THE OUTCOME OF THE EUROPEAN PARTITION OF AFRICA AFTER THE BERLIN CONFERENCE

THE OUTCOME OF THE EUROPEAN PARTITION OF AFRICA AFTER THE BERLIN CONFERENCE.

The Berlin Conference of 1885/6 signified the sharing of Africa by the European powers. The input of African did not play any role in the Europeans partition of Africa. This partition settled issues of disagreements among the Europeans.
The settlement of disagreement among the Europeans was followed by systematic and brutal conquest of Europeans of African territories which they got through the Berlin Conference partition. The move to conquer African brought about heavy killings of Africans, exiling of some kings in Africa, removal of some leaders, destruction and stealing of African properties etc.
The conquest was followed by the establishment of political control of the Europeans over Africans. The British and the French were very active in West Africa. The British and the Germans had upper hand in East Africa. Political controls were established by the Europeans to effective control and exploit Africa.


SOME NEGATIVE IMPACT OF THE EUROPEAN PARTITION AND TAKEOVER OF AFRICA.

1) African lost the political control of their territories to the European. This became a very bad influence in the African political growth because the political structures brought in by the Europeans were alien to Africans. Such structure were handled to control Africans
2) Africans link to the world stage were transformed into Europeanism. The involvement of African to the world stage became something of seeing the world from the Europeans eyes and for the European’s favour.
3) The partition in some parts of Africa created artificial and baseless structuring. Some European powers ignored some ethnic structures in some parts of Africa when effecting the outcome of their partition of Africa. Some ethnic group saw their people separated into different political entities controlled by different European powers. The Hutu and Tutsi case happened to be a very important example here. These two ethnic groups were partitioned carelessly. Tutsis and Hutus can be seen in Rwanda, Burundi and other neighbouring countries. Another example is the separation of some people of Yoruba race to different political entities. Some were placed in British Nigeria and some in Dahomey controlled by the French.
4) A good number of Africans lost their lives in a bid to resist the European conquest and political control. This led to depopulation in some areas in Africa. Some kingship lineage families were wiped out by the ravaging Europeans.
5) The establishment of European control brought about social restructuring. Africans were made to learn new languages and other cultural identifications which were hitherto alien to them. In most cases, the Eurpeans demonized some African cultural practices they don’t understand and as well force African to abandon them.
6) The practices of the Europeans were made towards belittling African cultural heritages. Their practices ended up making Africans to see the European cultures as superior.
7) In a bid to conquer Africa, the superior power European armies went into strong property destruction and looting. Presently many African valuable artworks are in display all over Europe. Almost all of them were stolen during the conquest of Africa by the Europeans.
8) The partition paved the way for uncontrolled exploitation of Africa by the Europeans. Resources like land, human labour, natural resources raw materials, markets etc were exploited without control by the Europeans.


SOME POSITIVE IMPACTS
The partition and the political control of African by the Europeans did not bring only negative effects. Some positive impacts were withnessed. Some of them were:
1) Some political control established by European powers in some parts of Africa brought about some improved stability. Some ethnic rivalry, wars, insecurity raids were stopped by the Europeans.
2) The formation of politically controlled European creation brought some African group that hitherto were strong enemies together under one political entity. In some cases the union brought about the establishment of strong political entity. An example is the Nigeria creation. Nigeria has three major ethnic groups and a host of other ethnic orientations in the same political entity.
3) The partition and the subsequent establishment of political control brought about the improvement of health researches in Africa.
4) It also helped to strengthen educational activities in Africa. New languages were taught to Africans which helped then to even communicate among themselves.
5) It helped to effectively stop the business of slave selling. Slave trade at a time went of focus because of the introduction of industrial revolution. Programmes were established by the Europeans to substitute slave trade with trade in raw materials.
6) Some levels of infrastructural development were withnesed because of the activities of the Europeans. Roads were built, railways constructed, ports established, schools built, demonstration farms established etc.
7) Some new economic activities were as well established by the Europeans activities. Raw materials dealing, mining, new farming methods etc were introduced.
8) The use of currency was introduced by the Europeans activities sequel to the partition of Africa. The use of currency was used to replace the batter system that existed previously. This helped to make business transactions easier in Africa.


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