Question

Define colonialism. B. Identify a major colonizer of the African continent. C. Describe the concept of a superimposed boundary. D. Explain with example, a political consequence of superimposed boundaries in Africa. E. Explain with example, a cultural consequence of superimposed boundaries in Africa F. Identify a landlocked African country. G. Explain one challenge landlocked African countries face in developing viable economies.

Answer 1

A. and B. Colonialism is a practice or policy through which one country imposes itself over another, uses it economically, sets its forces there, and moves in settlers. Such country in Africa was France.

Explanation:

The colonialism is a practice or policy when a country that is powerful economically and has strong military attacks another country, manages to conquer it, sets its own institutions, military presence, moves in settlers, and exploits the area economically. While this process is mostly used for the period from the 15th to the early 20th century, in fact it has been present since the antique period.

One of the regions that was entirely colonized was Africa. The European countries, at the peak of their power, managed to get large portions of the continent for themselves and use them for their development. Such country was France, which managed to colonize lot of Western, Central, and Northern Africa.

C. and D. Superimposed boundary is a boundary set by outside forces, and the constant conflicts have been one of the major political consequences because of it.

Explanation:

There are multiple different types of boundaries, and they vary from region to region. One of those types is the superimposed boundary. This boundary type basically has been set by outside forces, usually former colonists, and the people of the area had no say in it whatsoever. This has largely been the case in Africa.

The boundaries in Africa are almost entirely of this type. This has caused lot of problems, as people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds have been put in the same boundary, despite having ''bad blood'' between them traditionally. One political consequence of this has been the terrorizing of some groups of people because of their ethnic or religious background, leading to civil wars and genocides.

E. A cultural consequence has been the internal divisions in the countries.

Explanation:

The superimposed boundaries have caused much more problems than solutions. Because the people's will has not been respected when the boundaries have been imposed, but instead they were set by the will of the former colonizers, the countries suffer badly to this day.

There are many cultural consequences from this, one of which is the internal division based on the culture. Nigeria is an excellent example. Being a country with hundreds of religions, languages, and cultures in general, the people have different views, practice different things, and often can not even understand each other because they speak different languages. The end result has been formation of territories where only people of a particular group are allowed, while the others are treated violently, so the country has become highly divided because of cultural differences, and highly unsafe.

F. and G. A landlocked African country is Chad, and the problems in development come not just from its own policies, but also because it is heavily dependent on its neighbors.

Explanation:

There are multiple countries in Africa that are landlocked, and all of them, except for one (in the past decade) have huge problems, especially when it comes to developing their economies. Such country is Chad, which is a very large country in Central Africa.

Chad is surrounded by several countries that have access to the sea, so while that may seem helpful, it actually isn't in practice. Because Chad doesn't have access to sea it is heavily dependent on its neighbors, which gives them huge advantage when it comes to politics and negotiations.

In order for Chad to export anything, it has to go through the neighboring countries, so they use this and take Chad's resources for extremely low compensation, thus improving their economies, and also resell them for higher prices. If Chad doesn't want to obey to the rules set by its neighbors, they can simply shut the borders, so Chad will immediately suffer and will be left without basic means for functioning.