King Leopold II of Belgium sent the American journalist Henry Stanley into the Congo with the intention of colonizing the region. At the Berlin Conference, Leopold claimed the territory as his private property, publicly justifying his rule through humanitarian objectives. In practice, however, his "Congo Free State" quickly became centered on the production of rubber and ivory. Africans were forced to meet rubber quotas enforced by Leopold’s colonial army, the Force Publique. Those who failed to meet quotas often had their hands or limbs cut off. In addition to rubber production, Congolese laborers were compelled to complete major infrastructure projects, including a railroad linking the coast to the capital, Leopoldville. In rural areas, many were also forced to grow export crops such as coffee, cotton, and tea. The discovery of valuable minerals—including cobalt, gold, copper, and diamonds—led to further extraction of Congo’s resources for European gain through coerced labor. The Congo Free State blurred the line between state and private enterprise, functioning as Leopold’s personal domain for a time. Millions of Africans died as a result of disease, overwork, and mistreatment.

But the atrocities in the Congo became a global scandal, leading to international outcry and eventual transfer of control from King Leopold to the Belgian state in 1908, when it was renamed the Belgian Congo. However, colonial administrators retained total control; and while there were indigenous courts in addition to colonial courts, they were under control of the colonial administration. The Belgian government also continued to impose forced labour on the natives. By 1958, Europeans controlled 42% of the colony’s income, with a population of just 110,000, while 13.5 million Congolese controlled the remaining 58%. The colony was racially segregated and highly unequal.

French interest in Algeria intensified after the Napoleonic Wars, as France sought to expand its prestige, influence, and commercial power. In 1830, France invaded Algeria, ending Ottoman rule. Algerians resisted French conquest for decades, and between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Algerians died within the first thirty years due to war, massacres, disease, and famine. Algeria became a settler colony and a destination for European migrants known as colons.

French colonial policy in Algeria alternated between attempts to assimilate Algerians as “French citizens” and the systematic exclusion of the Muslim majority. Although Algeria was considered an integral part of France, most Algerians were denied full citizenship rights. By the late nineteenth century, Muslims had become second-class subjects compared to European settlers. Algerians could gain French citizenship only by renouncing Islamic civil law and fully assimilating into European culture. As a result, settlers wielded disproportionate economic and political power, marginalizing native Algerians. By 1936, out of a population of more than 4.5 million, only about 2,500 Muslim Algerians had chosen to become citizens.

Informal segregation restricted Algerians from certain neighborhoods, beaches, and businesses, while also limiting their ability to criticize the colonial government. Many Algerians worked for low wages on farms or in urban centers to avoid extreme poverty. Despite being a minority, French citizens controlled approximately 30 percent of the land. The colonial economy prioritized the export of raw materials and foodstuffs, such as wine and wheat, to France, while Algeria imported French manufactured goods. Native Algerians also paid additional taxes from which settlers were exempt.

In the 1890s, French officials introduced a colonial school system. The curriculum was entirely French and excluded Arabic language and Islamic studies. While these schools created a small, educated class of Algerians influenced by French culture, they deepened social divisions between citizens and colonial subjects. By 1954, many Algerian Muslims could no longer speak or read Arabic, contributing to cultural dislocation. At the same time, political exclusion and economic inequality fueled the rise of an independence movement that would soon challenge French rule.

In the 19th century, the Asante Empire dominated present day Ghana, ruling through a complex bureaucracy and formidable military and controlling trade networks in the region. But as British trade interests in the Gold Coast region increased in the 19th century, they came into conflict with the Asante. The British ultimately defeated the Asante after a series of wars (1822-1896), the British established the region as a protectorate. When the Asante resisted further British interference in 1900, colonial authorities used the rebellion as justification to annex Asante territory as a colony, though administration was often delegated to local chiefs and councils. African producers continued to supply palm oil, gold, ivory, timber, and cocoa for export. However, mines, railroads, and trading companies were increasingly controlled by European firms, ensuring that profits flowed primarily to Britain.

The British invested in railroads and transportation infrastructure to facilitate resource extraction and export-oriented trade. While these projects increased economic output, they reinforced African dependence on British markets and intensified resentment over foreign control of local wealth. British administrators relied heavily on indirect rule, governing through chiefs and traditional councils. Although Africans could be elected to the colony’s legislative council, the body possessed only advisory powers, with ultimate authority resting in a British-appointed governor.

Colonial rule reshaped local leadership structures, as traditional authorities were required to comply with British demands. Revenues from mineral exports supported the creation of British-style schools and missionary education, producing a small class of educated Africans. This elite group would later play a central role in organizing nationalist movements and advocating for independence, challenging the imperial system that had helped create them.

 In South Africa in particular, imperialism operated through a combination of corporate power, political influence, legal manipulation, and economic coercion. The Cape Colony was originally a Dutch settlement but came under British control in 1806. During the late nineteenth century, British mining magnate Cecil Rhodes played a central role in expanding British influence in the region. He began purchasing diamond fields in the Cape Colony and eventually formed De Beers, an international diamond mining and manufacturing company. He openly argued that “Africa is still lying ready for us. It is our duty to take it."

After becoming a member of the Cape Parliament in 1881, Rhodes extended British control, organizing protectorates around his mining concessions and deceiving African leaders into signing treaties and land concessions that granted his British South Africa Company extensive mining and farming rights, transferring African land to European hands under the appearance of legality. His support of the Glen Grey Act led to the privatization of African land and imposition of taxes that forced Xhosa men into wage labor on commercial farms, in mines, or in urban industries. These policies undermined traditional landholding systems and ensured a steady supply of cheap African labor for European-owned enterprises. By 1896, company forces had crushed organized African resistance to Rhodes’s expansion. The territories seized by the British South Africa Company were incorporated into the British Empire and named Rhodesia (present-day Zambia and Zimbabwe) after Rhodes himself.