The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Decolonization In Hong Kong

Prior to World War I, Britain was the most imperialistic country in the world. The British Empire occupied more than a quarter of the world, which spread over five continents and France controlled most of Africa. Because of this control the rivalry with Germany and Italy had increased, they decided they wanted a colonial empire also.

Africa faced aggressive imperialist efforts from the Europeans, including diplomatic pressures as well as military invasions. This push for imperialism by the Europeans into Africa was brought on by economic, political, and social factors. After the collapse of the slave trade and all of its profitability, it made the demand for sources of raw materials something that needed to be acquired. There was also a need to search for investment opportunities, as well as a stable market. This made the economic motives the primary need to push into Africa. However, there was also competition between Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, and Spain to gain power within politics. One way to gain power within this competition was through the acquisition of territories, hence another reason to push for Africa. Socially, due to the

Imperialism is defined as one country’s domination of the political, economic, and social life of another country. In Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, imperialism was present and growing. The main countries involved in the imperialism in Africa were the French, German, and Great Britain. The French’s empire was mainly in North and West Africa while Britain’s colonies were scattered throughout the continent. Germany ruled over such countries as Tanganyika, Togoland, and Cameroon, until their defeat in World War I.

During the late 1800's the initial ideas of colonizing susceptible territories in Africa and monopolizing an area under one European colony is the main influence on European Imperialism. European countries were motivated by the abundance of new market and good, the growing competition between European countries to imperialize African countries, and the idea of social darwinism. The main European countries involved in the colonization of Africa were Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Spain. While each of the countries had their own individual motivations that contributed to their roles in European Imperialism, they were all competing against each other which

In the early 1880’s, the powers of Europe started to take control of regions in Africa and set up colonies there. In the beginning, colonization caused the Africans little harm, but before long, the Europeans started to take complete control of wherever they went. The Europeans used their advanced knowledge and technology to easily maneuver through the vast African landscape and used advanced weapons to take control of the African people and their land. The countries that claimed the most land and had the most significant effect on Africa were France, England, Belgium, and Germany. There were many reasons for the European countries to be competing against each other to gain colonies in Africa. One of the main reasons was that the

An imperial government must protect its own territories while expanding it as well. If another power gets a territory, they gain that land’s resources, meaning more power. Due to this, each European power perceived other powers trying to expand as a threat to their security and prestige. This results in every European power to seek out new territories. A prime exemplar of this is the Fashoda Crisis. France wanted control of the Nile, but that would mean excluding Britain from it (Tusan, The Scramble for Africa III, October 30th). In the end, France backed off because it needed to be on friendly terms with Britain in case of a war against Germany. Instead of fighting over a valuable trade route, France decided the safety of the country was more important if war does happen with Germany. As a result, Britain’s control in Egypt was asserted.

Even before WW1 began, years of tension had built up a rivalry between the great powers of Europe, triggered by alliances, power plays, weapons races and security. Furthermore, the Balkans was a power-vacuum, formally under the control of a fast-deteriorating Ottoman Empire. Imperialist expansionism on the part of Austria-Hungary and the German Reich was also giving rise to tensions. The increased efforts of Germany to have a colonial empire in Africa was another factor that led to WW1. During the 19th century, Britain, France and Germany had been in competition with each other, trying to build colonies in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Russia, Japan and the United States were doing the same in the Asian

The New Imperialism during the 19th century throughout Africa and Asia was an influential prompt to the rise of colonialism and powerful European empires. Consisting of raw materials, markets for European business, and provided resources made the African and Asian colonies extremely ingenious for European empires. However, as the 20th century emerged, imperialism suddenly faded and became a sentiment of the past. Surely even one of the most influential empires at a certain point in time – Britain, gradually came at ease with dropping its imperial rule over some colonies. Likewise, following gory and extensive battles, a parallel approach was taken by France. Nevertheless, the utmost spark to the 20th century decolonization was primarily

