Imperialism
As the Industrial Revolution was booming through Great Britain, the country realized that raw materials were needed so they began imperialism in other countries. Africa was a huge place for natural materials and European countries realized that so the Scramble for Africa began, and the Europeans were carving up the country and creating boundaries and colonies from coast to coast. To decide peacefully who got what a meeting was held called the Berlin Conference. During the conference countries picked territories based on political, economical, and idealogical motives. Idealogically, countries wanted their colonies to be strong so they took on the White Man's Burden and took their ideas and ways of life and imposed them on the existing culture. Social Darwinism was a huge key in imperializing colonies. Economically the more land equaled more cheap labor, more resources, and in the end more money for the country. Owning the most land was a huge political advantage because it gave a chance for countries to expand territory, enforce their militaries, and it boosted national pride when you had more territory. All of this imperializing helped out the mother country tremendously, but unfortuneatly for the country that was being seized, things weren't so nice. Cultures were being lost because new ones were being forced upon them and they had to live that way. Also cheap labor was everywhere and their were no labor laws so factories were doing anything to their workers at any age. Also slavery and racial problems began, because no matter how advanced Africa was they were always looked down upon in disgust by European countries.