The history of the peoples of Africa cannot be explained without mentioning the course of the colonization of African countries. Before invasion by the colonial powers, Africans lived in kingdoms which had no proper political demarcations to form countries. The continent owes its demarcation to the colonial powers. The colonial settlers started entering the continent from early 1600s through the African coastal strip. By 1800s they made interior settlements and started alienating resources for their own use leaving the African natives to perish with poverty. This paper examines the events as they unfolded in the history of Africa.

European colonization of the African continent started with mere European settlements along the African coastline. The countries that had a coastline were the very first to experience the sharpness of the pangs of the colonialists. Among these countries were South Africa, Kenya land Algeria.

In South Africa, the European settlements started as early as 1652. This is the time when many European settlers settled in the current Cape Town. They displaced the original inhabitants who were the Khoisan pastoralists and displaced their herds of cattle in large scale. They alienated the Cape Peninsula and set up a ship station for ships crawling to the east. The Dutch East India Company was used as a vehicle for colonization. It encouraged and supported settlers to settle in the East coast as well as assisted them to acquire slave labour.

In Kenya, the situation was not very different from the one in South Africa. Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in the East coast of Africa at around 14^th century. Most of them toured for trade and exploration purposes. However, from the 16^th century, white settlers established settlements in the East coast later they moved to the interior.

In Algeria the Europeans met a lot of resistance as they conquered the land in the 16^th century. However, the French succeeded in alienating and claiming the colony in the 18^th century. African resistance could not succeed owing to the powerful weaponry of the Europeans.

After conquering the coast of Africa, the numbers of Europeans started increasing day by day in their trips to Africa. A new land for investment and opportunity, as well as marketing of excess production, had been found. The Europeans, therefore, invaded the interior. They established companies and even sought the help of their governments. The governments back at home formulated policies to encourage massive settlements of settlers into the African continent

By around 1800s most of the interior of Africa had been claimed by the Europeans. They invaded the interior for various reasons. Majority of them settled for economic reasons. They were farmers and the African land was fertile. This led to the alienation of the African land by the Europeans. Other Europeans went to Africa to spread Christianity and western civilization. The wind of imperialism, which had swept across the whole world, demanded the spread of western civilization in order to gain a greater audience. Further, other Europeans went to Africa as administrators and appointees of the colonial government. They implemented the policies set by the mother countries to the colony.

The scramble for and partition of Africa developed strong roots in the 18^th century around 1835 when the Berlin conference was held. The main aim of the conference was to decide which European power was to take a particular African country. Without the consent of Africans, their continent was shared among the Europeans. Some of the worst happenings were that some countries were divided into two. The Africans tried to resist by all means but their weapons were outdated.

Even though the Europeans claimed to provide help to the peoples of Africa, the true essence of the colonization was that African resources were alienated to develop industries in Europe. Worse of all was the alienation of African land rendering them landless. Most of the Africans were forced to provide labour to the Europeans. The torture continued until the 19^th century when majority of the African countries gained independence.

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