What led to the scramble for and partition of Southern Africa

What led to the scramble for and partition of Southern Africa

The Industrial Revolution in Europe.
The competition for raw materials for their ind~tries intensified the scramble of the region to serve as sources of supply.
Need for the investment of surplus capital due to the accumulation of profits in these European countries - 'the need arose for new areas where the surplus capital could be more profitably invested. '
Pressure from European merchants and trading companies upon their home governments to give them protection.
The prospect for the discovery of large mineral deposits in other areas of South Africa in the wave of the 1867 Diamond discovery.
The influence which contemporary European rivalries had on the scramble - Anglo-Boers conflict, Anglo German and Anglo-Portuguese conflicts / rivalries.
After the acquisition of Alsace - Lorraine in 1871, Germany was determined to acquire areas in Africa. This worried the British goverhment.
Nationalism and prestige among the Dutch and the British.
The Boer occupation of the Cape stills the earliest times and the need to set up a permanent settlement and control in South Africa and its interior.
Activities of other European powers in the region Belgium. Portugal, German, Britain and the Dutch. The exploration of the region.
The strategic importance of Southern Africa and the latter British occupation of Egypt in 1882. This intensified and speeded up the scramble of the area.
The 1884-85 Berlin Conference. It created the feeling among the British that more speed was necessary in the Scramble. The growth of nationalism in Europe to the extent of Jingoism. National prestige and economic interests were the driving
force for imperial activities of men like Cecil Rhodes, Jameson Leander Starr, and Paul Kruger among others.
The reports of explorers and missionaries aroused a new interest in the Sub region.
Social conditions in Europe due to the industrial revolution played apart like Mass Unemployment.
The Darwin's theory of evolution. Although this was an absurd theory with no basis in truth, it did fire the zeal of many European Empire building nations in Europe to the Sub region.