Quinine Was Essential For Western Imperialism

In order to colonize, Western European countries had to cooperate with each other and overcome complications in Africa. As a result of Europe’s industrialization unemployment, poverty, and homelessness grew, factories were creating products but the people could neither afford them or were already owned (Iweriebor,2013:2). Africa was seen as an untouched market with endless opportunity for merchants to get cheap materials to create goods and sell them. (Hay,2002:104)

One of the major complications that Africa had was the hazard of being seized with disease. It was crucial for Europeans to stay healthy while colonizing new land. Africa was full of dangerous diseases that would cause Europeans to get sick and possibly die. Quinine is a medication used to obviate malaria and babesiosis (Saylor,2011:1). Diseases would end a traveler’s journey or possible prevent them from going. The discovery of quinine was essential for western imperialism because it allowed for safe pursuit in Africa.
Europeans were advanced in this field, they used firearms that were small enough to mount in ships and even be carried by foot soldiers (Saylor,2011:3). A leading role during the expansion of Europe was the ability to have smaller military units defend larger numbers of opponents. Europe achieved this merely because of the repeating rifle, machine gun, and the lightweight artillery that was available. This technology helped to reduce the cost of conquest, which allowed previous money to be put to other use (Ibo,2011:3). Improvements particularly in steam engines allowed larger capacity while requiring less space for fuel. Allowing mass transportation of goods from Europe to Africa. The railroads extended to reach beyond the coasts making transportation on land more efficient, thus overcoming the difficulties of African