Why Did The Scramble For Africa happen When it Did Essay

Why Did The Scramble For Africa happen When it Did - Essay Example European countries headed by Germany, France and Britain. During the conference, the African continent was divided, and different countries given colonies which were to be considered as their territories. This meant that if a country had been allocated a colony then other countries were not allowed to venture into such a country. Before missionaries came to Africa, the continent was neglected by Europe since they felt it was not of any value to them. But after the missionaries went back to Europe and reported on how Africa was rich in raw materials and minerals, European powers started to have an interest in the continent. Otto Van Bismarck came up with the idea of the Berlin conference because it was inevitable for conflicts to come up between European powers who wanted to own many colonies in Africa (Evelyn, 2010). The conference aim was to make sure that this did not happen by dividing the African continent instead of countries fighting over them. The African continent was divided as follows: France was given much of western Africa where it controlled countries such as Senegal and Mali. It was also given part of North Africa such as Algeria. Britain was given most of Eastern Africa such as Kenya and Uganda and part of North Africa, for example, Egypt. Germany got countries such as Tanganyika and Namibia. Other countries that were also given some partitions in Africa included Spain which controlled Morocco, Portugal which controlled Angola and Italy which controlled Somalia. Causes for the Scramble for Africa to Happen when it Did One major factor that contributed to the partition of Africa at the time it happened was the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution happened in the late 1700s to the early 1800s (Evelyn, 2010). After the industrial revolution, there was a huge demand for processed goods. This in turn resulted in the demand for raw materials such as coal, cotton and minerals in order for factories to keep up in satisfying the huge demand fo r processed goods. Getting these raw materials from Europe was becoming a headache since they were being depleted. This resulted in European countries looking for raw materials in Africa. The only way they would have been certain that they would fully exploit these raw materials is by colonizing African countries (Hodge, 2008). The abolishing of slave trade also resulted in the