Analyze the Policies of Three European Colonial Powers Regarding Africa Between 1871 and 1914

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Exploitation of the native population didn’t begin in the nineteenth century. The idea that natives are inferior to the white race and the overall inequity toward the native population dates back to the fifteenth and sixteenth century. When the first signs of colonial expansion were seen in Europe, Spanish and Portuguese colonists sailed to the new world and implemented harsh policies on the native Indians when they arrived. The Indians, similarly to the Africans during the nineteenth and twentieth century were forced to work on sugar plantation and produce crops under cruel working conditions. European explorers during the age of exploration had no respect for the native population or their culture. A similar practice that was done with the American natives as well as the African natives was manipulative system in which Europeans robbed the natives of any chance of workable pay. During the age of exploration it was known as the Encomienda system in which the Spaniards would heavily tax the natives, giving them no choice but to work on mines and fields with little to no pay. Africans during European colonization in the nineteenth century had to go through a similar process. The fact that the same type of unequal treatment and attitude toward the native population, whether it was in the New World or in the African continent, continued for centuries in Europe demonstrates that the lack of sympathy Europeans have for other cultures is not a new regime that is brought on by imperialism, but rather a traditional one that has been established for centuries.