European Imperialism Advantages

During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, The scramble for Africa, or known as the European Imperialism was at its peak in Europe. One of the reasons for its widespread popularity lied in the the political and economic benefits it gave. Because rivalry between countries was also present at the same time when European Imperialism rose, having colonies became a symbol for international power. Thus, more colonies meant more political power, which provoked countries to create more colonies. Yet, more importantly, it was the economic benefits that the countries wanted more than the political benefits in that they were the key to become wealthy. Similarly, Jules Ferry illustrates the importance of European Imperialism on the economic factors in his …show more content…
Before having colonies in Africa, it was very arduous to trade with foreign countries that were far away. Ships could only carry two week’s supply of coal and there was a high chance the ship would fail to complete the trade by getting wrecked in the seas. However, by having a colony in Africa, the European countries could avoid the difficulty they would face before. Ports and harbors on the coast of their African colony allowed the ships to reload the supply of coal, and repair any broken parts of the ship. Therefore, ships could go further to trade with other countries and there was lower chance of the ship sinking during the trip, which would lead to a safer conditions for trading. Due to that, Europeans could trade with foreign countries with more access, increasing their number of exports. To illustrate, after having colonies in Africa, England’s income from exporting kept increasing. The income from exporting in 1891 was 336 million pounds, and 414 million pounds in 1900. Thus, it is evident that having ports in the African colonies lead to an increase of income from more trades. This was the case for many European countries and therefore, African colonies were clearly beneficial for Europe in that they gave new ports to European nations, …show more content…
The best illustration of this is Belgium. After colonizing Congo and making it as a new nation called “Congo Free State,” Belgium started to collect raw materials from Congo. The two major sources were ivory and rubber. Ivory was a symbol of status and wealth in the late 1800’s, thus, its demand was very high. In addition, ivory was used to make piano keys, billiard balls, and other small items. Thus, not only its demand was high, it also was an important raw material to make goods. As a result, the amount of ivory exported from Congo greatly increased, exporting 12,812 pounds in 1888 then, 261,225 pounds in 1892. From this huge amount of export, huge profit came to Belgium from exporting ivory. Rubber, on the other hand, was also exported in excess amount from Congo at the same time. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the income Belgium gained from exporting rubber was about fifty million francs every year.Also, it has been estimated that just King Leopold the second gained about 1.1 billion dollars from rubber. That being the case, Belgium gained huge profit from the resources they got from Congo. This was happening in other countries as well, not only Belgium, and therefore, it is evident that resources from African colonies also gave massive wealth to the European countries in addition to helping them to keep up with their