The place and role of the players in colonial expansion

At the end of the eighteenth century, the independence of the United States seemed to have rendered obsolete any idea of colonial domination in an identical form to that of the ancien régime by the European states. Later, trade resulting from this old colonial system also seemed to be doomed to failure confronted with the development of a new economy based on industrial capitalism. It may seem surprising therefore that, decades later, Europeans colonised Africa.