For Economic reasons. Areas farther out areas had land that was poor for farming.
Idn't Spain have more colonies in Africa?
OK. During the era of exploration, the Portuguese were sailing around the coast of Africa and began their colonies in Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and Sao Tome y Principe. By the 1500's, Spain was preoccupied by explanding their empire in the Americas. Africa was then ignored for centuries before the introduction of quamine, which allowed Europeans to travel inland in Africa without dropping like flies from malaria. Hence, in the 1870's the scramble for Africa began! The British and French, the two largest Western powers of the day, took the most land in Africa. Germany too took colonies...Cameroon, Tanzania, Togo and Namibia were German colonies before WWI. Even Belgium took the Congo (they actually began the Scramble for Africa after circumnaviagting the Congo River). After WWI, they would also take Rwanda and Burundi from the Germans.
