"What Was The Driving Force Behind European Imperialism In Africa?"
Imagine if the Europeans came into America today and tried to take over. You would probably be very scared, and also wondering; why the heck do they want to take over America? Well that’s what the Africans felt like when the Europeans came in and took over Africa. In the 1800's Africa was under control by the Europeans! But each part of Europe wanted to be in control of their own power! Once European leaders became aware that Africa was jam packed with valuable natural recourses. They realized that the struggle for these recourses could result in war. So Germany held a conference (that is today known as the Berlin Conference)with most of the European leaders to discuss
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The Europeans wanted a lot of land so that they would seem more powerful. At the Berlin conference each nation was willing to do whatever they could, to gain the most land they could.
Because with lots of land it meant lots of pride, and power, and who doesn’t want pride and power? In document A, it shows were each nation decided to take over. The Spanish only settled on the coast. The French mostly settled in Northern part of Africa, and so on. In document B it says; "their first aim is to advance the power of England by land and by sea." Which means if they want power they have to colonize not only land but also sea. They have to take over whatever they can. But it's not only the land itself, but what comes on the land. Which ties into my next bullet.
Another driving force behind imperialism in Africa was; natural resources. Without land there would be no natural resources. So they needed lots of land. But without the natural resources they would never have taken the land in the first place. During the 1800's the Industrial Revolution was taking place. The Industrial Revolution was a period of major industrialization. (Document D)They had just created some of the world first machines and needed an abundance of natural resources to put in the machines. Just because they were living in the Industrial Revolution doesn’t mean all they cared about was natural resources and machinery. They cared about