The Effect of Imperialism on Africa

1987-1988

The Effect of Imperialism on Africa

Deer Creek-Mackinaw High School

English IV

by James Landrith

The imperialistic nations of the last three centuries have left a tremendous impact on Africa. Explorers and trading companies were the first to enter this area. Sometimes they helped, but in general they raped the land for minerals and raw materials and left a lot of hurt and destruction.

In the Heart of Darkness, trading companies were seen as greedy and indifferent to the hurt they caused around them. The ivory was wanted, and getting it was the only thing important.

But the ends didn’t justify the means. The natives were treated as animals. Many were beaten, strarved, or worked to death. Some were just plain murdered. Very few whites saw them as real people with real thoughts and real lives.

The principles conveyed to the native population from these first whites to enter Africa formed an everlasting impression. The native generations that followed passed on what was engraved on their souls by the whites. Many of the nations of Africa today have a natural and understandable mistrust or hate for white people that stems from what these first traders and explorers and slave ships formed in their heads. The lust for ivory caused much of the above and can never be undone. It can only be hoped that it doesn’t happen again. It will, unless human nature changes, happen again in some shape or form.

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