The Dark Continent - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 345

Figure 24.1. Flag map of European Colonies in 1913
This sudden upswing in European colonialism can be traced to two overarching reasons,
one internal and the other external. The former related to how capitalism was thought to
grow and thrive in newly industrialized Europe. At some point in the evolution of domest-
ic capitalism, as its theorists (as well as its detractors such as Lenin in his Imperialism:
The Highest Stage of Capitalism ) suggest, capitalism will stop growing unless it expands
beyond its national borders in search of both raw materials for use in the manufacturing
stage, and new markets for its finished products. Africa was the most suitable place (along
with the Far East) for turning trade deficits into trade surpluses. And the continent pos-
sessed substantial raw materials not found in Europe but that were now eagerly sought after
by European industry and European consumers. At the start of this interest in Africa, the
search for faraway ports of call controlled by the European powers was not high on the