New Imperialism In Africa Essay

Explain the Motivations Underlying New Imperialism in Africa

Camy

European Imperialism has occurred for many centuries. It started around the 1500s until the 1800s. This period was called Old Imperialism. During this time, European established colonies along the African coastal line. These colonies were used to trade for goods and slaves with the African tribes during the Atlantic Slave Trade. At the time, European technology was not advanced enough to fully conquer a continent. Then the Industrial Revolution (1760s-1840s) came and drastically changed Europe into a more technologically advanced continent. These technological advances gave Europe the power as well as the need to invade Africa, whose empires had been weakened by the slave trade

and war (doc 4). In 1885, in order to avoid war between themselves, the European nations met in Berlin to discuss which nation gets certain parts of Africa. There were multiple reasons as to why Europe decided to conquer Africa, but the three most important were that Europe’s growing economy required more resources to produce their goods and the production machines, Europe needed access to the Far East through water routes, and Europe needed more markets, and people, to trade their goods with.

Europe’s primary reason for New Imperialism was because of their need for resources.

The Industrial Revolution brought along many new inventions that made producing goods much easier and at a faster rate. The problem with the faster production of goods was that they used resources at a much faster rate as well. Therefore, Europe needed a better way to get resources out of Africa rather than trading with the Africans. The solution was to conquer a territory in Africa. By doing this, Europeans were able to employ the Africans at a very low cost, which allowed them to take resources out of Africa much faster than before and at a cheaper cost. In the book, “The Challenge for Africa” by Wangari Maathai, Maathai states that “The European powers were seeking to establish not merely outposts… but also new sources for the raw material they needed to expand their industrial economies” (doc 5). This turned out to be extremely beneficial for the Europeans because their economies began to dramatically increase over the years following New

Imperialism.

Europe’s second reason to Imperialize Africa was in order to transport their goods to the Far East.

This was especially important for England who traded a lot with China and India. England was fortunate enough to acquire Egypt and the Suez Canal, which was part of the fastest route to the Far East. Transportation also played a role in why the European nations chose to conquer certain parts of Africa. For example, if you look at the map in document 2 you can see that every European nation acquired land that either bordered an ocean or contained a river leading to an ocean. Transportation was very important because the Europeans needed a quick way to export resources from Africa and at the time ships were the fastest form of transportation. Water transportation was so vital to the Europeans that in the Berlin Act there was a clause that gave “all [European] nations the advantages of free navigation of the two chief rivers of Africa flowing into the Atlantic Ocean” (doc 1). Having colonies on the coast of Africa allowed the Europeans closer access to the Far East, which made it even easier to trade in the Far

East.

The third reason for African Imperialism was Europe’s need for new markets. With the increase in Europe’s production of goods came a need for new markets to sell their goods in. The European’s felt that when they conquered the Africans, they could use their resources to produced goods that could be sold back in Africa. Cecil Rhodes, a British Imperialist, was quoted on saying, “The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories” (doc 3). What Rhodes meant by this was that the European’s first and largest market was in the mother country. However, whatever wasn’t bought in the mother country could then be shipped to the African colonies to be bought there. This improved Europe’s economy greatly because it gave them markets in Asia, Africa, and in their mother countries.

In conclusion, the European countries had many economic needs that had to be resolved after the Industrial Revolution. The best solution to these needs was by conquering Africa. By conquering Africa, the Europeans were able to attain more resources for their goods, which they were able to transport using the rivers and oceans in and around Africa while also gaining new markets for trade. Even though we know that these actions caused present day African countries to become “third-world countries”, at the time, the Europeans thought that they were helping the Africans, as it was part of their white man’s burden. “The White Man’s Burden”, written by the English poet Rudyard Kipling, spoke about how it was the white man’s burden to helped the less developed countries. He writes, “Take up the White Man's burden. Send forth the best ye breed… Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease” (doc 6). The European’s did help the African’s by improving their technology and giving the Africans jobs, but they also took advantage of the Africans by forcing them to produce “cash crops” and forcing them into their western culture. New Imperialism in Africa allowed the Europeans to prosper at the expense of the African colonies, which is why Europe is far more developed and successful than the struggling African countries.