The Scramble for Africa

1. Impacts of Imperialism on Colonizing Powers

1.1. Berlin West African conference

1.1.1. The Principle of Notification (Notifying) other powers of a territorial annexation

1.1.1.1. The Berlin West African Conference established these rules without the input or consent from any native colonies

1.1.2. The Principle of Effective Occupation to validate the annexations

1.1.3. Freedom of Trade in the Congo Basin

1.1.4. Freedom of Navigation on the Niger and Congo Rivers

1.1.5. Freedom of Trade to all nations

1.1.6. Suppression of the Slave Trade by land and sea

1.2. Positive Impacts

1.2.1. Introduction of modern transportation and communication systems, such as telegraphs, railroads, and telephones; the introduction to European medicine and improved nutrition led to an increase of the African population

1.3. Negative Impacts

1.3.1. Africans were treated as inferior to Europeans; Europeans divided Africa and ignored the tribal, ethnic, and cultural boundaries of African people

2. European Motives

2.1. Economics

2.1.1. To expand their markets globally in order to sell products that they could not sell domestically on the continent

2.2. Military

2.2.1. Leading European nations also felt that colonies were crucial to military power, national security, and nationalism.

2.3. Humanitarianism

2.3.1. Many Westerners believed that Europe should civilize their little brothers beyond the seas. According to this view, non-whites would received the blessings of Western civilization, including medicine, law, and Christianity

2.3.2. Cecil Rhodes

2.3.2.1. successful businessman, major supporter of British expansion, believed British railway would benefit civilizations to all Africans

3. Enabling Factors

3.1. Social

3.1.1. As a result of industrialization, major social problems grew in Europe: unemployment, poverty, homelessness, social displacement from rural areas, and so on. These social problems developed partly because not all people could be absorbed by the new capitalist industries. One way to resolve this problem was to acquire colonies and export this "surplus population."

3.2. External Factors

3.2.1. technological superiority, such as, Maxim gun, steam engine to navigate easy through rivers, and the drugs which protected Europeans from deadly disease of malaria

3.2.1.1. Maxim gun: The first automatic machine gun

3.2.1.2. Malaria: A disease caused by mosquitoes implanting parasites in the blood.

3.3. Internal forces

3.3.1. varieties of languages and cultures discouraged unity among African people, Europeans learning the rival African groups against each other, and Africans didn't have advanced weapons.

4. Impacts of Imperialism on the People in the Colonies

4.1. Imperial expansion of Europe into the African interior saw many African farmers forced off their land and turned into farm laborers on white-owned plantations, where they were usually subject to cruel exploitative practices.

4.2. The loss of land caused much resentment among African people. Those who remained on their land and plantations found themselves forced to farm cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, coffee and sugar that were important for European industries