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What Are The Benefits Of African American Imperialism

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Throughout human history, there have been numerous situations where one group of people enforced their will on another group. One such instance was during the colonization of Africa by European nations. The imposition of colonialism on Africa forever changed the continents history. Till this day African though patterns, way of life, economic and social development has been impacted by the legacy of European imperialism (Settles. 1996). This event in history fostered the sharing of ideas, trade and exploration throughout Africa. However all of these benefits came at the cost of indigenous people’s basic right to self-determination and happiness. From the 1500’s to the 1880’s a relationship of trade existed between African coastal kingdoms and Europe. This status quo existed until the 19th century, when a large majority of European super powers were experiencing economic downturn. To help mitigate this problem, European nations desired to expand trade to previously unexplored interior regions of Africa. These territories (and Africa as a whole) were viewed as disputed regions ripe for discovery, settlement and commerce. By 1884, a conference was held in berlin and the entire African continent was distributed …show more content…
During that period in history, Europe was technologically ahead of much of Africa. Also, Europeans at the time were interested in spreading Christianity to new parts of the world. Given these reasons, most Europeans felt that it was their moral responsibility to “civilize” African natives by introducing beneficial technology and converting them to Christianity. Some of these technology significantly improved African standards of living. The introduction of Christianity also caused some positive social change in African society with respects to gender equality. Additionally, colonial expansion opened previously unexplored interior regions of Africa to global

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