African Imperialism Dbq Essay Example
During the European Scramble for Africa, in the early 20th century, Africans had a peaceful reaction with anti-imperialistic sentiments (docs. 2, 3, 4, and 7), peaceful actions through the approach of diplomacy (docs.1, 2, and 3) and also a rebellious anti-imperialistic reaction (docs. 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) towards the Scramble for Africa. Some Africans opposed imperialism in a peaceful manner. For example, in document 2, the Ashanti leader denied the offer that the British gave them because the leader wants Ashanti to remain in its ancient ways but still be friendly with Great Britain, therefore approaching the situation in a peaceful manner because the whereabouts of his kingdom was important to him. Also the emperor of Ethiopia, Menelik the 2nd, was against the separation of Africa but didn’t fight or start a war but gave a peaceful response explaining that god will protect them because he has protected them from all the pagans in his empire till that day. The point of view of this document is biased due to the fact that Menelik the 2nd, the emperor of Ethiopia, doesn’t want to lose the feeling that power gives him and therefore uses Christianity to justify to the British on why they shouldn’t conquer his empire because god is watching. This can also be a hoax just to keep his power. Furthermore, in document 4 an African veteran of the Ndebele Rebellion tells his story and how he surrendered to the white people. This shows how he just surrendered rather that fighting brutally; he surrendered peacefully to save his life. He could have fought to death but he had a peaceful reaction towards all the nonsense and chaos. Also some Africans were patient and the fighting and killing by the British to their people had little or no avail to them (doc.7). They would be patient and peaceful with the Europeans because sooner or later the white men would leave them be. Furthering the idea they were against imperialism, but with peaceful sentiments. An additional document that