Ned Lebow : KCL – Lecture 25: Colonialism: Scramble for Africa

Europe had long been engaged with Africa, but mostly in coastal areas. From 1870 to 1914, European powers penetrated inland and established formal control over these territories and competed with one another more intensely for colonial spoils.

Hobson and Lenin famously attributed this phenomenon to the inherent contradictions of capitalism, and Gallagher and Robinson to geopolitics. I critique these explanations and make the case for the competition for status as the underlying cause of colonial expansion.