European Imperialism In Africa

Before European imperialism reached Africa, the African people lived in villages and had agricultural economies. When the Europeans spread into inland Africa and started colonize the land, the life of natives drastically changed. The Europeans came into Africa, took over the land and began to dictate and deceive the Africans for European gain. The Europeans brought an active and more worldly economy to Africa, but they did not let the natives constructively participate or benefit from this new system. European imperialism was harmful to Africa in several ways, as when the Europeans came over, so came a significant loss of life to natives and famine, and a division of culture that brought conflict into tribes, and a loss of land and resources,
When Europe started to move closer inland of Africa, they started by making deals with the chiefs of native tribes. This started mostly with a journalists named H. M. Stanley. He explored Africa and made unfair treaties with leaders. He did this with support of the Belgian kind, King Leopold II. These treaties would often be something similar to, in exchange for a few yards of cloths and some trinkets, Belgium will be able to put their flag on the chiefs land and use the land as well as the people on it.5 Before Europe had come in and started to take over the land, the natives had known what resources they had and were very skilled in using them, and they lived largely off of trade with other regions and tribal communities. The had a livable system that was serving the community well. When Europeans took over, they saw many of the resources that were in Africa, such as diamonds and iron6 and knew the value of them on a bigger market and told the natives that there is much more worth in this land then they are getting out of it. The chiefs then let the Europeans trade the resources on a worldly scale, which, while it did give Africa a bigger, and more worldly economy, it quickly turned into a bourgeoisie/proletarian society with the African on
People such as Cecil Rhodes who thought they were doing the untapped world a favor by spreading European culture were wrong. Europeans brought death and conflict to Africa that wasn't there before as well as exploited they resources for personal