Blog #12

This section of reading was very interesting to me. I found it ironic that many countries in Europe at the time were becoming increasingly democratic while the countries were creating vast empires around the world. The empires that they were creating around the world were dictatorships that suppressed many of the native people. I believe that the main reason that this happened was because of the European greed. The Aristocratic Europeans found a way to make more money and took advantage. I don't know if the common european knew about how the natives of other countries were treated but I am sure that if they had seen or knew about the conditions then many of the inequalities that took place would not have happened.
It took me by surprise that the European nations were able to divide the continent of Africa in less than 20 years. Did the Europeans travel all of that land? Did they discover all of it then claim it for themselves or did all the countries come together and decided who got what? I want to know how the countries divided up the land and how they were able to conquer it so quickly. I am also surprised that the Europeans were able to make so many colonies in Asia. I thought that Asia was supposed to be strong and powerful. I also assumed that because there were large populations of people in the Asian countries that they would be harder to conquer.
The first visual source, the board game, is suggesting that European life in Africa was not bad. The board game is suggesting that the European life consisted of shooting at Africans, fishing, and making sure that Africans were doing their work. The board game also is portraying the land as exotic because of the different types of animals such as lions, giraffes, and zebra. I believe the board game is meant to lure more Europeans to Africa by trying to make it seem more attractive.