Why were the European nations able to carve Africa up for themselves ?

Can you give me some hints to be able to answer this question please? thank you

2 answers

They could do it because no one seriously opposed them. The Europeans had better organizations and weapons than the Africans.
If you are really interested in how this happened, you should read Chinua Achebe's books, especially Things Fall Apart. Even though he wrote fiction, he was telling the story of what happened to his homeland.

The consecutive books are very enlightening, too, so be sure to read them in order!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe#Works