Colonization of Africa: Causes, Methods, and Legacy

Introduction: European Colonization of Africa

The occupation and control of one nation by another is defined as colonialism. Various European countries colonized many areas of the world, including North and South America, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the small islands scattered around the globe. Africa was colonized by different European nations between the late nineteenth century and the late twentieth century. Prior to colonization, Europeans had maintained contact with Africa for a long time — for example, through the Atlantic Slave Trade — but it was not until the late nineteenth century that they imposed a formal rule of law over the continent. Regardless of their particular ideologies and administrative systems, most colonial states justified themselves in the name of civilization and pacification.

In Europe, the nineteenth century was a time of industrialization, as many factories needed raw materials to be manufactured into marketable products. European nations consequently sought both a source of raw materials and a market for manufactured goods in Africa. Economic motivation played the major role in driving the colonization of Africa.

During this period, competition among European countries intensified due to nationalism. Each European nation had a strong sense of national pride and wanted to be powerfully identified on the world stage. This competition, which frequently resulted in wars within Europe, was also expressed in the race for colonial expansion in Africa. It is one of the principal causes of the Scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth century, which culminated in the colonization of virtually all African countries within twenty-five years (1885–1910). None of the major European powers — particularly Britain, Germany, and France — wanted to be without colonies.

In the nineteenth century, ideologies of racial superiority spread throughout Europe. Europeans saw themselves as the most advanced civilization in the world, and many viewed it as their responsibility to civilize the rest of humanity. Numerous inaccurate and racialized stereotypes of Africans circulated at the time, and these were used to justify colonialism in Africa.

In addition, colonialism in Africa coincided with the growth of Christian missionary activity on the continent. From the earliest centuries of Christianity, parts of Africa — including Ethiopia and Egypt — were already home to Christians. Although Christianity was introduced to most of the rest of Africa only in the modern era, serious missionary activity began in the nineteenth century. European countries were becoming more deeply engaged in Africa during the same period. Though the relationship between Christian missionary activity and colonialism remains debated among historians, evidence suggests that many missionaries supported the colonization of African countries, even while opposing its harsher aspects. Missionaries who were proponents of colonialism believed that European control would create a political atmosphere favorable to missionary work. Their support played a significant role in legitimizing the colonial venture among citizens of the colonizing powers in Europe.

African territories became European colonies in two main ways. First, some African leaders were willing to sign agreements with European nations for various reasons — some saw it as advantageous to gain European allies, while others did not fully understand the treaties or their consequences. Second, in cases where there was substantial resistance to colonial rule, military force was used.

This treaty-making and territory-claiming by European nations caused a competitive rush for terrain in Africa known as the Scramble for Africa. As a result, the then-Chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismarck, convened a conference in 1884 for European nations to regulate the competition for African territories. The Berlin Conference aimed to assure European nations of access to important trade routes (particularly along the Niger and Congo River basins), to restrain the internal slave trade ongoing in parts of Africa, to ban the importation of firearms into Africa, and to establish rules for the occupation of African territories. The result was the Treaty of Berlin. By 1900, almost 90% of Africa was under European control.

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