Imperialism in Africa

I've been busy looking at the 'colonisation of Africa' by the european powers, obviously leading to their domination over the countries and continent. After reading an article by Ehiedu E. G. Weriebor it has become clear that there were three main reasons to employ what Weriebor describes as 'imperialist aggression'. These were social, political and economic factors.

Economic Factors

This occurred with things such as the collapse of the profitability of the slave trade. Mostly since it was abolished and suppressed; the Europeans aimed to find another way to gain profits (or exploit and abuse the people of another continent, as the europeans tended to do). 

The colonisation of africa was also influenced by the growing capitalist industrialisation within Europe, which led to the demands of raw materials, and other profitable investment outlets. 

Weriebor concludes that economic factors were probably the strongest which led to imperialism in Africa. 

Political Factors 

Weriebor also comments on the fact that the European countries were struggling constantly for power and preeminence (as the Europeans often did). Essentially, they strived for power within 'European power politics'. And what better way to assert this dominance than to conquer as many countries as you can? 

It was very much like those little competitions kids would have in the school ground. "Look how many scoobies (what a weird name that is) I have..." which would often be responded to by "Well I actually have more", and then that kid would go home and beg their parents for more. It's a very terrible example, but put simply; the more you own, the more power you have. 

Social Factors

As a result of industrialisation, as mentioned above, there were also a few social factors which included; unemployment, poverty, homelessness, social displacement from rural areas etc. Weriebor states that this basically occurred as not everyone could be absorbed by this new capitalist industry, and as a way of solving this issue, countries would often establish colonies, in places like Africa and then export this 'surplus population'. 

This all led to what was known as 'the scramble for Africa'. Because of this 'scramble', there were often also fears that wars and conflict would break out with all of these strong and influential imperialist powers. Otto Von Bismark (who appears to be this insanely awesome guy) held the Berlin conference between November 1884 to February 1885, which led to the implementation of the 'Berlin act' to guide the conduct of imperialist powers. A few of its points included:

- The Principle of Notification (notifying) other powers of a territorial annexation

- The Principle of Effective Occupation to validate annexations

- Freedom of Trade in the Congo Basin

- Freedom of Navigation on the Niger and Congo Rivers

- Freedom of Trade to all nations

- Suppression of the Slave Trade by land and sea

I feel that perhaps doing further research into this 'Berlin Act', could be an area of investigation for my research task, were I to focus on imperialism in Africa. However, I do still wish to do further research into some other areas before deciding where to allocate my focus.