Influence of Colonialism on Political Structures of Africa Nations Essay

Influence of Colonialism on Political Structures of Africa Nations - Essay Example The first Europeans to settle in Africa were Portuguese in 1446. Other Europeans came in Africa first as missionaries, then as colonizers. The British and German idea was for imperialism while the French had no problems with assimilation. The numerous natural resources made Africa attractive to most European nations. Presently, like most parts of the world, Africa has different people, cultures, languages and history partly because of colonialism (Hrituleac 2). Various literatures exist on the influence of colonization to countries. However, most political science and history research analyzes the implication of colonialism in a holistic manner. Ziltener and Kunzler observe that this analysis is not sufficient as different colonial methods were used in different colonies (305). Moreover, the debate of the political and economic influence of colonialism in Africa is still open with some school of thoughts arguing that colonialism has assisted Africa more than exploited it. The assistance in infrastructure, education, urbanization, new political and economic systems is often cited. This paper will attempt to weigh in on the debate by using secondary data to explore the influence of colonialism in Africa by observing three African countries with distinct colonial history.