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Since the beginning of the 19th century, the European nations’ effort to exploit the human and natural resources of Africa became the definition of colonialism. Between 1450 and 1750 Europeans just regarded Africa as place for trade and they had settled only couple colonies. But with the industrialization booming up in Europe, bye 1850, Africa was being taken over by imperialistic powers such as Great Britain, Germany, and France. Thus, by the end of 19th century, multiple colonies existed in the continent of Africa. However, the colonial era in the Americas started a lot earlier than African as it began during early as 16th century by countries such as Spain and Great Britain. The place was also settled permanently in order to extract natural resources of the land. Accordingly, there seems to be a great similarity between colonization of Africa and colonization of America. However, multiple historic evidences prove that they were actually completely unique.
The first main difference between the two was the difference in competitors. During the colonization of America, it was the main three powers that fought over control of the territory. Initially, it was Spain, the first country among the three to have gained national stability through Reconquista (Spanish Revolution), that started to look westward to find new trade routes. However, it was soon joined by other new nations with similar domestic peace and militaristic power; France and England. Thus it was the three that exploited much of the resources in the Americas. But, during the colonization of Africa, there was a greater competition. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, much more European nations were sufficient enough to look towards foreign inputs and outputs. Thus, countries such as Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, and Russia joined the fray of intense colonization. I believe this greatly contributed to the reason why after each colonization periods, North America created just Canada and US whereas African ended up with many countries with disorganized borders. It was easy for America because Canada had French/English influence and US just had English background when independence happened. Accordingly, the inhabitants of the Americas had similar background that allowed for them to united under that same background. However, same phenomenon could not have happened for Africa. The issue of independence was really difficult with territories because they have been controlled by various countries. It prevented Africa from cooperating and regaining its wealth compared to America’s independent countries because they all had very distinct colonial experiences. This was displayed by the aftermath of the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 where the fate of the nations in Africa was decided by the rulers, not the citizens. Since there were so many countries with difference interests and goals, the distribution of borders were careless and inconsiderate to the different backgrounds of diverse Africans. I personally think this ignorant division of borders and territories by the Europeans led to conflicts later in our history regarding countries such as Nigeria, Uganda, and Sudan.
Another reason why the colonial experience was distinct between American and Africa was the goal and nature of it was fundamentally different. Colonialism in America began when the Europeans wanted to expand their territory to gain more trade routes. Therefore, they were interested in flourishing the new land and give support to become a self-sustaining place. This was accompanied by establishing permanent towns and cities throughout the continent. They sent their citizens to permanently settle and start new lives. Thus, people sent to colonize the Americas were to live there forever. Consequently, even after colonialism was over, the people in the Americas were able to continue living prosperously by themselves. In a way, colonialism actually helped the continent by sending more citizens that had hopes and dreams of accomplishing their new dreams. However, Africa was faced with a different policy. Imperialistic nations were not interesting in expanding trade routes or gaining territories as much as the colonizers in America. But, they were solely interested in exploiting as much natural and human resources as possible. This meant that they were not concerned with the consequences and did not care about long-term effects that their actions could bring. Therefore, Africa was reaped heavily of its fortunes and valuables as the Europeans were only concerned with bolstering its wealth. Thus, after they have left, the citizens of Africa had very less capital to self-sustain as their human and natural property have departed away from them.
It was very compelling for me to find out how the two different aspects of colonization ended up deciding the fate of the inhabitants. Although we might think they are similar, it is evidently true that the colonialism in America and in Africa were very different regarding number of colonizers and their main policies that resulted in contrasting consequences in our history.