The Long-Term Effects of Imperialism on African Society

For the peoples of Africa in many parts, European rule meant an end to horrific practices like slavery and caste-based discrimination. The conquest of Africa gave Europeans an inflated view of themselves and of their place in the world. Imperial overlords allowed or even committed barbaric atrocities, possibly up to and including genocide. In lands annexed directly by the Europeans, the decades of white rule left locals with no institutions or trained leaders capable of governing their fellow former subjects.