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: What Were the Causes of European Imperialism in Africa? | The Classroom
What Were the Causes of European Imperialism in Africa? In the late 1800s and early 1900s, seven European powers – France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Portugal – were active in claiming African territory as their own. By 1914, the vast majority of the continent was under European control, with France dominating the northwest, while British possessions were concentrated in the east and south. European colonial activity in Africa was motivated by a variety of factors. 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.