Imperialism In Nigeria

Words: 1445
Pages: 6

Nigeria; a country full of natural resources and working citizens on the western coast lining the South Atlantic Ocean. Its location makes it an ideal trading post and resource. This outlet was in high demand, which drew in European countries looking for resources. Britain saw this an an opportunity, and because of this, colonized Nigeria in 1906. During this time period, Britain exploited their resources to Western development and maintained harsh military power over the colony. By the end of 1960, Nigeria was an independent country. As a developing country that had been exploited for so long, it needed financial support in order to progress. In 2000, Chinese trade relations with Nigeria had increased, and by 2006, China invested almost 18 …show more content…
For a country to become developed, vast improvements are generally needed. These improvement can be brought by outside countries, such as an imperializer and investor country. During Nigeria’s past, Britain and China lent a hand in progressing their development. Both imperializing and investing in a country are meant to somehow benefit the country initiating the exchange, but that can not happen if the colonized country is not in a usable state. In Nigeria, Britain built railroads and improved other trading ports in order to benefit economically through trade opportunities. In terms of infrastructure, both Britain and China improved Nigeria’s development. Regardless of the human rights and humanitarian concerns, both countries did improve the state of development in order to be able to accomplish other political, economical, and social changes of the country. Also, both countries imperializing and investing have a common goal; to benefit financially. Even though Britain was mainly motivated to colonize Nigeria by their impending gain of tropical trade relations, another large portion of it was to increase economic stability. China invested in Nigeria, also, with the idea that they will be compensated by Nigeria. In China currently, businesses are selling cheap and poor quality goods to …show more content…
The ideas behind both are based on the idea of gaining something with the help of another country, even though both were carried out in very different ways. While Britain colonized Nigeria in a ruthless way, taking their resources and utilizing their people in a selfish way, China’s presence in Nigeria due to investments in to benefit their infrastructure and the lives of people. The similar ideas that the British and the Chinese had in common, their want to benefit, show how the two situations are not entirely different, but the actions being taken in Nigeria prove they are not entirely the same. Chinese investments are a lesser and more realistic version of Imperialism, and overall, is different but maintains certain