Taking a Stance

During the Age of Imperialism, the British had imposing laws which deprived all Africans of their rights and freedoms. There were laws such as all blacks were forbidden to public areas and they had to carry identification cards. If you did not have this card with you during inspections then you could face serious consequences such as jail, beatings, or even death. The British also forced a social policy called apartheid. Under this policy, blacks were separated from the British.

The first person to take a stance in combating British rule was Nelson Mandela. He believed that all people in South Africa should have equal rights. He combated the British by using non-violent resistance movements and civil disobedience. He ended up forming a organization called the ANC (African National Congress) which supported him in gaining independence from the British. Unfortunately, Nelson Mandela faced 25 years in prison.

Created by Laron McBryde and Joselyn Orejuela

Connecting Imperialism to the Age of Exploration

Colonization of the age of exploration of the 15 and 16 century was very different from imperialism of the 19 and 20 century, because in the Age of Exploration Europeans just wanted to know more about the world around them. Foreigners mainly started traveling was because they wanted to seek new trade routes and discover some of the issues that are going on around other parts of the world. In the Age of Exploration Europeans also colonized Latin America when they saw that it had a lot of natural resources. These discoveries basically lead to do the same thing that Europeans did in the Age of Exploration. They wanted complete control on the other country and change them completely. The Europeans believed that it was there duty to change others, because they are "better” then the Africans. However, you can say that Imperialism and the Age of Exploration have similar ties because both motherland states during the time wanted to make profits off their colonies although the Age of Exploration goal was indirect while Imperialism was not.


Joselyn Orejuela and Laron McBryde

Connections To The Civil War

I believe that imperialism in Africa played a role in starting the civil war in Sierra Leone. Since Great Britain had total control of Sierra Leone they developed many buildings, advanced Sierra Leone in education and economically. After Great Britain got what they wanted from Sierra Leone turning them into all capitalism, Great Britain left them. Great Britain didn’t help them in their time of need which leaded to many group of rebels to develop and revolt.

Joselyn Orejuela and Laron McBryde

The Berlin Conference

The Berlin started in 1884. This conference was held to discuss how the continent of Africa was going to be divided into European colonies. There were 14 European country representitives at the conference as well as African leaders. however, none of these African leaders had political say in how Africa should be divided. The objective of the conference was to make sure there was peace among European countries so they will not go to war with each other of the natural resources that Africa possesed. This conference had an major impact on the European colonizers because they grew wealthier in resources such as diamonds, oil, iron ore, etc. African natives were affected as well as the people who colonized the African coumtries. They was deprived of their land and resources they owned. They were also forced to change their way of life under a policy called assimilation. Assimilation was a policy practiced by Europeans in order to change African cultural values into European cultural values. As a result of the Berlin Conference, many of the resources Africa had was stolen as well as traditional beliefs. That is why today many Africans speak some of the European languages such as French for an example.

-By Laron McBryde and Joselyn Orejuela

Imperialism

During the Industrial Revolution, many new economic systems such as capitalism has been introduced to the world. Under this economic system, business owners would try to have businesses privately owned without government involvement so that they could make the biggest profit possible. They have practiced such acts such as child labor. But laws such as the Factory Act and the Mines Act have been passed to protect the conditions of workers and their human rights (or natural rights that they were entitled to). Being that these business owners could not manipulate their workers in their own country, they would outsource to the place where there was not any laws prohibiting child labor and minimum wage. These European countries would also seek a way to find and produce raw materials here- at the continent of Africa. This was a new age of colonization- the start of imperialism.

-Created by Laron McBryde and Joselyn Orejuela