European Imperialism Dbq

European Imperialism/colonization of Africa that occurred mainly between the 1870s and the early 1900s, caused many issues within Africa, and at the same time, the Europeans were benefitting from it. Because Europeans believed they were superior to the Africans, they felt it was their duty to civilize the Africans, and this created problems throughout the continent, most of which dealt with the economy and social structure of Africa. The European Imperialism/colonization of Africa had several social and economic effects on Africa, involving the European’s, the native Africans, and America several decades after the colonization of Africa began.
There were several European nations that were involved with European Imperialism and colonization …show more content…
In document 5, a political cartoon demonstrates how Europeans, Great Britain especially, took over Africa from the top to the bottom, and they did not care who or what they stepped on to achieve their goal of African colonization. Once again, this demonstrates the idea of European supremacy over the Africans during this time period. Economically, Europe greatly benefitted from the colonization of Africa. In 1909, a map showing Africa’s borders and who ruled each region, was published by Sir Edward Hertslet, who lived in London. He showed Africa’s new borders and he showed who was in control of each region (Document 1). The different European nations took over regions that would benefit them; if a European nation was looking for gold, they would take over a region that was abundant in gold, etc. The entire time Europe was taking over Africa, they were exploiting Africa’s resources, including diamonds, coal, oil, gold, etc. By exploiting these resources, the Europeans’ economies were able to thrive. An example of the European’s taking advantage of Africa’s resources dealt with the Boers. The Boers were descendants of the Dutch …show more content…
Of course, America had no direct effect on European Imperialism/colonization of Africa, however they reaped some of the benefits that Europe gained from it all. For example, in the early 1900s, Teddy Roosevelt was able to go to Africa and hunt; in 1909, he hunted elephants for their ivory tusks (Document 8). He was able to hunt in Africa because he paid Europe, who was in control of parts of Africa at the time. Both America and Europe benefited from this. As previously mentioned, Europe had an economic gain. However, America also had an economic gain from Americans going over and hunting in Africa because they were able to obtain resources from Africa that were not available in America; they were exploiting Africa’s resources. Americans also experienced economic gain when an American missionary took pictures in Kenya of the natives (Document 3). However, this was not the only American missionary that traveled to Africa. These photos taken in Kenya were sent back to America, and they were to be played on a screen; people would have to pay to see these images. With that being said, America was able to earn money off of these images, therefore they experienced economic gain. When the American missionary went to spread Christianity and take those photos in

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