Prompt: Using the documents, analyze Africana actions and reactions in response to the European Scramble for Africa.
Although some parts of Africa would like to preserve a peaceful relationship with European colonial powers in the short term because local regulators preserved their power as well as gained considerable wealth from them, in the long term, most of the Africans were willing to fight back and rebel against European powers because they largely damaged the culture and society. The scramble for Africa was a period of chaos, specifically colonization by Europeans to divide the lands of Africa. This led to massacres, resource loss, and labor exploitation. Due to the Industrial Revolution, which is marked by the rapid development of industries, European countries were in huge demand of materials, propelling them to colonize Africa and take control of their natural resources. Rebellions toward European powers were raised with the unification effort of African Leaders and their effort in developing weapons.
At the beginning of the Scramble for Africa, European forces attempted to negotiate with African leaders friendly but were met with strong opposition. Document 1 is a standard form signed by multiple African rulers with the Royal Niger Company, which was commissioned by the British government. It states that the Chiefs of the African state agree to let the Royal Niger Company rule over their whole territory for the “bettering of [their] country”, and the Company can pay a “reasonable amount” of money to the native landowners for any portion of land they want. However, it also claims that the company will not interfere with native laws and customs. This shows that colonization begins with signing treaties with native leaders and forcing them to make concessions to their demands. While they made the agreement sound reasonable and their actions are for the good of the African people, it allowed them to take advantage of the African state by facilitating the exploitation of natural resources. While this is a standard form, it was likely used in many circumstances, indicating that some African states gave in to their requirements, while they might be tricked by the ambiguity of the agreement. Document 2, written by Prempeh I, mentions a denial of protection from the British Empire. The tone of Prempeh’s word usage presented a sense of pleasing the British official, using terms such as “her majesty” to avoid conflict from being too arrogant. This indicated Ashanti’s fear of facing the war and the huge demand to maintain a peaceful relationship with the well-developed Western power. Document 3 written by Menelik II, was a letter to a European country seeking help to retreat to several ports along the coast. The king of Ethiopia, cleverly, used their identity as a Christian kingdom to relate to the European empires and lowered their demand for the seacoast boundary to a few ports. It’s an early sign of an African kingdom trying to negotiate and establish a peaceful relationship with European countries and resist colonization.
After a long period of oppression from European colonial rulers, local Africans changed their attitude from pleasing the European power to anger and rebellion. Document 4 illustrates that the living standard of Africans under European’s regulation was like that of slaves. The poor condition of indigenous people led to rebellion, but they lost due to military disadvantage. This was because British rulers built a harsh racial hierarchy to separate local African groups and European elites, and a long time of oppression from Europeans simply caused them to fight back. The scene of rebellion imagined by African was presented in Document 5, a painting of Adowa, in which, in this case, Italian armies got a lot more advanced firearms, such as machine guns and cannons, in contrast Ethiopian only got old bows and arrows and such kind of cold weapons to fight with Italians. The huge difference between weapons necessarily tells Ethiopians that they are not able to win the battle, but they still choose to fight. This would only be because their daily life was highly damaged by European regulators. In addition, from the perspective of that artist, while the battle is finally won, he treated this battle as a unification of spirituality, and this basically reflects the Ethiopian or even all African’s mind to be forced to get involved in home-protection battles with cohesion. Outside of the document provided, Europeans avoided bringing the Advanced Western Education system to African colonies because they wanted to prevent rebellion by avoiding advanced knowledge in local African society. This was also evidence that over time Africans started realizing the difference between the European original countries and their colonies, and these are literally the cause of some rebellions. In document 6, Ashanti’s queen mother made a speech to the chiefs of local African tribes, encouraging people to fight back and mentioning women’s power to lead. In the sense of war, in which women and children are always protected at the back, the need of women mentioned by her word refers to a resist in men’s power and a transformation of attitude from staying peace to a call of rebellion. Document 8 is a description of how the Maji Maji people defended against the German conquest of their lands. It recorded that they used the spiritual method of a medicine that gives invulnerability to their enemies’ bullets to people who use it. This shows that although the German forces have more advanced weapons, the native tribe was determined to resist their rule. While this source is written from a German military officer’s perspective, it likely depicts the native people as ignorant and superstitious, justifying
Miscellaneous
Para1 Short term ( follow Europe, seek for peaceful relationship
Doc 1 European propaganda
Doc 2 seek for peace but deny invitation of protection. HIPP
Doc 3 tried to retreat land by peace talk
Para2 long term fight back
Document 8
Doc 4 slaves—poor condition of indigenous people led to rebellion but lost in military disadvantage
Doc5 Sign of rebellion victory HIPP
Doc 6 women representative- indicate men coward, afraidness
Doc 7Unification of idea to foight back
Doc 8 Rebellion by medicine
Doc9 Chief not pretending but acting furious