Scramble for Africa: How European Empires Took Over a Continent (opens in new tab)

The result of the Scramble for Africa was a continent partitioned on the map by a cartographer’s ruler, but with a physical reality of damaging divisions between local peoples and traditional trade networks. Natural resources and indigenous peoples were ruthlessly exploited for profit. By the early 20th century, only two African states were free from some sort of European control.