Scramble for and Acquisition of African Colonies Essay

Scramble for and Acquisition of African Colonies - Essay Example End of the trade left a gap for commerce between the two continents. Since the capitalists had benefited from the slave trade, they intended to exploit the continent in different ways such as encouraging the continent to agree to a ‘legitimate’ trade that could eventually lead to colonization. Capitalists identified potential markets for goods that would be exported from Europe and plotted the course of trade routes that would be used when ferrying goods from Europe to African countries. These routes could also be used to transport raw materials from Africa to Europe. They also used the African workforce to work on plantations, which mostly grew cash crops that were the main raw materials for manufacturing other goods. Such crops included coffee, rubber, timber, sugar and palm oil. Since the colonizers wanted to exploit the labor in the African countries, they resulted to colonizing these countries. This implies that economic reasons were the main contributors to the scr amble for Africa as well as the exploitation of the raw materials present in these regions. In conclusion, the scramble for African states by European powers was projected towards exploitation of the continent although the colonizers posed as explorers. The capitalists exploited the resources that the continent could offer including human resources and raw materials that they used to manufacture goods meant for the African market. Although exploration and capitalism contributed towards the scramble, the real reasons were economic related.