Positive Effects Of Colonialism In Africa

European colonialism influenced the economic and political development of Africa and served a moral purpose as well as was mutually beneficial to both Europeans and the African people, however there were some long-term negative effects on Africa as well. However, it was because of Colonialism that had changed the way of African thinking as well as impacted their culture and ways of life.

The overall goal of colonialism was to exploit physical, human, and economic resources of an area in order to benefit the colonizing nation. Prior to the colonization of Africa, African states were make advances in many areas especially in the area of trade. Europeans were able to develop a commodity based trading system, cash crop agricultural …show more content…
Europeans did not necessarily care about improving production methods or growing Africa’s economy. Europeans implemented trade controls that had limited imports and restricted exports from the same market which had taken away the choice of marketing goods that were available before European Colonialism. It was because of this that African rulers had become weaker due to their authority being overthrown. Africans were forced into colonialism because they were not allowed to improve their current methods or market their goods freely. Because Europe weakened Africa’s economic structure, Africans became very dependent on …show more content…
It was during this time that colonial governments had built considerable infrastructure and established a cash crop system of agriculture as well as change the established standard of wealth and status. Reforms to education were made and modern state systems were created. There were some long term negative impacts for Africa which included infrastructure being built and designed to exploit the natural resources that existed in the colonies. Colonialism also hindered the technological and industrial development that had already been progressing in Africa. Before colonialism, local production had provided Africans a wide selection of consumer goods. Colonialism had caused Africans to rely on goods imported from Europe. If Africa had been encouraged and supported by colonialism, Africa would be in a much better position both economically and technologically today. The single most negative impact of colonialism on Africa was the significant emphasis placed on single cash crop production. African colonies were dedicated on producing one or two agricultural products to be exported to world markets. It wasn’t until the mid-1960’s that many large colonies had begun to collapse. Another impact of colonialism was that trans-African trade was destroyed. Prior to the colonization of Africa, it was integrated economically with trade occurring north to south and east to west. European Colonization had redirected all of