Burton's Global Page: "The Scramble for Africa"

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"The Scramble for Africa"

"Scramble for Africa" is a phrase or a term used to describe the uncontrolled activity by the European countries who needed and wanted to claim the African territory. This resulted in nearly all of Africa to become part of Europe's colonial empires. The scramble slowly started to happen in the 1870s and ended in the early 20th century. The main European nations that were involved in this scramble were these countries which are: Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, Britain, Portugal and Spain. Between 1885 and 1900, it was known that European powers were so strong that the countries in Europe were at times racing each other to claim Africa even they know they'll be at stake. But when this happened, most of the Africans defended themselves or resist being taken over by Europeans because they know that the Europeans wanted to take power over them and they couldn't allow this to happen.
At that time the Europeans had many technological advances made in their own countries. And since they have this advantages, they had the ability and power to use it over the Africans. And since the Africans only have spears to defend themselves it is really obvious that the Europeans could dominate Africa so easily. The Europeans are doing this because they wanted to gain authority over the Africans.
And their plan succeeded at the final two decades of the 19th century where the European colonial powers finally took over the whole continent of Africa.
The nations that took over Africa were looking for gold, silver, wood, coal, diamonds, tin, rubber, ivory and etc. They were looking for this stuff because they needed these things for manufacturing goods and for other things that are important and needed for their countries in Europe. And among all these countries that took over Africa, the highest of them that owned most of the supplies were Britain and France. They owned nearly 70% of the supplies they found in Africa. The British were known to have its
Cape Colony, which is located at the Southern tip of Africa. And Meanwhile, France also took Algeria in 1834.
The "Scramble for Africa" had created a huge distraction and damage in the History of Africa and affected mostly all of the Africans. It caused a lot of suffering and pain to the people living there, which is so sad. And most of the people there faced through a lot of violence and corruption in their country, which also lead to people fighting with each other. In those years, things were very uncertain, difficult, and painful for each and everyone of the Africans living there. But the Europeans really didn't mind and care for them because they were busy getting the things they needed and wanted for their own countries. And after this happened, all of Africa was owned by Europeans except for Liberia and Ethiopia on 1912.
I believe that "The Scramble for Africa" is really a huge disaster that still couldn't be forgotten by people living today. And it will also affect the people in the future. And most of all, it didn't only affect the Africans living before on those years, it's also a part of the reason why most of the Africans are still suffering today.

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