Driving Force Behind European Imperialism In Africa

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Pages: 2

Mistreatment, forced labour, and disease were prominent misfortunes given to the Africans during the imperialism in Africa. In the 1800’s European explorers traveled through the interiors of western and central Africa. What was the driving force behind European Imperialism in Africa? The driving force behind imperialism in Africa was a combination of competition, commodities, and the cessation from the fear of malaria.
In the beginning, Europeans resented the idea of imperializing Africa due to its pestilence of Malaria; however, after a treatment was found, the idea of imperializing Africa became not far-fetched. For instance, on document C in the article “What Was the Driving Force Behind European Imperialism in Africa”, the method of getting
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This decodes the motivation for commodities in Africa and further proves its prominence in imperializing Africa.
Alongside the abundance of resources came competition among countries. The competition to claim African territory was one of the primary driving forces of imperialism. In John Ruskin’s lecture at Oxford University in February 8, 1870, Ruskin stated, “seizing every piece of fruitful waste ground she can set her foot on, and there teaching these her colonist… that their first aim is to be to advance the power of England by land and by sea.” Ruskin confirms the competitiveness between European countries over African territories. Although nationalism and cultural attitudes were additional motivators towards imperialism in Africa, competition, commodities, and treatment for malaria were the main driving forces for imperialism in Africa. The treatment for Malaria ended the long fear of imperialising Africa, the large amount of commodities inspired the Europeans to imperialize Africa for economic growth, and competition among European countries drove each other to quickly take over Africa. In conclusion, without these driving forces, the Europeans may have never imperialized