Sunday, February 17, 2013

Blog #5:European Exploration and the conquest of Africa

     From the minute the Europeans invaded Africa, they viewed the people as inferior and substandard. Their main goal was to invade and take over the land so that they may be able to live a more prosperous life. Europeans found it more profitable to enslave rather than kill the people. They did so thru a system called forced labor where they kidnapped the women and forced the men to go into the bush and collect rubber. By doing so, they had no one to tend to the crops. During King Leopold's reign it was estimated that out of 20 million Africans, about 10 million was killed. This lead to a major decline in the economics due to lack of free labor.
     After the abolishment of slavery, racism was still alive and well. The seperate but equal law was put in effect in South Africa. This was a way in tricking the natives into believing that they were in anyway equal to the Europeans that invaded as a way of controlling them. They even gave them the power to have a police force, a government and other positions of power amongst themselves. All that did was cause more uproars and unrest for the citizens. That was an instutionalized way of pitting the Africans against each other. Apartied determined what kind of education they received, where they lived, and where they could work. In many ways you can say that Apartied was a kind of structered slavery. Nelson Mandela as well as other political leaders have fought tirelessly to end apartied in South Africa. As far as Africa is concerned, its too much turmoil going on inside of the country to be able to Stabalize themselves in the global playing field.

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