Effects Of Imperialism In Rwanda

986 Words4 Pages
Thesis In the early months of April began a horrific genocide in Rwanda, a small country in Africa, which killed over 500,000 people. This massacre involved the two groups, the Tutsi and Hutu that were rebel forces who tried to gain top forces of the Rwandan government. These two groups were extremists, which the hutu blamed the Tutsi majority for the reason of the political social and economic problems that were increasing in the country. Angered by a declining government and no political support to take action and help the civilians, the Hutu forces rebelled and by the end of April had killed over 1,000 Rwandan civilians. It is important to recognize who the different ethnic groups in Rwanda were and notice their existing indifferences…show more content…
In the mid 1800’s, western powers had taken advantage of their power and created colonies throughout Africa. To the Western Europeans, Africa provided raw materials, cheap labor and an opportunity for new markets to develop for their advancements. Colonizing powers began competing with each other over control throughout Africa. To settle the conflict, a conference was established to set ground rules on who could take over and control parts of Africa. This conference became know as the Berlin Conference, or the West African conference that was from 1884 to 1885. At this conference, the United States, Germany, Belgium, and Spain were amongst 14 other Colonial powers who attended the meeting. It was at this meeting when the continent of Africa was divided into 50 countries and claimed as colonial powers. The division of the continent disregarded the possibilities of cultural and traditional loss between Africans and the effect it would have on the people. The effect of colonization permanently impacted Africa as a whole. As a result, people who belonged to the same ethnic groups were separated by arbitrary national borders, and warring ethnic groups were brought upon the same government. So how did this rule of colonization affect Rwanda? The region that became known as Rwanda was colonized by Germany in the late 1800’s, but it was not until after 9 years after the Berlin…show more content…
During this time period, Germany invaded Belgium during the peak of World War 1 and out of retaliation, Belgium troops moved into Rwanda in 1916 in order to show off their dominance. In the aftermaths of the war, the League of Nations granted Belgium the right to colonize Rwanda, kicking Germany out of rule. While they were in Rwanda the Belgians began to observe the distinction between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups and made it a basis for their colonial system. The Hutu were subjected to forced labor which disrupted many of the European colonies in Africa. While performing their labored tasks, the Tutsi acted as their supervisors. The Belgians noticing the social and economic social class difference began to discriminate against the Hutu and favored the Tutsi group. Later on they switched sides and favored the Hutu’s. In 1933, ethnic identity cards were given to distinguish the two groups from each other. The Belgians only possible reason for this divide was to fortify their control of the country. Racial classification is another possible factor as to why the Belgians divided Rwanda’s population. The German’s were influenced by racist ideas and believed that the reason as to why the Tutsi were more superior than the Hutu was because they were a lot more “white looking.” Eye color and the size of your nose
Show More
Related

  • Imperialism Research Paper

    1124 Words  | 5 Pages

    Should a person believe imperialism is a blessing or a curse? This question can lean towards either direction due to the arguments that both sides can contribute; however, Imperialism is a curse due to what imperialism all entails. Imperialism is related to the underdevelopment of third world countries. the non-humanitarian treatment of natives in the region and also the racial and social descrimination, which has lead to genocides. These are all reasons why imperialism is a curse. Starting with

    Read More

  • Congo Imperialism Essay

    1120 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Belgians first imperialized the Congo Free State, situated in the middle of Africa, in 1877. Prior to the colonization there was the Luba, Lunda and the Kongo Empire who were all ruled by a king. The Luba Empire was the largest of the kingdoms. Before the colonization by the Belgians, the territory’s land was largely untouched and was rich in natural resources [1] [2] [3]. The Luba army was very small due to the lack of threats from other empires; the kingdoms additionally developed in size through

    Read More

  • English And The English Language: The Spread Of English

    1538 Words  | 7 Pages

    influence due to power relations in communities around the world. Furthermore, Robert Philipson suggested a linguistic imperialism theory, to discuss the relevance between the spread of English and power relations. As well as, Imperialism refers to a system that a dominant country controls other poorer developing countries politically and economically in the same time linguistic imperialism indicates the transfer of a dominant language and culture to other countries this transfer implicates a manifestation

    Read More

More about Effects Of Imperialism In Rwanda

Open Document