jHow important were economic factors in bringing about Britain’s colonisation of Africa?

The latter half of the nineteenth century, between eighteen-seventy to the early twentieth century, entailed what historians call the biggest spread of imperial influence from a European power ever. The British Empire spanned across some nine million square miles, with approximately four hundred and forty four million people under British rule, over a series of continents. The colonisation of Africa is said to be due to a multitude of factors, but the underlying factor was economic.
It is very evident that economic gain from Africa drew the British in. For example, British interest in North Africa, specifically Egypt, was due mainly to the Suez Canal, which was a vital and inexpensive mode of transport for the British to travel to India and other trading points. Interest within North Africa was explicitly economic. Likewise, the fact that cotton wasn’t being produced in Britain and Egypt had cotton of a very high quality, this bolstered economic interest within that region even more. In addition, the South of Africa was a vital route of travel for boats to get to India due to the strategic position, and it gave them control of the southern ocean to which they could protect their assets. Lenin argues that this was the case for Britain; issues with the capitalist system meant that too many nations were pursuing too few markets, and Africa presented a fresh market for which raw materials and other goods could be sold, so it was seen as economically essential for Britain. Likewise, men-on-the-spot were driven by economic needs and without these economic endeavours within Africa, it is possible that individuals such as George Goldie and Cecil Rhodes would not have travelled to Africa; however, the prospect of mining diamond’s and gold drew Cecil Rhodes in, and palm oil rich rivers