The Dark Continent - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 344

EARLY EXPLORERS
The first two-thirds of the nineteenth century witnessed a dramatic increase in the explor-
ation (as opposed to exploitation) of the African continent. In addition to Stanley and Liv-
ingstone's exploration of southern and central Africa, men like Richard Burton (not the
actor), John Speke and James Grant ventured into the great lakes region in the center of
Africa and to the source of the Nile, adding much knowledge of the continent and building
upon that gained earlier of northwestern Africa. And by the end of the nineteenth century,
most major river systems had been fully explored and the huge varied resource base of the
continent fully uncovered and charted.
By two-thirds through the nineteenth century only ten percent of Africa was under the
control of foreign colonial powers. Portugal, Britain and France had made, by later com-
parison, modest forays into the continent and had seized the equivalent of five present-day
countries. It was about to change, however, so that by the beginning of World War I all of
Africa except for Ethiopia and Liberia were under European colonial control. The global
thirst for African riches drove the European colonial powers into competition, their thirst
wetted by triumphs in other parts of the world.
CAPITALISM AND IMPERIALISM