Imperialism and its Impact: A Historical Insight

Followed by the first age of Imperialism in the 1600s when the spanish conquistadors sailed the Atlantic Ocean, the second age of imperialism occurred. Imperialism is when a more powerful country takes over a less powerful country. In the 1800s right after the Industrial Revolution, the Europeans were colonizing the African territory. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, Britain, France and the Netherlands had grown more powerful. However, they did not have raw minerals so they needed the resources from Africa. Now that they had control of Africa and its natural resources, they felt that it was okay to take anything they wanted. This is why they believed that imperialism brought stability to the country but in reality imperialism affected

I drew a pool table that looks like it is set up for a game. There are 15 balls in the center and it says “uncivilized”. The balls are used as a metaphor to exaggerate the idea of how the indigenous people were treated. The uncivilized people had an unstable life and just like a ball, they were rolling around. They went from place to place and their lives were unstable since they only fulfilled what the Europeans wanted out of them. At the head of the table there is a white ball that is about to be hit by the cue stick. However, the ball is inside of a diamond. The ball inside of the diamond represents how powerful the Europeans were as they were imperialising Africa and the diamonds were taken from Africa. The ball inside of the diamond is “targeting” the uncivilized people. As the cue stick hits the balls, they will go into the pocket in the right bottom corner to become civilized. In there, they will receive an education, be safe and become as superior as the Europeans.This pocket is like a “trap” because there are 3 other pockets but they are only going into this one. On both sides of the balls, there is an outline of Europe and Africa. Inside of Africa are symbols like diamonds and natural resources. These resources are what made Africa so significant to Europe. On the other hand, in the outline of Europe, there are money signs and words like “civilized”, “school”, and “religion”. The money signs show that their main intention was to colonize Africa and earn money from the manufactured goods. The three terms listed above is what the Europeans wanted to do in order to make the people civilized. My cartoon demonstrates what Europeans wanted out of Africa and its significant qualities. It also demonstrates how the uncivilized people were viewed and what imperialism did to