Features

• The site of many religious conflicts, Africa has strong Christian and Muslim bases. These religions stemmed from years of influence by European colonization and Middle Eastern influence.
  
  

Significance

• Slavery represented a major cultural disaster for the continent. Muslim Africans and Europeans took part in the slave-trading business.
  
  

Considerations

• Europeans waged a number of major conflicts against Africa nations in an effort to subjugate the population. Notably, the Napoleonic Wars spread into Egypt and the British faced a protracted conflict with the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa.
  
  

Geography

• From the 15th century until the 20th century, European nations partitioned Africa into a variety of colonies. The most influential of these were Portugal, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany.
  
  

Effects

• Imperialism ended in Africa during the 20th century. Beginning with the decolonization of Libya in 1951, the trend continued through the 1980s. Some European countries did not want to relinquish control of their colonies, resulting in a number of conflicts.