Lara Tuncer
Mrs.Sedmak
Ap Human Geography
May 7, 2021
A. With the introduction of technology such as steam engines, railroads and telegrapgh,
the inventions that led to enabling more people to further destinations opened a new
era for colonization.Using the steam engine in different areas and more communication,
industrially powerful countries saw this demand as an opportunity for raw materials.
Especially Africa was a prosperous land to exploit for this purpose. This time is called
‘Scramble for Africa (1884-1914).
B. Europeans exploited valuable materials such as diamonds, gold, ivory, oil, timber,
copper, cotton, ground nuts and some minerals.Also the workpower was so important.
Slaves were even valuable assets especially in North America.
C.
Britain, France and Germany gathered around the common interest where they could
exploit more resources and raw materials in Africa. Being the imperial powers, German
authority Bismack organized a conference called “Berlin Conference ( also called Congo
or West Africa Conference) where they laid out their common interest. They decided on
how to seperate Africa to colonies and how to rule them bilateraly. There were no
Africans present and it was only for the benefit of the present countries in the
conference where they also set the borders of the countries (called colonies by then)
according to their own gain without considering the African people with different ethnic,
linguistic or geographic realities.These imperialistic countries wanted to claim and secure
these resources for the continuous manufacturing, making more revenues and causing
dependency on their technology also as they never set up factories in Africa. Therefore,
colony by colony (now is country by country) African people were forced to be
dependent on the Europeans for employment and making ends meet. Those European
countries were the ones ruling and governing these countries so people had no saying
for their own benefit.
D. Legacy of colonization in Africa is that European colonialism dramatically transformed
technology, industrialization in Europe but unfortunately this leaving Africans dependent
on mainly in ;
a. Political dependency : rules and governance depended on the Europeans
b. Export dependency : Resources and raw materials being their sole capita making
source, they became dependent as they had no other way of making money. Also
there was no production in Africa, so they had to import the finished goods where
they had provided the raw materials in the beginning.
c. Investment Dependency : They had no initial funds for constructing railroads,
ports, water supply sources where transportation became quite important with
the invention of steam engines and railroads. Therefore, they were dependent
on the Europeans again for constructing these facilities , most importantly health
and educational ones.
E. In the 19th century, the imperial countries saw the potential for the raw materials and
divided the whole Africa on paper for their own benefits. They ruled the country without
Africans having no consent in the doing. Today, as Technology and Industrialization need
more demand in resources and raw materials. Therefore, not only Britain, France or
Germany but also India, U.S. and China are present to get a piece from Africa as they
need resources such copper and cobalt in Zambia, İron ore and platinum in South Africa,
timber in Gabon, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo,oil in Nigeria, Angola, Sudan and
Equatorial Guinea. Also U.S. and India are present for crude oil.
In the past , it seemed there was a consent among the Africans free trade even though it
was forced by the Europeans due to the inability of know how and market opportunities in
the world. Today, although Africans are more educated and want their own free will in the
trade, economical and environmental consciousness and awareness, but dependency in
capita still restricts their decision making.
F. The power competition of very strong companies, the resources found in countries made
some countries more beneficial for these developed countries compared to the ones
with less resources. Hence, the governments felt the need to be dependent more and
more, in the meantime fighting with the impacts of environmental issues, poverty, lack
of interest of the developed countries while they were still dependent on the developed
countries. Colonization has brought Africa more export opportunities, but increase in
corruption, environmental degradation and internal conflict in the ruling. This problems
seem to be unavoidable and may grow more as these countries demand and explore
resources in Africa. For ex., Tantalum, a crucial mineral as a key component in the
production of electronics, makes African natural resources more valuable each day and
this starts a power struggle among these powerful countries without considering the
benefits of the Africans.
G. In the past
H. esistance to colonial rule grew steadily and between 1950 and 1980, 47 nations achieved
independence; but even with independence the problems associated with the slave
trade and colonialism remained.
I.