With the political transformations of the first half of the 19th century, which culminated in the formation of States nationalists, such as the French, Italian and German, European nations began to accelerate their process of industrialization. This was followed by the formation of the call Imperialism, that is, the integration between industrial capitalism and financial capitalism (banks, stock exchanges, values etc.), which, in turn, required a huge demand for raw material, consumer market and constructions. It was in this context that the phenomenon of neocolonialism and the consequent sharinggivesAfrica.
Neocolonialism represented a new form of European colonization. You must remember that with the discoverygivesAmerica, in the fifteenth century, there was the subsequent colonization in the 16th century. This colonization was operated mainly by the Iberian countries, and lasted until the beginning of the 19th century. O neocolonialism, in turn, referred to the colonization of the African and Asian continents operated by countries such as France, Italy, Belgium and England from the second half of the 19th century. That's why the prefix “ neo”, which means “new” (new colonialism).
The event that became a symbol of this new colonization was the ConferenceinBerlin, held in the German capital between 1884 and 1885. This conference brought together representatives from Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Portugal and Spain. The idea of this meeting for the “sharing” of the African continent among the European powers came from the leader of the German Unification, Otto Von Bismarck.
The political objective that Germany had in view when establishing the partition was a peaceful and “friendly” solution to the dispute over territories between European countries. These territories in Africa and Asia were coveted by European nations since the fall of the Napoleonic empire and the resolutions of the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
A notorious case of this sharing process was that of the Belgian Congo, which became a personal property of the King of Belgium, Leopold II, unlike other African countries, which were annexed to the empires Europeans. The African continent was divided as arbitrarily as possible, sparking numerous tribal wars.
The decolonization process in Africa only took place in the second half of the 20th century, not without going through civil wars that still persist on the continent.
* Image credits: commons
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
