Dbq Essay On African American Imperialism

“im·pe·ri·al·ism imˈpirēəˌlizəm/ Noun a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force.”- Imperialism was the exact way Africa came to be the way it is.

We’ve all had that moment when we said, “I want to visit Europe,” or, “European culture is different, I would love to see it.” Now imagine yourself roughly 125 years before now. Now, imagine that you are living in Africa. Would you still think about moving to Europe? Would you know what Europe is? Would you have anything against that continent because it’s trying to take over your country and the ones around you, proclaiming that you are animalistic? In 1884 and 1885, almost every country from Europe had representatives come to a meeting in Germany

The Germans always wanted to be “as good as the British” and the British always powered themselves to gain strength in the same region of knowledge. Document B has phrases of how Britain aimed to be more powerful, such as “Do or perish,” “...seizing every piece of fruitful ground,” or “advance to the power.” The British always wanted more power, with the Germans not far behind. They always endeavoured to colonise more of Africa. The Germans tried hard to catch up, to be as good as the “do or perish” Britain and colonise Africa too. The British wanted to acquire every piece of land that was manageable, no less. The map on document A shows how Germany was behind on all the land colonising in Africa. The country only owned a small fraction, while others such as France and England owned abundant amounts of land. Germany had a very different range of things it was good at. They had the best art, the most creative people, which didn’t help them at imperialising Africa. Germany wanted to be able to be as strong as the other countries, as powerful, taking Britain as their example. In document A it shows that all of Germany’s small colonies in Africa were next to the gargantuan British ones. Germany wanted to be as good as the British, which evolved into “friendly competition” between the two countries. Competition to prove who was able to colonise most of

The Europeans did not count Africans as civilized humans. They wanted to imperialise Africa to help. Document F states, “your new caught, sullen peoples, half devil and half child…” as a description of the African people. Every single country in Europe believed that African countries were extremely uncivilized “animals”. Everyone wanted to make their lives better. They thought by imperialising and taking control over African countries they will be able to make a civilised colony. They always underestimated Africans, believing that continent had a lower social standing than they did. “It would be wise if we Germans would learn about colonial skills from our Anglo-saxon [British] cousins and would begin in a friendly competition to strive after them.” says a German writer in Document B. The Germans viewed the British in higher “cultural appreciation.” They wanted to be as good as the British, they wanted to have as many colonies in Africa. The more colonies you had the higher you were on the social ladder in Europe. The more colonies, money, power… the better you were