In the 1870's, Europe developed an interest in colonizing Africa. There were many factors that may have caused this, one of them were believing in Social Darwinism, which is the belief that different types of people also apply to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, another being the competition between owning land, which would mean more power, and the need for resources, which Africa had plenty of. European imperialism started in the 1870's, when Africa started being colonized by w. The other countries began to notice with, wanting more power, they began to colonize in Africa as well. Due to Europe dividing up Africa, the countries set up an an agreement known as the "rule of occupation" which was a law that required the country that wanted to colonize a certain area to show the paperwork to justify their action. By 1914, nearly all of Africa was owned be Europe, the only independent countries left were Ethiopia and Liberia. Imperialism had several driving forces behind it including Social Darwinism and competition for power. However the most important cause of imperialism was the necessity for resources. …show more content…
All of the countries wanted their to be the strongest, along with having a friendly competition. Evidence of this is in Document B when Freidrich Fabri wrote "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.". In the same document, John Ruskin wrote "... that their first aim is to be to advance