King Leopold II of Belgium sent the American journalist Henry Stanley into the Congo with the intention of colonizing the region. He laid his claim to the territory at the Berlin Conference, making it his private property and claiming humanitarian objectives. However, the colony soon revolved around the production of rubber and ivory, forcing Africans to meet quotas for rubber production. To enforce the rubber quotas, the Force Publique would cut off the hands or limbs of anyone who failed to meet quota or work efficiently. Millions of Africans died from disease, overwork, and mistreatment. They were also forced to complete infrastructure projects, such as a railroad that linked the coast to the capital, Leopoldville; and in rural areas, many were also forced to grow crops like coffee, cotton, and tea for export. Discoveries of precious metals and minerals such as cobalt, gold, copper, and diamonds led to the further extraction of Congo’s resources for European gain using forced Congolese labor. The Congo Free State blurred the lines between state and private enterprise, with Leopold running it as his personal domain, for a time. 

The atrocities in the Congo became a global scandal, leading to international outcry and eventual transfer of control to the Belgian state in 1908, renamed the Belgian Congo. This transition highlighted the limits of unchecked imperial power when confronted by international accountability. However, colonial administrators retained total control. There were indigenous courts in addition to colonial courts, but they had limited power and were under control of the colonial administration. Laws stated that "Nobody can be forced to work on behalf of and for the profit of companies or privates", but this law was not enforced, and the Belgian government 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.

The French interest in Algeria started in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, when France wanted to increase its prestige, influence, and commerce. France invaded in 1830 and ended the Ottoman Empire's control of Algeria, but Algerians resisted French control for another few decades. Between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Algerians were killed within the first three decades of the conquest due to war, massacres, disease, and famine. Algeria became a settler colony and a destination for many Europeans (called colons). 

French colonial policy in Algeria oscillated between attempts to assimilate Algerians as "French citizens" and the systemic exclusion of the Muslim majority. Algeria was considered an integral part of France, yet most Algerians were denied full citizenship rights. By the late nineteenth century, colonial policies had turned Muslims into second-class citizens compared to the European settlers (colons). Algerians could only gain French citizenship if they agreed to disregard Islamic civil law and assimilate to European culture. Settlers held disproportionate power, often marginalizing native Algerians economically and politically. By 1936, out of a population of more than 4.5 million, only 2,500 Muslim Algerians had chosen to become citizens. 

Informal segregation kept Algerians out of certain neighborhoods, beaches, and businesses and prevented them from criticizing the colonial government. Many Algerians had to work for low wages on farms or in cities to avoid outright poverty. French citizens, despite being a minority, held 30% of the land. The economy focused mainly on exporting raw materials and foodstuffs (like wine and wheat) to France. Meanwhile, Algeria became an importer of French manufactures. Native Algerians paid additional taxes from which the French settlers were exempt. In the 1890s, the French colonial officials started a school system, but the curriculum was entirely French and allowed no place for Arabic studies. These schools helped create an educated and privileged class of Algerians strongly influenced by French culture, but it also left a deeper divide between those who became citizens and those who were "subjects." By 1954, some Algerian Muslims could no longer speak Arabic, and most could not read or write in Arabic. It was at this time that the Algerian independence movement intensified. 

In 1850, the British formalized their control of the coastal region—which it called the Gold Coast—by making it a colonial protectorate. The British wanted to protect their merchants from the Asante, a powerful African state that controlled the land to the north and had dominated trade in the region for centuries. By the early 1800s, the Asante had acquired extensive weaponry thanks to the slave trade, and the British were unable to defeat them until they expanded their technological advantage in the late 19th century. In 1874, the Asante were forced to sign the Treaty of Fomena, ceding land claims and forts to the British. When the Asante rebelled against the British in 1900, the British used it as a pretext to annex the Asante lands as a protectorate. 

Africans continued to produce palm oil, gold (now in mines controlled by European companies), ivory, gold, timber, and cocoa for export, but it was British companies that reaped the rewards. The British built railroads and other transportation infrastructure to make this trade more efficient and create an export-oriented economy, leaving many Africans angered that profits from trade now went to the British. 

The British Empire often relied on local elites to administer colonies. In the Gold Coast, they worked through chiefs and traditional councils, creating a hybrid governance structure that balanced control with accommodation. Africans could be elected to the legislative council, but its only power was to advise (not direct) the crown appointed governor of the colony. The British put limits on the power of local traditional leaders, who now had to meet the demands of colonial authorities. Revenues from mineral exports in particular supported the founding of British-style education and missionary schools that created an elite class of educated Ghanaians who would ultimately lead calls for independence. 

In South Africa, Cape Colony was originally a Dutch settlement, but it came under British rule in 1806. British mining magnate Cecil Rhodes began buying up diamond fields in Cape Colony, eventually forming De Beers, an international diamond mining and manufacturing company. Rhodes claimed that "Africa is still lying ready for us. It is our duty to take it." He dreamed of creating a vast British Empire, and after becoming a member of Cape Parliament in 1881, he started organizing protectorates over his mining concessions. He also duped African leaders into signing treaties and land concessions in order to gain more mining and farming rights for his newly created British South Africa Company. He also oversaw the passage of the Glen Grey Act, which privatized land and forced Xhosa (an African ethnic group) men into employment on commercial farms or in industry. By 1896 Rhodes' company forces had put down all resistance to his advances and a new addition to the British Empire was aptly named Rhodesia (present day Zambia and Zimbabwe) after its founder.