In the modern day, Africa is seen by the world around it as a relatively underprivileged continent. Since its independence from colonial rule, Africa 's economic performance has been less than stellar and its advancement has been slow, which could be argued through a myriad of different ideologies. Nathan Nunn, the author of “Historical Legacies: A model linking Africa’s past to its current underdevelopment” believes that the slave trade and colonial rule, brought on by the Europeans in the past, is the reason for Africa’s economic hardships, that are still lingering to this day. What he sets out to answer in this academic paper is an interesting question, “Why do these events, which ended years ago, continue to matter today?” Through the …show more content…
It wasn 't until religious missions began in Africa that it was able to begin to advance as a society, while starting to heal from these past events. According to Nunn, in his paper “Gender and Missionary Influence in Colonial Africa”, evidence shows that the presence of European missionaries was an important factor affecting economic development in many different all over the world, Africa being one of them. The paper examined the long-term impacts of Protestant and Catholic missionary activity during the colonial period on educational attainment, and Nunn provided evidence that Protestant missionary activity had a positive long-term impact on educational attainment in …show more content…
After years of hardships created by the slave trade and colonization, the mistrust continued and little advancement occurred, it wasn 't until religious missions began, where protestant and catholic missionaries came to Africa to educate that Africa saw progress. With education came about a more civilized society and economic advancement. Overall, both papers are detailed and intelligent. The mathematical aspect of each paper is very well done, and validates his findings in a way that simple explanation cannot do, although it was a little difficult to understand. He is able to complement the mathematical aspect with more of an analytical analysis, asking, and later answering, “Why do these events, which ended years ago, continue to matter today?” This question is an interesting one, and using what we learned in class furthered the ideas brought forth, giving an indepth and detailed answer to this
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 for a land grab in 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 economical, political, and socio–cultural, and there were countless attitudes towards this expansion into Africa, some of approval and some of condemnation.
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.
The book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe details the account of an African tribal named Okonkwo as his life goes from great to horrible. While this book has many lessons that can be learned, I will be primarily focusing on the effect that Christianity had on the population of the African tribe. While Christianity is a religion of peace, its followers often do not follow this basic tenant. The first missionary, Mr. Brown, practiced compromise and tolerance. His replacement, Mr. Smith, was much more aggressive in his tactics. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe shows through the characterization of Mr. Smith a shameful and harmful look at the spread of Christianity during the British empirical period.
Politics is the science that guides or influencing governmental policies. Politics plays important role in the daily life of everyone’s decision making all over history. The political leaders of Europe viewed the world as a stomping ground they took powers into their hand to take control over unconquered land. They believed that once they take over less advanced places they will be able to get richer by exploiting the uneducated and weaker people. According to an to an article from Africana Age called “The Colonization of Africa” by Ehiedu E. G. Iweriebor, “By 1900 much of Africa had been colonized by seven European powers—Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. After the conquest of African decentralized and centralized
From the 1800’s until the 1900’s colonialism was a major force in the world and every country has been affected by it in some way. Colonialism, the belief that a technologically advanced nation has the right to exploit the land, people, and resources of a less developed people (MHD), is the main reason behind the syncretistic or blended (MHD) religions of Africa. Originally, Africa had an animistic religious system, where everything was caused or linked to spirits, but during colonialism this changed. The colonial era brought Christianity to Africa and before long the standing religion syncretized, or blended (MHD), with Christian beliefs.
During the 19th and 20th century, Africa experienced various influences and manipulation from Western colonizers. Westerners emerged with strong intentions to destroy local traditions and establish a solid group of supporters who would accommodate their rule. Religion, being central to all African lives, was the first on the colonizers’ execution list. Evangelists and Missionaries arrived in Africa and infused with the local African community, appearing to be supportive and empathetic towards the natives. Gradually, Africans became brain-washed and started to fall for the cajolery that Westerners had plotted. However, eradicating the beliefs that were had been so deeply rooted in African culture for centuries were not an easy task. Although many radical Africans were tolerant towards the Westerners, conse...
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.
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 ...
...ions both in the past and the present and is one of the best explanations of present day African underdevelopment, showing the importance of a historical approach to understanding current affairs.
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.
There is no doubt that European colonialism has left a grave impact on Africa. Many of Africa’s current and recent issues can trace their roots back to the poor decisions made during the European colonial era. Some good has resulted however, like modern medicine, education, and infrastructure. Africa’s history and culture have also been transformed. It will take many years for the scars left by colonization to fade, but some things may never truly disappear. The fate of the continent may be unclear, but its past provides us with information on why the present is the way it is.
The high demand for slaves by the Western countries resulted in political instability, retarded economic growth, social fragmentation; families were destroyed when their heads were captured to be sold for slavery. The end result of all these was a state stricken with poverty due lack of a majority of the working population (Blaufarb & Clarke 34). The abduction of Africans for slavery purposes had an impact of depleting the population, thus economic underdevelopment. The trade naturally caused impoverishment of African states, thus a continued dependency of Africa on the European powers for grants and other financial aids. This unequal treatment of Africans, leading to capitalism and enrichment of the European countries, was escalated by the view that Africans were generally an inferior race to the whites. Colonialism also didn’t do any better in changing this premeditated
powerful regimes were formed in Europe and China, since there was flat land bounded by rivers