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The Civilization Mission
The 18th century was an era of radical reorientation of politics, science, communication
and philosophy in medieval Europe (Monatschrift et al.). These changes marked what came to be
known as the Age of Reason or simply, the Enlightenment by its participants. Key scientists,
politicians and philosophers campaigned for a society governed by reasons rather than traditional
authority (Monatschrift et al.). As a result, books, articles, inventions, discoveries, wars, and
revolutions, were promoted with an intention of improving humanity. In England, the early
Enlightenment dates back to the 1680s. Isaac Newton published his first work on Principia
Mathematica while John Locke wrote his Essay Concerning Human Understanding
(Monatschrift et al.). These works formed the foundations for mathematical, philosophical and
scientific significant strides witnessed presently.
While Europe and North America made major advancements regarding technology,
governance and economic developments, African and the rest of the world remained largely
primitive and underdeveloped (Adas 69). Their ways of life were mostly seen as savage and
barbaric, with despotic leaders who were only interested in warfare. The European rulers,
therefore, felt it their responsibility to bring Western civilization to what they considered
backward Africa (Adas 69). This civilization mission was to westernize the African people per
the Enlightenment thinkers ideologies. Missionaries and reformers rushed to Africa with an
intention of spreading religious principles and education. The group was quickly followed by

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others who advocated for colonial expansion as a means of promoting Christianity, good
governance and economic development (Adas 69).
This quest for Africans Enlightenment is what led to the full-blown scramble and the
eventual partitioning of Africa in 1884 (Rodney 136). Around this time, European powers were
fighting one another for territories, expansion space for their economic ventures and markets for
their produce. Africa, Asia, and parts of South America constituted some of their primary
expansion targets for they remained mostly unexploited. For some countries like Portugal,
though, Africa presented an excellent opportunity for then their immediate needs to revamp their
ailing economies (Rodney 136). To understand this unscrupulous tearing and grabbing of
whatever piece of Africa by our more enlightened European robbers,' it is entirely appropriate to
review the sequence of events that necessitated and finally gave way for it.
Centuries before colonization, Africa was mostly communal and feudal. Europe on the
other side, having embraced Enlightenment ideologies, was completely capitalist (Rodney 135).
The European economy was booming, and the competition was stiffening. Those who were outcompeted in their native countries were forced to look for other opportunities abroad, and so they
moved their trade to Africa, Asia and other underexploited states of Latin America (Rodney 136).
As a result, their businesses grew and attracted even more attention from their counterparts,
monopolies and even governments about their new found goldmines.' Shortly after, every route
was leading to Africa: spreading foreign capitalism on their way and thus heightening
underdevelopment in these foreign countries (Rodney 138). It was thus, not long again before the
European powers need to expand their economic domination globally, also known as
imperialism, drifted to include the need to exert direct political control, otherwise known as
colonization, over these subservient nations (Rodney 139).

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It is sad that even countries such as Britain, France, Portugal and Belgium that rushed to
Africa with rhetorics such as the abolition of slave trade, assimilation for economic and political
empowerment, soon turned out to be just another group of capital imperialists. Exploiting
Africas resources to enrich their native countries while leaving it impoverished and
underdeveloped. Africa endured several years of extreme oppression in the hands of foreign
governments who almost believed that it required their colonization if it were to develop beyond
the stages it had reached during the precolonial era (Rodney 139).

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Works Cited
Adas, Michael. "Contested Hegemony: The Great War and the Afro Asian Assault on the
Civilizing Mission." Decolonization: Perspectives from Now and Then (2010). Print
Rodney, Walter. "How Europe Then Underdeveloped Africa." The Beyond Borders: Thinking
Critically about Global Issues (1972): 134-139. Print
Monatschrift, Berlinische, and Was ist Aufklrung. "Michel Foucault. What is Enlightenment?"
(1984). Print