Reasons For European Imperialism In West Africa

West Africa: Colonial Times

From the early 1500’s to the mid 1900’s Europeans have been known for their success in colonizing foreign territories. The Dutch, British, Portuguese, French and Germans were the main European groups who throughout the 15th and 19th century felt the need to take over beneficial countries to improve their power. The desire for money, goods, territory and empire building led the Europeans to all search around the world in hopes of finding a weaker country with raw materials to take over. In Western Africa, the main European forces that colonized most of the western area were the Portuguese, the French and the British. Like in many other parts of the world, the European countries were invading, conquering and controlling
In West Africa many of the countries such as the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria were blessed with many resources and raw materials that the Portuguese, French and British could acquire and trade with other countries in exchange for other goods or money. Another main attraction to Africa, were the available slaves that the French and British shipped to the Americas for cheap labor. The slaves were so demanded that the European nations began the Atlantic slave trade in the 16th century and shipped many slaves to the new world in order to be able to produce multiple products and not have to pay the workers. The constant need for slaves, and the high demand for ivory and gold from the west coast left the Africans inhabiting the west without any resources for themselves. Due to excess trading, the West Africans were forced to change from tribes and organized groups into hard working slaves owned by the French and British. Beginning with the Portuguese and later with the French and British, West Africa was split in a such way that each European power could receive the amount of land and African population they needed. According to a Committee of the African Institution, the French and British men came into Africa for ivory, beeswax, dye-woods, gum Senegal, gum copal, potash, palm oil, indigo, rice, coffee, sugarcanes, malaguetta pepper, cayenne, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, castor oil,
When the French came into Africa in the 1600’s they were certain of the areas in West Africa that they wanted to colonize. Later in the 1800’s, other European countries came in and the struggle for Africa began. By 1885, the African continent was split up and the Portuguese, French and British gained control and got to colonize West Africa due to the Berlin Conference. As an effect of the Berlin Conference, tribes and social groups were split up and put into a whole different style of government with other African tribes they didn’t know. In order to control this wide amount of different cultures, the French had to create an imprisonment (The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Africa. 1981) and enforce strict laws to keep the Africans in order. The French also input taxes on all the colonies