Imperialism in Africa was not just about economic control, but about gaining control over the economy away from the local African rulers. The early settlers did not care if they were improving or dismantling their economy they just cared about having control over it and everything being in their discretion. For example, “the colonial authorities shifted labor from food production and attempted to create a surplus of a labor-intensive nonfood cash crop, cotton”(pg.164, Philips). Instead of it creating a surplus of crops it caused an inadequate supply of food and led to malnutrition in the people of the country. The Europeans were able to get cheap labor and huge surpluses out of them. They seized the Africans land and made the Africans work on what used to be their land only to pay the taxes and to barely survive. They were able to raise money to pay these taxes by working on European farms, in the mines, or growing cash crops. The taxes were implemented as a way to “raise revenue to pay for the cost of running a government in the colonies and also for rudimentary services for the small settler communities”(pg. 128, Khapoya). The Europeans basically forced them to do labor to help the Europeans gain more investments to help their own selfish needs, such as exportation of cash
Imperialism in Africa was not just about economic control, but about gaining control over the economy away from the local African rulers. The early settlers did not care if they were improving or dismantling their economy they just cared about having control over it and everything being in their discretion. For example, “the colonial authorities shifted labor from food production and attempted to create a surplus of a labor-intensive nonfood cash crop, cotton”(pg.164, Philips). Instead of it creating a surplus of crops it caused an inadequate supply of food and led to malnutrition in the people of the country. The Europeans were able to get cheap labor and huge surpluses out of them. They seized the Africans land and made the Africans work on what used to be their land only to pay the taxes and to barely survive. They were able to raise money to pay these taxes by working on European farms, in the mines, or growing cash crops. The taxes were implemented as a way to “raise revenue to pay for the cost of running a government in the colonies and also for rudimentary services for the small settler communities”(pg. 128, Khapoya). The Europeans basically forced them to do labor to help the Europeans gain more investments to help their own selfish needs, such as exportation of cash