Causes of Colonization in Africa

I read an article titled, What Caused the Scramble for Africa?, by Alistair Boddy-Evans. This article talks about many causes of the colonization of Africa, but I found two of them particularly interesting. First of all, this article says that a reason for the colonization of Africa was the end of the slave trade. When Europeans heard that there were still slaves being used and traded in inland Africa, they felt the need to go in there and stop it, which naturally led to them just colonizing all of where they were. I can't help but relate this to the US today when we felt that we needed to go into Iraq and stop Saddam Hussein, which is good, but now we are not leaving. This is just like the Europeans who went in with good intentions, but never left. A second reason that stuck out to me was how in the late 1860s, Europeans really separated themselves from Africa militarisictly with the invetion of percussion caps and breach loading rifles (Boddy- Evans). This stuck out to me because it just reenforces a life lesson of just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you should. Again, I see this directly in Iraq with the US because just because we can do something over there doesn't mean we should.

http://africanhistory.about.com/od/eracolonialism/a/ScrambleWhy.htm

Boddy-Evans, Alistair. "What Caused the Scramble for Africa?." About.com. About.com. 11 Mar 2009 .