Title: What Were the Causes of European Imperialism in Africa? | The Classroom
Headings: What Were the Causes of European Imperialism in Africa?
What Were the Causes of European Imperialism in Africa?
Rivalry between Nations
Trading Resources
Strategy and Convenience
Economic Benefits

Content: Rivalry between Nations
European imperialism in Africa was partly due to rivalries between the different European countries involved, with Britain, Germany and France the dominant powers. As Professor Richard Evans of the University of Cambridge observes, by the 1880s “rivalries and interventions had been building up already over several decades.” Each country aimed to increase its own prestige by accumulating territories in other parts of the world. Such was the rivalry between European powers that, in 1884 and 1885, the Berlin conference was held to map out European possession of Africa, and by 1900, over 90 percent of African territory was nominally under European control. Trading Resources
Africa’s natural resources were an important component in motivating European colonialism. In the early 1800s, the triangular trade in slaves between Africa, the Americas and Europe exploited Africa’s population, but after the abolition of slavery other resources came to the fore. For example, mining millionaire Cecil Rhodes exploited goldfields and diamond mines in South Africa and played a vital role in securing British rule over parts of modern-day Zimbabwe in the belief that the land contained large deposits of gold. Strategy and Convenience
Sometimes European powers were keen to maintain control of specific territories for strategic reasons. For the British, South Africa provided a useful stop for ships on their way to India, another significant part of the British Empire, while from 1869 the Suez Canal in Egypt created a much shorter route between the United Kingdom and her colonies further east. As transport grew more reliant on oil, the canal also formed a route to the oilfields of the Middle East.