Driving Forces of European Imperialism in Africa

Africa, a nation is rich in natural beauty, natural resources, and oil. It’s home to 1.2 billion people in 2017. But the effects of European imperialism in the late 1870s can be seen today, in the present day. But what were some of the driving forces of Europe imperialism in Africa? The driving force of European Imperialism in Africa Attributes to the resources, power, and national Darwinism/nationality. As the article, “Effect of Colonialism on Africa’s Past and Present” It brings up a quote from Edem Kodjo, author of the book, Africa’s Tomorrow.

The article states, “the book describes the condition of Africa Has, ‘torn away from his past, propelled into a universe fashioned from outside that suppresses his values, and dumbfounded by a cultural invasion that marginalizes him. The African,… is today the deformed image of others.'”

Europeans saw that Africa had many natural resources, and in the need/desire for the resources, Europe went to imperialise Africa(as shown on the chart to the right). In the article, “What was the driving force behind European imperialism in Africa,” stated, between 1500 and 1800, Europeans slavery and traders didn’t venture far from Africa coast.” This was because of the incurable disease at the time, Malaria. And even during that time, imperializing or even having colonies was the main motive for Europe. It wasn’t until after the banning of taking African people to become slaves, only then did that get, “Europe’s interest in Africa was Exploration.” This later lead Europeans to notice that Africa had a large number of natural resources that could be taken from Africa to make money. These events lead to the ‘Scramble for Africa’. But since the European countries did not want war amongst each other, they held the ‘Berlin Conference,’ from 1884-1885. (The table above shows a few examples of what European countries got). The European nations took Africa and divided up into pieces for themselves. Inviting everyone they who wanted Africa.Except for those from Africa. Thus the imperialization of Africa began. Countries of Europe were now taking Africa for themselves. With this came new technologies to help gather more of the resources faster and doom the once self-sufficient Africa.

As a result of the Scramble for Africa, many European nations saw that they could become more powerful than their surrounding nations. The want for power is a driving force of the European Imperialization in Africa. As the nations took Africa’s resources and sold it, many nations saw it as a way to gain power over their neighboring nations. Not only would they have power in Africa and their own countries but they would have power over their neighbors. The more they would take out of Africa, the more they could sell to countries in Europe, which will start relying on them for that special source. In document B, we are given two poems or literature that talks from the British and Germans view. They both state the word ‘power.’ From the English perspective, “their first aim is to be to advance the power of England by land and by sea.” and we later see from the German perspective, they, “wish to prove and maintain its newly won position of power for a long time,” The countries are willing to show that they are more powerful, more advanced, than the other nations. To do this, they must take as much as they can from Africa. The lust for Power has driven them to steal from Africa.

With the want of power from resources, the European imperialism quickly leads the nations to Nationality or Darwinism. Dictonary.com defines Darwinism as, “the Darwinian theory that species originate by descent, with variation, from parent forms, through the natural selection of those individuals best adapted for the reproductive success of their kind.” In other words, the idea of people being better than everyone else for the reason that they got better traits than everyone. Everyone wanted their country to be the best which drove everyone to take more from Africano matter the cost. In document D we see what county’s got what and how this could affect their economies and others, including Africa. As the other countries bring themselves up, to outdo each other, they bring down Africa.

Many may say that the want for power, resources or the idea of nationalism wasn’t really a driving force for European Imperialism. It was the technology that was brought from the industrial revolution. But they got the concept mixed up I’m afraid. They had weapons and technology before imperializing Africa, but only when they started to ‘explore’ and colonize that they were lead to more advanced technology. The technology wasn’t much of a driving force for European Imperialism but helped the driving forces.

The three main driving forces of the European imperialism were power, resources, and Darwinism. It leads many of the nations to divide Africa for its resources, then to later gain power over each other and prove their better than each other. The effects of imperialism still have its impact on Africa to this day. All starting with the human wants of power, huge amounts of resource and nationalism.

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