How did the Scramble for Africa in the 1800's and 1900's effect the current borders of Africa?
1 Answer
It made the borders geometric and ignored the cultural regions where "borders" already were.
Explanation:
During the Scramble for Africa, every nation-state of Europe was in a frenzy trying to get as much land as possible. (Think of it like this- at a little kid's birthday party, it's pinata time. Someone finally broke the pinata, and thus, everyone is trying to get as much candy as possible without caring who gets hurt.)
Europeans conquered lands, erasing the global culture residing there. Because the concept of a state is European (and only Europeans draw lines on the ground and claim that and their's) they superimposed boundaries according to their own desires, and since it's easiest to tell who's land is who's using geometric lines, that's what they used (because they're all selfish pricks, gross).
