Effects of Imperialism on World

Moreover, Imperialism affected other parts of the world. Another continent that was dominated by western rule was Africa. Westerners had little direct control of Africa before the 1800’s. Even so, rivalries between Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Portugal managed to place almost all of Africa under European rule. At first, the Europeans had benefited from slave trade. However, as slave trade ended the Europeans sought out to find other ways of trading which led to having a great interest in Africa’s raw materials. Africa started out as mostly independent, but as westerners began to spread into the region and the scramble for colonies began, Africa had begun to lose its independence little by little. “The imperatives of capitalist industrialization—including the demand for assured sources of raw materials, the search for guaranteed markets and profitable investment outlets—spurred the European scramble and the partition and eventual conquest of Africa.”

As conflict broke out between the nations for control over East Africa, the Europeans met at the Berlin Conference in 1884 and 1885 in order to settle disagreements between each other. At the Conference, the nations discussed how Africa would be divided. As the continent was split between the nations, only Liberia and Ethiopia remained free states. As western colonization continued, many Africans lost their rights and resentment towards western rule began. “To many Africans, colonialism had meant losing their farmlands or working on plantations or in factories run by foreigners.” Resistance in Africa was in the form of Nationalism. People began to organize political parties to end foreign rule. “Out of this mixture of hopes and resentments emerged the first stirrings of modern nationalism in Africa.”