Europeans first started colonizing Africa back in the 1700s and it ended in the 1900s. According to “Japanafricanet” Zimbabwe was the last country to gain its independence from an European country which is Britain. They were numerous reasons why the Europeans wanted to colonize Africa, but the three main reasons were because of the economy. For example trading goods and other resources, for political reasons such as getting more land from other Europeans countries. Lastly, religion because they sended missionaries to Africa to spread christianity. To support these three main reasons I will use a lot of different sources but, out of those three important reasons, Economy is the most important one.
The first reason why Europeans started to colonize Africa is because of their resources. Source E is a paper in 1845 showing that Africa is a good Farmland and that Britain gained a lot of money because of diamonds and gold in South Africa. Another evidence if from Source K, which is a letter written in 1729 by a British Merchant. It’s showing that trade in Africa is very profitable because of trading Negroes. “They help the British because they are planting tobacco and sugar and it raises the economy.” Sources L which was written in 1907 by a historian, shows that Slave trade helped every industry and provided money for docks and made “Liverpool one of the most prosperous trading centers in the world.” And that it benefited everyone.
The second reason why the Europeans colonized Africa is because of Political reasons. When Europeans discovered that Africa was valuable and it was accessible they wanted to take control of it.According to “Sahistory” the Europeans wanted to get the most territory in Africa because it shows that their country is the strongest. It created rivalry between the countries.The Berlin conference was a meeting between several countries in 1884 to 1885. Around 14 countries attended the Berlin Conference but the countries that gained most of the land was France, Britain, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Belgium. Everyone wanted to have the most powerful empire. Before the meeting France, Britain, and Portugal had already more land than the other countries. King Leopold II who was the Belgian ruler from 1865 to 1909. According to “Izquotes” King Leopold II quoted that “I do not want to miss a good chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake” It shows that he really wanted Africa.
The third and last reason why they colonized Africa is because of Religion. A lot of missionaries were sent to Africa to spread Christianity. One of the most important missionary was David Livingstone. He was sent to South Africa in 1841 and then he went back in London 2 times and he died in 1873. He was involved in the London Missionary Society in 1838. Source B which is a report demonstrate that he did a lot of things such as trying to stop the slave trade and trying to show Europeans that Africans are just like them and that they are not savages. He also crossed the width of Africa but, his real mission was to spread the message of God to Africa. To support this reason source A shows that David Livingstone published a book in 1871 which is talking about his Missionary Travels and what was his journeys were like. According to “Scholarblogs” France, Britain , and the Netherlands wanted to rebuild the African culture. They did that because they thought that Christianism was the best religion that the African could have.
To conclude, there are a lot of reasons why Europeans colonized Africa because its very valuable and there are a lot of resources. Also they wanted to show power to the other European country and to spread their religion which is Christianity.