Imperialism and the Conquest of Africa -History of the European conquest for Africa (1870-1914) -Brief overview of Imperialism in general -Key people in the European conquest of Africa

Essay by FortimirHigh School, 10th gradeA+, March 2003

download word file, 6 pages 4.0

Downloaded 223 times

History has always been the key to our existence. We learn from our failures to better our future, just as we learn from our triumphs to excel even further. A very important time in the history of our world was the "New Imperialism Movement" which began in 1870. The Imperialistic idea began with the British conquest of Africa. This time period was a time of the desire to acquire different colonies in the name of your country. The forerunners of this movement were the British.

The Europeans practiced imperialism since the 1400s, but this "new imperialism" occurred in more than just Europe. Many of the motives include economic, political, strategic, religious or humanitarian. Imperialism was even more intensified because of nationalism and the Industrial Revolution. They had a concern for security and a sense of national pride. To protect their national security, leaders called for a healthy national economy, which was based on access to raw materials and if a new market could be obtained by building empires.

The forerunners of the movement (the British) received most of their materials from the newly overtaken country of Egypt, at the mouth of the Suez Canal. The technology of their time, ultimately lead to the rise of this "new imperialistic movement." They made new discoveries and advances in water-bound technology. Their advances in shipbuilding led them to travel almost anywhere in the world. Through humanitarianism and cultural imperialism they believed that human achievement and development were of great importance. They also believed that they should spread their culture through missionaries' faith, modern medicine, and western education and that it was "a moral responsibility to convey western civilization to the rest of the world" (World History: Civilization and Change, page 569). The starting point of this major change in the world began...