Imperialism

Summary - Though colonial empires dated back hundreds of years, the rapid drive for colonies at the end of the nineteenth century led Europe to gain political control of most of Asia and Africa. From 1880-1914 European nations scrambled to divide among themselves the entire continent of Africa, except Liberia and Ethiopia. Once European nations carved up empires, they quickly set up colonial governments to rule them and systems to make them profitable. European imperialism brought modern inventions and techniques of the Industrial Revolution to the non-European world, but to peoples in Africa and Asia Western expansion represented a profoundly disruptive attack on their society.

Imperialism is the taking over of a country by a stronger country. Africa had all the good natural resources that the European countries were laking. a number of European rulers met for a meeting called the Berlin Conference. This was a conference that made the decision that Europe should divide Africa amongst themselves and set up colonies. European countries wanted to spread there ideas throughout Africa and set up spheres of influence all over the continent. An example of the way this affected Africa was France setting up a Methodist church in Guiangua, Angula in 1925. A soeific nation that adopted imperialism between 1880-1914 was Great Britain. By the end of 1914 Great Britain ruled most of Africa. Due to the fact that there European nations had better technology in weapons it was hard for the African people to fight against them. A poem titled the White Man's Burden is used throughout this time to show how Great Britain should send out people to help Africa when in return they will receive money. The British also viewed the Africans as lower and had racist advertisements like one for there British Tea. This advertisement would boost the economy for Britain thought because selling the product would bring them money.