And then sometimes you break a lot of eggs and you don't get an omelet. Europeans had been involved in Africa since the 16th century, when the Portuguese used their cannons to take control of cities on coasts to set up their trading post empire. But in the second half of the 19th century, Europe suddenly and spectacularly succeeded at colonizing basically all of Africa. Why? Well, the biggest reason that Europeans were able to extend their grasp over so much of the world was the same reason they wanted to do so in the first place, industrialization. Nationalism played its part, of course. European states saw it as a real bonus to be able to say that they had colonies, so much so that a children's rhyme in an ABC for Baby Patriots went, C is for colonies, rightly we boast, that of all the great countries, Great Britain has the most.