Exploitation

• Many Africans were pressed into forced labor. The population of Congo Free State, owned by King Leopold II of Belgium, fell by almost half between 1880 and 1920, with many worked to death, as historian Dr. Saul David explains in "Slavery and the 'Scramble for Africa' " on the BBC History website. The BBC World Service's "The Story of Africa" series further recounts how the British sparked widespread revolts by forcing Africans to work for wages to pay an expensive "hut tax."
  
  

Medicine and Missionaries

• Other colonists were eager to bring what they saw as salvation to the continent, with missionaries establishing churches, schools and hospitals and introducing modern medicine. Some Africans perhaps had practical and spiritual reasons for conversion, explains the BBC; for example, King M'tesa of Uganda requested both a priest and "excellent guns" from the British. Nevertheless, the new faith spread rapidly, and 21 percent of the world's Christians live in Africa, according to 2010 Pew Foundation figures.
  
  

Conflict and Corruption

• Upheavals to traditional ways of life often had devastating consequences. Colonies were carved out with little thought to existing nations, and upon independence as many as 10,000 societies were squeezed into 40 countries, notes historian Martin Meredith in his "The Fate of Africa" interview for "The Washington Post."
  
  Post-independence, many new rulers lacking traditional legitimacy used the state to distribute favors and buy loyalty. Corruption and economic stagnation became common, with Meredith estimating almost 40 percent of Africa's wealth held overseas.
  
  

Independence

• Global links forged by colonization did introduce Africans to ideas of social upheaval and national independence developed in the West. African authors such as Franz Fanon of Tunisia and Chinua Achebe of Nigeria wrote novels denouncing imperial rule that resonated around the globe, while leaders like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana returned from abroad inspired by new thinkers, including Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois, to demand independence for their homelands.