European colonial rule was more harmful than beneficial to Africa

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European colonial rule was more harmful than beneficial to Africa

Introduction

Colonialism is a known term used to imply that colonialists dominated and took control over Africa . Colonial rule started way back when the Europeans scrambled to partition Africa amongst themselves . There were many colonial powers that wanted to partition Africa and they included German , Portuguese , French , Belgium , and Italian amongst other more colonies . It is evident though that the domination of all this colonies in Africa brought more harm than benefits

. In most African countries coups have erupted and it is not because Africans do not have the capability to rule or govern themselves but because they have also become a speck of the colonial legacy that depicts Africans against themselves (Davidson , B 12

Reasons for the colonial powers to dominate Africa

Exploration

Many of the colonial powers following the quest for more knowledge about Africa made them want to explore Africa . A lot of associations were formed to help in this exploration and they included African association of Rottererdam , Swiss committee for the exploration of central Africa Italian exploration and civil of Africa , Belgium international African association , Hungarian African association and German association for the exploration of Africa . However this desire to explore Africa started to deteriorate as some of the powers wanted to partition and govern the same colonies . This disagreement amongst the colonial powers led to the Berlin conference of 1884 - 1885 (Duignan

Gann L . H 77

Invest surplus capital

The colonial powers wanted to invest surplus capital in Africa in to be able to benefit their economy back in their countries and states instead of using the invested capital in helping the Africans (Collins R O . 4

Acquire raw materials

The desire of the Europeans to get raw materials from Africa and use it in their industries in their country was reckoning as this meant that though it was due to the Africans hard labor that the Europeans obtained the raw materials they benefited not from them . This was very cruel as the Europeans only oppressed Africans (Collins , R O . 6

Acquisition of ports for harboring

The colonial powers were much more interested in Africa due to the suitable ports in which they would use to anchor their vessels when transporting their goods . This helped solve transportation , as bulky items would be ferried by seas

Acquire slaves for their industries

The colonial administrators needed people to work in their industries hence decided to acquire slaves from Africa who would provide labor for their industries overseas only for the Africans to get low or no wages at all , despite the fact that they had been separated from their families (Davidson , B 24

Berlin Conference (1884 - 1885

This conference was very essential as it helped solve the differences of the various colonial powers that had interest in the same colonies , in Africa e .g . amongst the British and Germans over Tanganyika which is now known as Tanzania . Both colonies were...