FREE ESSAY ON EUROPEAN COLONIZATION ON AFRICA

EUROPEAN COLONIZATION ON AFRICA

Back in early African history, Europeans colonized and infiltrated African civilizations
in order to make a profit and to be known as a superior nation. By doing this, European
colonists "messed up" the traditional African lifestyle. African's were willing to let
the colonists join them, but the Europeans went too far when they took over governments
and tried to rule over the Africans. This colonization led to many problems in Africa,
that still affect modern day Africa.
First of all, the problem can only be explained about where the colonists were located.
According to the European Colonization map, it shows that France and Great Britain ruled
most of the Northern Part of Africa. France and Great Britain ruled other parts of Africa
in the South, but not nearly as much as up North. Meanwhile, Germany Portugal, and
Belgium ruled most of the Southern part of Africa. 
Now, to talk about the Government of Africa, I'll have to explain the two different types
of governing. There was direct rule (French) and indirect rule (Great Britain). The
difference between these two different types of governing was that indirect rule was when
a local chief or leader ruled the colony, but was used as just a messenger from a higher
power of authority. In this case, the British. The British would make the laws for the
ruler to enforce, and he would do it. In the case of direct rule, the country that
colonized the country, ruled it. The French ruled their colonies in Africa and enforced
their own rules, rather than let a local leader do it. In African civilizations, indirect
rule worked better for the African's because they were able to keep their old traditions
and not have to adapt to new ones. In the French colonies, African's had to convert to
French in order to be considered French. If they were considered French, then they could
run for politics and be considered as an equal to a French person.
This all leads to the main point of this essay, the conflicts between the countries. As
you can see from the Conflict map and the European Colonization map, the independence of
the countries took place after WWII. After the African's fought in the war for the
British and French, they decided that they wanted to be independent countries. In the
1950's, 1960's, and 1970's, African colonies rebelled and the rulers of the countries
surrendered because they thought it wasn't worth a war just to keep a colony. So within
those 20 years, Africa went through many changes, but because of this colonization,
Africa does not have the potential economy it could have had, if the Europeans hadn't
invaded.
European colonization didn't only affect the economy of Africa, but also affected their
way of living. The economy is very important to Africa because of their abundance of
natural resources. If the Europeans had not colonized Africa, then the continent may be
in a different state of living at this present time, and may be more technologically
advanced because of it.