Reasons For European Imperialism

In the beginning West Africa have traded goods like gold, slaves, sugar, and many more with European colonies. West Africa and the European colonies had a good run until the 1800’s. In 1884-1885 there was an important event called the Berlin Conference and this conference was lead by the European colonies to get some parts of Africa. Africa was not invited to this meeting and this caused tension between the colonies and Africa. This caused European colonies to take over some parts of Africa. There was three motives for European imperialism in Africa and they were economic, social, and political. However, the most important motive for European imperialism in Africa was economic. One of the driving forces behind European imperialism

The reason why the primary driving force behind European imperialism was economic is because of the use of resources. In document D a chart is shown of how the European colonies benefited from Africa by the resources African states made. This is an economic motive because it shows how many resources the European colonies gained just by owning a state from Africa. This also connects to the Industrial Revolution because Africa is making goods to the European colonies and during the Industrial Revolution people made goods for other people to buy. Although both did sell goods, this leads into document E. In document E it explains another cause to why European imperialism was a economic motive. This cause is markets and money. In document E it shows how Great Britain benefited from South Saharan Africa for their exports. Great Britain gained the most money in 1900 due to its high number of imports and exports. Whatever resources Saharan Africa made, they would not benefit from it. This happened to some states in Africa because they were controlled by the European colonies. The last reason why economic is the main cause of European imperialism on Africa is because of new resources. In document C a chart is shown of what type of technology is introduced. All of these resources were developed only for the European colonies. The reason why it was only made for European colonies is because so Africa will not try to fight back since the colonies had new and improved sources of technology. For example: If one of the colonies try to take over a state in Africa and one of their men catch malaria, they would quickly treat it since they have a treatment for it, as for African states they would be sick and then die since they do not have the treatment for it. They will then be weak and fail their plan to be independent. The only reason why new technology was sprung into the European colonies was so that