France’s scramble for Africa/Social Attitudes (knowledge of the time, “liberalism,” religion, values)

            During the colonization of France in Africa, France influenced Africa positively through engraving constructive social attitudes to their culture. Africa contains a very diverse population, the reason being because of the history of the countries in the continent.

            Over the years the Europeans have brought their own culture and religion to the area as they colonized Africa. One of the goals of colonization was to introduce Christianity to the Africans. In large part West Africa was colonized by the French who tried to introduce Catholicism as well as their own culture. Other countries in the region where colonized by the British or Portuguese, these have completely different cultures. The differences are not just the result of the different cultures of the European nations but also because of the different ways in which they colonized them. The British were much more forceful than the French were for example.

            The West African nations have also experienced a large influence from Muslims coming from North Africa. In the early years this was just a trading arrangement but over time they settled in the region as well. This has brought and additional religion and culture that has affected these countries. In general the farther north you go in West Africa the larger the Muslim presence will be, in some cases they will represent nearly half the population. There are some exceptions however as the French were more accepting of the Muslims in their colonies than the other European nations so the former French colonies tend to have a larger Muslim influence.