The scramble for Africa refers to the colonization of Africa in the late 1800’s and beginning of the 1900’s. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “before 1880 colonial possessions in Africa were relatively few and limited to coastal areas, with large sections of the coastline and almost all the interior still independent. By 1900 Africa was almost entirely divided into separate territories that were under the administration of European nations.” Many countries sought the resources available as well as the power to control these areas. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad explores the colonization of the Congo. G. N. Uzoigwe sums up the cause of this scramble to stem from Britain occupying Egypt. He says, “Africa was economically worthless; the leading European partitioners of the continent, with the possible exception of Leopold II and the later Francesco Crispi, were not imperialistically minded; if the European statesmen of the period had had their choice they would have preferred to maintain informal influence in Africa. But this was not to be. They stumbled into Africa not because of European considerations per se but because of crucial changes in the African states themselves” (Uzoigwe 32). Uzoigwe believes that the informal ruling was working for the African Natives.

Uzoigwe, G. N. “The Victorians and East Africa, 1882-1900: The Robinson-Gallagher Thesis Revisited.” Transafrican Journal of History, vol. 5, no. 2, 1976, pp. 32–65. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24520235.

"Western colonialism." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 28 Apr. 2023. academic-eb-com.thielcollege.idm.oclc.org/levels/collegiate/article/Western-colonialism/106074.