In the 19th century European powers, started to colonize Africa and gradually by 1900 all Africa was under the rule of the Europeans, except for Liberia and Ethiopia. This all started around 1880 and 1900 in North and West Africa, europeans were interested in this parts of Africa mostly because of its raw materials like for example peanuts and palm oil, this represented an increment in economy for all Europeans, this is one of the reasons of the competition to gain territory. Also in this time ended the slave trade but this caused other forms of trade to increase, and as well when Europeans came into Africa there were some troubles with the African governments.
In 1874, Great Britain colonized many west coastal states, the first was Gold Coast. The British also got interested in Egypt after th construction of the Suez Canal (which was a canal to connect Mediterranean and Red Seas), they tought it was their ticket to India so they tried a lot to gain this territory until 1875 when they bought it, Egyptians were not in agreement so they fought, but in 1914 Egypt became a protectora of Great Britain.
British thought they should also conquest Sudan to protect interests in Egypt, but in 1881 Sudan was under the control of Muhammad Ahmad, so the british sent a military force but it was until 1898 when Great Britain got Sudan. This was followed by France in 1900 adding to its colonies a huge area of West Africa and also in North Africa, when in 1879 a lot of french people and the French government established in Algeria. In 1881 France established a protectorate in Tunisia and in 1912 another in much of Morocco. France also took parts in the north of the Congo River.
Europeans took parts of Central Africa too, it started with some explorers including David Livingstone who passed his time exploring the interior of the continent and sent reports to the british, but in 1873 when he died, Stanley (who was a journalist hired by the british to look for Livingstone) decided to continue David’s work. He explored the Congo River and hurried to notify to the British but they didn’t want, so he notify to King Leopold II of Belgium and he was very excited to put an imperialism in Africa, and in 1877 he told Stanley to establish belgian settlements in the Congo.
Suddenly East Africa was colonized by the Germans, because most of East Africa hadn’t been claimed yet; but then the British, Portugals and Belgians wanted it too. So to make a deal they met at the Berlin Conference(1884-1885) and finally it recognized British ans Germans claims for East African territories.
In South Africa the colonization grew more quickly than in other parts. The Boers, descendants of the dutch, took Cape Town and other parts of South Africa, but then with the Napoleonic Wars, the British captured these territories which were then called Cape Colony.