Title: The Colonization of Africa
Headings: The Colonization of Africa
The Colonization of Africa
Ehiedu E. G. Iweriebor – Hunter College
The Scramble for Africa
The African Resistance
A Period of Change
Colonial Domination: Indirect Rule
Colonial Domination: Assimilation
Bibliography
Image Gallery

Content: The Colonization of Africa
The Colonization of Africa
Ehiedu E. G. Iweriebor – Hunter College
Between the 1870s and 1900, Africa faced European imperialist aggression, diplomatic pressures, military invasions, and eventual conquest and colonization. At the same time, African societies put up various forms of resistance against the attempt to colonize their countries and impose foreign domination. By the early twentieth century, however, much of Africa, except Ethiopia and Liberia, had been colonized by European powers. The European imperialist push into Africa was motivated by three main factors, economic, political, and social. It developed in the nineteenth century following the collapse of the profitability of the slave trade, its abolition and suppression, as well as the expansion of the European capitalist Industrial Revolution. The imperatives of capitalist industrialization—including the demand for assured sources of raw materials, the search for guaranteed markets and profitable investment outlets—spurred the European scramble and the partition and eventual conquest of Africa. Thus the primary motivation for European intrusion was economic. The Scramble for Africa
But other factors played an important role in the process. The political impetus derived from the impact of inter-European power struggles and competition for preeminence. Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, and Spain were competing for power within European power politics.