Colonialism one hundred years ago, then, had several causes. One was strategic, when it was essential for a trading nation, such as Britain, to guard its trade routes. Another was national prestige, to build a nation at a time when expanding population, growing cities and class differences seemed to be dividing the Western European societies. This was the period when compulsory state education was being established. If school children could be shown a map of the world and told that all the areas in red were British, or all the areas in green were French, they would feel proud to be part of the nation and less likely to be attracted by dangerous new ideas, such as socialism.

The White Man's Burden

Some colonists really thought they were having a civilising effect on Afiica and Asia, bringing not only the benefits of ports and railways, but also a justice system and the Christian religion. It is less likely that economic factors played a large part in the "Scramble for Africa".

It is true that the African colonies supplied raw materials (metals, food stuffs, timber etc.), but they never became the markets for manufactured goods that some had hoped for. The colonies were expensive to administer and expensive to defend. They never really made any money. As a famous English historian, A.J.P. Taylor, wrote after the Second World War:

"Tot up the national balance sheet of any imperial country over the last fifty years and you will find the community is staggeringly out of profit."

Interestingly, some of the biggest overseas profits were made in countries which were not colonised. China, Persia, the Ottoman Empire, Brazil and Argentina, for example, offered some of the best sources of raw materials and markets for manufactured goods, without Europeans having to pay the costs of colonisation.