As for the political reasons, Britain simply wanted to remain competitive with oth

Other British imperialistic actions were focused on limiting the increase of French power, responding to British public opinion, and maintaining the pride of the empire. The British were not motivated by a desire to better the African people, control Nigeria, stop the slave trade, or defeat the Boers because it was the right thing to do. They did such things because these actions were necessary for them to protect and fortify their coastal territories. There was no "white man's burden" in the minds of the British policy makers, they were only concerned with ensuring Britain's position as the richest, most powerful, and most prestigious country in the world. These qualities mainly came from money, and money came from India. That was the underlying tenet of all British imperialism.

The main route to India involved traveling completely around Africa to get to the Indian Ocean. The British had regularly spaced stations along both coasts designed to resupply ships as needed. They had also gained control of the Dutch possessions in South Africa as a result of the Congress of Vienna and had established a colony on the Cape of Good Hope. Once the scramble for Africa began, they moved in and formally established themselves in what was Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togoland, Gold Coast, Nigeria, and British Cameroon on the west coast and Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Kenya, and British Somaliland on the east coast. The British just normally expanded their established trading ports, but they did use threats of force against the locals when necessary, as in Zanzibar. To them, the importance of maintaining a sea route to India was reason enough to take any needed action.

From 1869 until nearly the start of World War I, the British practiced imperialism in Africa out of fear of losing their empire. They took South Africa and Egypt to keep India from being stolen, and they annexed other parts of Africa (such as areas around the Niger) to compete economically with France and Germany, and to keep the land they already had from being taken by France and Germany. They also annexed land in order to have allies in case a war should start. The British claimed they didn't want to practice imperialism; that Germany and France forced them to do it to keep their empire. Maybe so, but fear of losing the British economic status and the British empire to Germany and France, not Germany and France forcing imperialism down the English people's throat, seems to be the better answer to why the British practiced imperialism in Africa from 1869 to 1913.

The reason that Africa became an object of a nationalist focus for humanitarianism and media was because it was cheap. As I said before just a few British officers and a small body of British trained Africans could conquer entire regions. So a vast majority of the people who died conquering Africa were Africans.

Some topics in this essay:
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