Analyze The Motives For African American Imperialism

In the 19th century Europeans took over Africa in an act known as African Imperialism. Europeans had hardy known much about Africa in the early 19th century, but as time went on they started to notice the abundant resources and plentiful land. With the knowledge of such things there were 3 main motives that drove Europeans to imperialism. The primary motive was the economic gain and money they make, the second motive was political competition, the final main motive was morality or the white man's burden.

The greatest driving force was the economics and the money hey would gain from all the resources. In document D it shows all of the resources in all the different territories and all the economic and industrial use. Knowing all the resources in Africa, Europeans went on a mad scramble for the most copious areas full of resources. One of the infamous imperialist was King Leopold II. Leopold

Once europeans countries knew of the profitable Africa they all pounced and all of them fought for land. As shown in document A you can see all the different territories owned by different countries. Since they knew that this could send them potentially into a war, they called a conference known as the Berlin Conference. In the meeting they divided up different parts of Africa to European countries, they did all of this without the consent of any African leaders. So political competition had a pretty large role in Imperialism in Africa.

The final motive was the white man’s burden or morality. In document B John Ruskin talks about how when Europeans took over different countries or areas that they would teach there ways and religion to the native people. This definitely wasn't the most important rationale for the Europeans but it still played a hefty role in many different situations such as when the Europeans took over parts of South america. The europeans took over then taught their ways to the indigenous