Title: Imperialism And The Conquest And Colonization Of Africa By Europeans - About History
Headings: Imperialism and the Conquest and Colonization of Africa by Europeans
Imperialism and the Conquest and Colonization of Africa by Europeans
The Face of Africa Changed Forever
What motivated the Imperialism?
Cultural Imperialism
French and British Rule

Content: There were many different motivations for 19th-century imperialism. Economics was a major motivating factor. Western industrial powers wanted new markets for their manufactured goods as well as cheap labor; they also needed raw materials. J. A. Hobson and Vladimir Lenin both attributed the imperial expansion to new economic forces in industrial nations. Lenin went so far as to write that imperialism was an inevitable result of capitalism. As the vast mineral resources of Africa were exploited by European imperial powers, many Africans became laborers in mines or workers on agricultural plantations owned by Europeans. The harsh treatment or punishment of workers in the rubber plantations of the Belgian Congo resulted in millions of deaths. However, economics was not the only motivation for imperial takeovers. In some instances, for example, the French takeover of landlocked Chad in northern Africa, imperial powers actually expended more to administer the territory than was gained from raw materials, labor, or markets.