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How Did Ethnocentrism Influence The Europeans Colonize Africa

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In the late 19th century, European tribes began to colonize Africa. They took advantage of the large amount of land and natural resources that Africa had. While they took a lot from this continent, they also attempted to bring things to it. They brought religion and attempted to convert Africans and change their core beliefs. The Europeans believed that they could change this new land to be more like Europe, because they believed Europe was the superior country. The Europeans believed they were colonizing unclaimed land. Ethnocentrism played a role in the imperialism and colonization of Africa because Europe felt superior to Africa, Europe wanted their land and natural resources, and because they felt like they were educating Africans and giving them a better life. As stated in an except from a lecture by John Ruskin, he felt that the greatness of England should be spread to every other nation. The document describes Europe as the world’s source of light and a center of peace. In order to spread England’s greatness, the young colonist’s main goal had to be to advance …show more content…

According to the excerpt, by colonizing Africa, Europeans added to the prosperity and wealth of these lands and destroyed famine and disease. The colonists also said that from their imperialism, they ended human sacrifices, slave trade, and inter-tribal war. When European imperialists colonized Africa, they did not help them as much as they thought that they did. They helped themselves more than anything. The colonists brought schools and Christianity to try and teach the Africans that their way of life was superior. Though they thought they were helping the Africans, they were really just helping themselves by spreading their way of lives. The colonists believed it would be easier to colonize nations they thought were

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The main reason the Europeans imperialized Africa were their cultural and social beliefs in ethnocentrism. They believed “[the natives] needed European help, reform, or civilization” (Document K). The Europeans considered the Africans savages

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Although the driving force behind European Imperialism in Africa was trading slaves, gold, and ivory through the west coast of Africa and was under full assault as European nations competed for control. The Europeans also agreed to certain principles regarding colonization that which included free trade, elimination of slavery, respect for each others territorial claims, and improving the moral and material well-being of

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In the late 1800s, Europe was scrambling to conquer vast amounts of land. Imperialism had swept the continent by storm, with many countries vying for pieces of Africa and Asia to control. From 1880 to 1900, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy fought for African possessions and by 1900, nearly the whole continent had been split and placed under European rule. There was plenty of motivation for Europeans to conquer the world, and while some supported it, others didn’t. Most people in Europe at this time held ethnocentric views toward the “uncivilized” cultures in the world.

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After the European nations took over many colonies, the European nations produced raw materials for themselves. The European nations conquering other nations leaves the native people in needs of money. The African culture was dominated by the Europeans and they were forced to learn the bible. The nations that were colonized by the Europeans, their government becomes weak and unable to help the native people. The Industrial Revolution and the Imperialism have many negative and positive effects on both the European nations and their

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One of the many reasons was that Europeans began to believe that the more territory they obtained control for their colonies, the more power one could obtain it would become more solid it would become seen by the others. Other reasons for the Europeans to desire control over African land included that many of the natural resources could only be found within Africa, examples such as diamonds, gold, and as time moved on, rubber. Providing new markets to surrounding places so that manufactured goods could be sold for larger profit. Europeans had many motivations for imperializing Africa. The main motivations were more than likely shielded, as they tried presenting themselves as philanthropist, within reality they were making Africa a horrible place to live with brutal treatment of the natives as well as multiple physical and emotional tolls for the people of

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European nations exported goods such as, cotton, palm oil, coffee, sugar, rubber, ivory, gum, copper, zinc, lead, coal, and diamonds, and more. A faster way of collecting resources was owning slaves and having them do the job of going to get the resources, they weren’t paid so it saved the Europeans a lot of money, and a lot of time. But it still wasn’t fair for European nations just to invade a land and then have the people that previously lived there work for you it's just so discourteous to the African people. Along with that the people were forced to extract resources from their land and give it up to the Europeans and if they did not meet their quota they were punished harshly sometimes even getting their hands cut

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The definition of imperialism is an action by a strong nation to take control of another country. According to CDC Malaria is a “mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite”. Between the late 1500’s and the early 1800’s Europeans didn’t enter Africa, because of the disease malaria. This ended during the 1800’s European countries such as France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Portuguese, Belgium, and spain imperialised Africa. “What was the driving force behind the imperialism in africa?”

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The Colonies were striving even more to helping the British because they thought the British would reward by letting them more out to newer lands and going further west, but unfortunately the opposite happened. In Document A we can see that the British gain an immense amount of land, but they placed the Proclamation Line of 1763. This permitted the Colonist from moving further west and staying one place. This brought lots of angry towards the British Empire thus causing their loyalty and relationship with them to vanish. The Colonies began to grow a desire for Freedom and slowly began to grow a more self sufficient nature, leading to the Revolutionary

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Europe colonized Africa seeking mutual benefits of the European industry and supposedly of Africans as well. While before 1850, Europe only had control and access to a small percent of the African continent, European nations had gained control of most of Africa and had access to most of its resources and markets by 1914 (Doc 6). This displayed an entirely new opportunity for European nations to gain much wealth and power from new resources and customers. As for the Africans, before the arrival of Europe, war, human sacrifice, witch doctors, and slave-trade among African natives were common. Believed to be savages, Africans had much to appreciate from learning the European conduct of justice and humanity, according to imperialists.

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So Europe invaded Africa, took possession of Africa, and divided Africa into colonies of Europe. The period of invasion, lasting some twenty years, was more or less completed by 1900. There followed a longer period, between sixty and ninety years, of direct European rule, called colonial rule. This was a time of profound upheaval for all of Africa’s peoples. It brought irreversible changes” (4).

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Moreover, Western civilization became the ideal civilization, and became way superior to African “civilization.” As a consequence, African tradition became perceived as primitive, outmoded, and sadly not welcomed by the rest of the world. Unfortunately, a lot of Africans experienced a trend of a dying out culture. (2) It can be implied that even the Africans’ self-perception dropped because the only lifestyle they knew was suddenly taken away from them and they were taught that it was substandard. Therefore, the indigenous inhabitants of the colonies, the Africans, had to adapt to a new, “superlative” culture and view it as more sophisticated than theirs.

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