THE EUROPEAN UNION’S AND THE UNITED STATES’ INTERESTS IN AFRICA IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

The international magazine The Economistpublished a special issue on the African continent with the title “Africa Rising”.It acknowledged the continent’s potential, including its rich natural resources which have begun to attract the rest of the world. The world is now keen to develop trade and political relations with Africa. The Europeans called it the ‘dark continent’ and except for forays into it for kidnapping people to sell them as slaves in the Americas, they generally ignored Africa, until the nineteenth century,when they began competing among themselves for colonizing it, to exploit its rich natural resources. In the sixties, many African countries gained independence from their colonial masters and a short period of euphoria followed, when the Africans believed that as independent countries they would soon become prosperous and developed.