Scramble for Africa
Read this article to learn how the economic imperatives of industrialization led European nations to expand their imperial control into Africa. It features a "causes" section that discusses the impetus for each colonizing power's desire to partition a whole continent.
Background
David Livingstone, early explorer of the interior of Africa and fighter against the slave trade
By 1841, businessmen from Europe had established small trading posts along the coast, but they seldom moved inland, preferring to stay near the sea. They primarily traded with locals. Large parts of the continent were essentially uninhabitable for Europeans because of their high mortality rates from tropical diseases such as malaria. In the middle decades of the 19th century, European explorers mapped much of East Africa and Central Africa.
Even as late as the 1870s, Europeans controlled only ten percent of the African continent, with all their territories located near the coast. The most important holdings were Angola and Mozambique, held by Portugal; the Cape Colony, held by Great Britain; and Algeria, held by France. By 1914, only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent of European control, and Liberia had strong connections to the United States.
Technological advances facilitated European expansion overseas. Industrialization brought about rapid advancements in transportation and communication, especially in the forms of steamships, railways and telegraphs. Medical advances also played an important role, especially medicines for tropical diseases, which helped control their adverse effects. The development of quinine, an effective treatment for malaria, made vast expanses of the tropics more accessible for Europeans.