The scramble for Africa in 1880

The scramble for Africa in 1880

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After 1880, the British colonialists decided to scramble for Africa and its resources due to market saturation (Forster, 1988). Products such as gold, silver, and other minerals were flooding the market lowering the value of the materials. This study reveals the reason as to why British colonialists chose to fight for Africa despite the fact that they had no wealth.

Various factors led to the scramble and partition of Africa after 1880 the main reason being the British themselves not Africans. The end of the slave trade was one of the reasons why the British colonizers chose to scramble for Africa in 1880. The British people had some success in ending the slave trade. However, the story was different inside Africa. Both Muslim traders and chiefs were not willing to give up the slave trade. Explorers such as Livingstone and other abolitionists brought back the slave market to Europe with more people advocating for it to go on. This lead to the British involvement in Africa as they were looking for slaves to trade (Cooper, 1895).

The search for raw materials, slaves, gold, and diamonds was the second reason why Europe wanted Africa. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, expeditions were mostly based on finding the city of Timbuktu and the course of the river Nile; but as the 19th century began, explorations were mostly based on searching for markets, minerals and other resources (Tignor, 1966). The Europeans’ scrambled to gain resources which were in abundance in Africa. South Africa had gold, Uganda had copper, and other rich minerals that were found all over Africa. The rich men financed the trips to Africa hence propelling the explorations.

Henry Morton Stanley an explorer in Africa started the scramble and partition for Africa. Stanley was famously known for ‘locating’ the missing Livingstone. However, Stanley was infamously recognized as King Leopold the second’s explorer. With the aim of creating his own colony the king hired Stanley to get treaties from chiefs in communities along the River Congo. Belgium was not in a position to colonize at the time due to the lack of funds. This strategy propelled other explorer to do the same for other European countries and colonists who had no funds to .............