As early as the 15th century, Africa beckoned the expansionist and commercial interests of various European powers due to its proximity to the European continent and the promises of wealth and resources it offered. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, European intrusion into Africa was primarily focused on the slave trade to feed the labor needs of plantations in South and North American colonies.

More than 12 million Africans were removed from their native lands in the slave trade as it fed the Western Hemisphere’s growth and as political power increasingly relied on territorial and resource expansion. The European powers eventually lay claim to various parts of Africa and divided it among themselves through treaties and warfare.

What were deemed zones of influence and commercial outposts became colonies annexed to European powers by the beginning of the 19th century. The first French colonial military foray into Africa, for example, was in Algeria in 1830. France’s King Charles X sent his army in revenge for the Algerian assault on the French Consul. As a result, in 1848 Algeria was claimed part of the republic of France and became part of one of the largest and longest lasting colonial empires in the world. French expansion into Africa continued and established France as a colonial power until the turn of the century.

Despite internal disputes about the merits and disadvantages of colonial expansion, France gave itself to a course of expansionism that would incorporate Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia in North Africa and parts of West Africa, Equatorial Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. France started a policy of assimilation intent making the citizens of the colonies part of the “mother country.” While the French, German, Belgian, and Portuguese powers aimed at centralization and incorporating African colonies under their governance, the British colonial policy leant more toward indirect rule.

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Nonetheless, the colonial powers managed to divide Africa on their terms, creating administrative boundaries according to their own needs and power struggles as opposed to indigenous territorial claims. Today’s African states largely reflect the divisions established by European colonial powers.

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