ABSTRACT
An economic system both domestic and international had been established by European powers in which they alone, to the exclusion of the African, determined the price of Africa’s raw materials. Often attempts have been made to distinguish between different types of colonial rule in Africa. One of the most adverse consequences of colonization was the arbitrary partitioning of Africa by the colonizing powers in their scramble for an empire. The boundaries of the present African states were drawn in European capitals with predominantly political, strategic, and commercial interests of the colonizers in mind, almost totally disregarding whether any ethnic group was cut up into pieces by the new frontier lines. There is some controversy as to whether European colonial powers deliberately prepared African colonies for independence. Among some academics the British system is credited with having been more benevolent, leaning toward a greater devolution of power to colonials than others.
