Africa Colonialism Events in Europe\'s

Africa

Colonialism

Events in Europe's social, political, and economic environments caused Africa to go through a rapid process of colonization in the interval of 1880 to 1900.

By the late 1800s, Africa had been sandwiched between different nations: the Turks had Tunisia, Egypt and Libya; Spain possessed NW Africa; whilst France claimed settlements in Senegal, Cote d'Ivore, Benin, and some of Algeria. Now, Britain claimed pieces of it, as, by 1880s, did Europe. Liberia and Ethiopia remained locally governed, but the rest of Africa became a European domicile.

Colonization of Africa had come about due to exploration of the 'dark continent' revealing its values. Another cause had been European settlers settling throughout Africa in order to discourage Arabs and Africans from trading humans as slaves. These settlers sought to establish alternate lucrative means of trade and industry to replace the lucrative peddling of humans. They also sought to educate the "dark continent" in order to maximize its output.

European colonization became a status quo continued until the end of World War I. Then tired and strength ebbing, Africa regained its independence quietly and incrementally through the course of the 1950s and 1960s.

Promised and provided benefits of colonization included: an improved education system; arguably, Christian religion; a formalized monetary system (as opposed to bartering); construction of infrastructure (such as hospitals); and formal industries (such as agricultural, mining etc.).

The negatives of colonization included: exploitation of land and resources; the Europeans expropriating land that belonged to locals to themselves; abusing women and children; migration of African men who sought jobs outside their homes leading to disruption of family and communal life; and loss of African identity.

Topic 2: Mohammed Ali of Egypt

Self-declared leader and dictator of Egypt, Mohammed Ali was notorious and famous for his reforms and development of the country. His reforms in military, economic, and cultural spheres lingered long after his death and gave him the reputation of being the founder of modern Egypt. His dynasty would rule Egypt and Sudan until the Egyptian Revolution in 1952.

Born to Albanian parents and the son of a tobacco and shipping merchant, he was made collector of taxes, then achieved the rank of Second-in-Command when the Ottoman Empire was sent to re-occupy Egypt. There he manipulated the situation of anarchy to ease himself into a position of power, and, very soon, he made himself dictator by eliminating the Mamluk forces and transforming Egypt into a regional power.

Determined to change the government and military, Mohammed Ali was intent on having his country, Egypt, adopt Western ways. He confiscated large tracts of land owned by the ulama, putting much of their land under state control, thereby wiping out the tax farmers and the rural aristocracy, and, most importantly, gaining control over Egypt's agricultural land. He enabled his country to make the shift from subsistence agriculture to cash-crop farming, and using those revenues financed his schemes for industrial and military development.