The scramble for Africa represents the most thorough and systematic process of colonialism in world history. The European colonial powers managed to conquer and control almost the entire continent of Africa in a short, twenty-five year period from about 1875 to 1900. Some of the European states involved were already well-established global powers; the others were up and coming nations that desired to emulate and compete with the dominant imperial states. Various factors allowed for and contributed to the conquering of the whole of Africa by European states. The slow, but ever-growing European presence on the perimeter and the completion for dominance between the major European states acted as the platform for the inevitable quest for

What is the New Imperialism and what were the cause and effects in the World Wars in order to understand what is the “New Imperialism”, we must first learn and define Imperialism: a policy or practice by which a country increases its power by gaining control over other areas of the world: the effect that a powerful country or group of countries has in changing or influencing the way people live in other, poorer countries. The New Imperialism takes on effects in the late 19th century this is when there is an interest or wanting to gain a imperial territory, Imperialism is also consider to be when there is a desire to control a trading routes and resources in a nation. A perfect example of the New Imperialism is called the "Scramble for Africa", this is when Europe tries to takes control over Africa. In the late 19th century Europe struggle to destabilize and to balance the power that they once had before Italy and Germany became unify.

Before the Europeans began the New Imperialism in Africa, very little was known about the inner parts of the continent. However, after some explorers delved deeper into the heart of Africa, the Europeans soon realized how economically important this area was, and how much they could profit from it. At the time, Britain had only small occupations of land in Africa, but after they realized that they could make money from the rich resources from the inner regions of Africa, they wanted to invade the African countries and take over. This led to the scramble and ultimately, the partition of Africa. During the Age of Imperialism, from 1870-1914, Britain was a major country, which proved to be true in

 The late 19th century imperialistic mentality brought many countries into heated conflicts. The two biggest players, before the Berlin Conference, were France and Britain (Bennett 67). These two rivals had been among the first to take interest in colonies in Africa. The British, by 1880, were mainly located in South Africa (51). They had annexed South Africa way back in 1815, mainly because of the strategic importance it held for trade to British India (69). At first, the British did not observe a great reason for expansion. By 1880, the "economical advantages" began to present themselves more clearly (Hugon 30).

Politics played a major part in motivating Europe to imperialize in Africa. Document A shows how Africa was divided and which two states remained independent. Fourteen European nations met at the Berlin Conference to decide how Africa would be divided. In Document B, nationalism in Europe increased as the Industrial Revolution and French Revolution ideas spread throughout Europe. Colonists thought to advance the power of England, they needed to claim more territory as fast as possible. “ That their first aim is to be to advance the power of England by land and by sea.”~ Doc B. The Germans had strengths, such as trade and sea power, but wanted to learn about colonial skills from the British and start a friendly competition after them. “It would be wise if we Germans would learn about colonial skills from the British and begin to strive after

Continuing, decolonization was led by the economic factor, because many of the West African societies were already economically powerful compared with other black African countries by the end of the WWII. It has had several number of complaints, this happened because the number of educated leaders of lawyers ,teachers and business men were increasing and helped in providing for political leadership. The West African countries were good producers of palm oil, cocoa in Ghana. However, the Ghanaians nation was not happy with the British colonialist exploiting them economically. As a result, the fall of cash crop price greatly affected the farmers. Also, the majority of the mining profit went to European shareholders instead of being used to develop the country, so this caused for the

Colonialism has been viewed and interpreted from multiple perspectives. Both the coloniser and the colonised are said to have benefitted therefrom. While on the one hand it is considered abject exploitation by the coloniser to fill his coffers, on the other, the routine by-products of colonisation were of absolute benefit to the colonised. The four century long period of colonisation that gripped the world is one of the most oft debated and scrutinized periods of human history. In the period beginning sixteenth century AD, trade and commerce through the sea route became a means of expanding markets in many countries. Great Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal were amongst the pioneers in taking their wares to countries far away, like Africa and Asia. One early form of colonialism that was thrust upon the colonised country was economic exploitation.