There are many possible contributing factors as to why the European countries decided to completely carve up Africa, split it up, imperialize the whole of the continent. Because of the need for resources Africa could supply, the European desire for power, and the European's reaction to the White Man's burden, they took control of almost every square mile in Africa through imperialization.
Prior to the 19th century, the Europeans traded mainly for African slaves. It turns out they were not immune towards certain diseases and therefore had an increasing risk of becoming sick. For years to come this continued, but not much land was conquered. Eventually, conference between only the Europeans was held to divide up the land appropriately, and the scramble for Africa began. The driving forces behind European imperialism in Africa were expanding empires, helping natives, and natural resources.
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.
How the Apartheid fell was a chain link of events. The early stages of the demise began around the early 1900s when new laws were placed out and riots broke out in the streets. When the Apartheid outlawed and banned the African National Congress (ANC) as well as sent many of its leaders to prison by convicting them of treason, including Nelson Mandela, the black community of South Africa were outraged. After the ban was placed out, the remaining anti-Apartheid fled to other surrounding independent African countries including Nambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. There, they continued to set up camps and fight the Apartheid. Back in South Africa, protesting increased during the middle years of the apartheid after Nelson Mandela is imprisoned again after being suspected to heave being involved in a bombing. This time he is imprisoned for life.
I define decolonization in South Africa as the process of a relative majority acquiring independence from a previously more powerful minority, whether that minority is an outside colonizing power or a small group of people living within the colonial society: in the first phase of decolonization, the Afrikaners gained independence from the minority British ruling elite; in the second phase of decolonization, the black South African majority gained independence from the Afrikaner minority. Due to the complex colonial situation in South Africa, black natives suffered greatly from their encounter with European settlers and Afrikaners. As opposed to many African states that did not have large white populations, the struggles of black South Africans were exacerbated by pseudo-scientific racism stemming from a heavy white presence, which led to apartheid politics, constrained the daily lives of the black population, placed epidemic diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis under racial terms, and made economic prosperity unattainable. The legacies of apartheid politics continued after the second post-colonial phase, and black South Africans today still suffer
The definition of decolonization differs from person to person, from nation to nation, and from past experience to past experience. In my opinion decolonization is a thought out active resistance of colonial forces with a goal of eventually obtaining indigenous liberation. Colonialism has brought forth many problems with it. As more time passes the problems keep getting worse. Problems such as crimes being committed on Natives and loss of tradition.
The age of the Cold War impacted decolonization either positively or negatively. But, most evidence suggests that it was affected negatively. The age of the Cold War lasted from 1949 to 1989. There were many examples from each country of how decolonization took place. Decolonization took place from 1945-1980, during a thirty-five-year period after World War II, when the European empires in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific gradually came apart as the former colonies became independent nations. (Map of Decolonization pg 855).
"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.
The Scramble for Africa was a period of time where major European countries fought over and colonized land in Africa, stretching from South Africa to Egypt. The scramble for Africa began shortly after the slave trade, and ended at WW1, and is a strong representation of the ‘New Imperialism’. The first country to act was Belgium, who colonized Congo at 1885, but soon, other countries such as Portugal and Great Britain joined in in order to not miss out. Firstly, the European could not colonize Africa easily, due to Africa’s giant land mass and the diseases that spread throughout the land. But then, came the Steam train, Maxim guns and new cures for diseases that paved the way for the Europeans to control Africa. Since one of the reasons Europeans wanted to colonize Africa was that they wanted to ‘civilize’ the people, the leader of Germany, Otto Von Bismarck, decide that they have a conference to split the land and not fight each other. Soon, in 1914, nearly all African countries were colonized by Europeans except for Ethiopia and Liberia. Different countries had different styles of colonization. For example, France was less eager to let the African chiefs take control of their colonies than Britain, who set up a African Government to their colonies. Basically, the scramble for Africa was a period of time when European countries colonized Africa.
For years, the struggle for civil rights within the black community was considered one of the most challenging social movements in the United States, with a main goal being to end racial segregation and discrimination. Many would argue that this movement would not have been possible without the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) members. In an attempt to try to limit the voice of these powerful leaders, they were sentenced to jail in the year of 1962 for acts of sabotage. This further leads to the question, to what extent was the South African Government successful in limiting the influence of the ANC. While the ANC leaders were faced with the struggle of their imprisonment, it is evident through their followers, news articles,
The process of decolonization in Africa during the 1950’s through the 1970’s was a very smart yet risky idea. For some places independence was easily gained yet in other areas it was a battle. During the time periods where colonization existed, Africa was peaceful and kept things in order. People had control over their specific locations and there were no questions to be asked. Once it was decided to remove these rights, things got out of hand rather quickly. Violence was a main occurrence during the decolonization timeframe because rules, rights, leaderships, etc. got altered and drastically changed. Sometimes nonviolence was used but it usually wasn’t as effective. A major example of using nonviolence actions to gain independence is when Gandhi protested in India. African leaders have tried very hard to lessen the influence of Western powers and the broader international community but they’ve never been completely successful because they continuously needed support in state building, economic development, and public health initiatives.
During the 19th century, Europe found a way to use Africa for its 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. As the Europeans started to invade Africa and split up the land, they paid no attention to the already existing natural boundaries. Over time, villages with different cultures had set these boundaries.
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.