Leonardo Mueller

Impacts of Colonialism on Africa

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Essay

Impact of Colonialism on Africa

Africa had lots of impact through colonization. The ones who made the
most impact where the Europeans.At first, like all countries in development,
Africans did not wanted to be colonized. But Europeans were stronger and years
after, most of the African countries were colonized, except for Ethiopia and
Liberia.Europeans affected a lot of the economy on Africa, and some even say
that African economy would be better if Europeans did not colonized Africa. In
1885 Africa would be able to reap the benefits of introduction to railways , and
good mining technology, but they were colonised, and that meant that Africans
were bigger in the world trade market.But as a counter effect Europeans brought
some of the technology that made Africans grow in the market.
Colonialism retarded the development of the country.A very important
reason is that Europe was getting bigger in the market. But Africa was getting
nothing, and Europeans were just using Africa as a trading point, and Africa
getting nothing with it.The Ottoman Empire blocked European access to markets
in the East, they controlled the trade routes in the East. One main reason that
Europeans were looking for new routes was because of the high taxes they
needed to pay. Rulers of every country between India and Europe where
charging taxes on the spice shipments. Spice was very important in that time
because there was no fridge, so the spices would be the thing that kept food for

longer time , and also gave some taste to the food, because food had no taste at
all. Some main spices where salt, nutmeg, and cloves. In the fifteenth century
portuguese started exploring the west coast of Africa.In Africa they stabilished
trading stations. The first things they began to trade where gold and
slaves.Bartholomeu Dias was the first European to sail in the southern tip of
Africa. At first Portugal and Spain where more interested in trading then setting
colonies. In the colonial time africans had no leadership. 53 states were created
in the colonial time, but they were not created by Africans leaders. The Africans
always had the thought of they could achieve nothing, and that was horrible for
the development of the country. So the Europeans started to take over. With the
Europeans taking over the old political rules where not more rules, they did not
existed anymore. There was also the scramble for Africa. The scramble for Africa
was when the powerful Europe countries started to colonize Africa. Europe
colonized Africa because European countries could not colonize other european
country because all of them where pretty powerful. The start of the industrial
revolution was one of the reasons that Europe colonized Africa. In Africa they had
all they needed to produce. Those products are Gold, Copper, and Rubber. Africa
was really rich on this and they had a high quantity of it, so they could produce
for the whole world. Africa also had lots slaves, who were really crucial in that
time. The Europeans believed they where culturally superior, so they decided to
com together to colonize Africa. This was the Berlin conference. The Berlin
Conference gathered 7 very important and strong European countries all

together in a conference with the idea to colonize Africa. Africa suffered a lot of
colonization impact.