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Colonialism in Africa

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Colonialism in Africa
Ladonya Gatling
World Civilizations II
Mr. Mitchell
10:00-10:50 (MWF)
Colonialism in Africa
"Neither imperialism nor colonialism is a simple act of accumulation nor acquisition…
Out of imperialism, notions about culture were classified, reinforced, criticized or rejected” (BBC World Service). The nineteenth century saw massive changes in Africa. Some were driven by famine and disease (BBC World Service). Some changes were the result of the territorial ambitions of African rulers. As the century progressed alliances with merchants and missionaries from Europe began increasingly to have a bearing on how African leaders achieved their goals (BBC World Service).
At the beginning of the century, Europeans were still extremely ignorant of the continent. The systematic colonization of Africa, which gathered momentum in the 1880's, was not even on the horizon in the first half of the 19th century. Europeans had confined themselves to trading mainly along the coast. Inland the trade in slaves and commodities was handled by African and Arab merchants. With the British abolition of the slave trade in 1807, the British navy took to patrolling the coasts, intercepting other nation’s slave ships (BBC World Service). In the last two decades of the 19th century conflicts and rivalries in Europe began to affect people in Africa directly. In the 1880's European powers divided Africa up amongst themselves without the consent of people living there, and with limited knowledge of the land they had taken (Black State).
Due to the colonialism destruct totally Africa culture, this is that many African forgotten their culture and started to behave like Europeans (Black State). By the late 1800’s, some of the African continent did belong to European countries. Many Europeans viewed themselves as the most advanced civilization in the world, and some saw it as their mission to "enlighten" and "civilize" people in the rest of the world (Gan). This feeling of racial superiority and



Cited: BBC World Service. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section11.shtml>. Black State. <http://www.blackstate.com/africaonthebrink.html>. Gan, Duignan. Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960. Cambridge University Press, 1971. The Colonization of Modern Africa. <http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=23496>.

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