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European imperial power
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European imperial power
Introduction
During the 17th century, many European countries scrambled for and petitioned Africa.
The European countries by the end of the year 1905, all African lands were under the leadership
of European countries. The resources in the African countries were divided and colonized by the
European countries. The scramble for the African continent was referred to as a petition for the
African continent. Although the Europeans colonized the Africans, Africa did not let it go. The
Africans responded to European imperialism in a variety of ways. The Africans responded to do
away with the colonialists who had taken management of the African resources for their benefit
instead of the residents. Africans took measures in which they would resist colonial demands,
like colonial labor demands. This paper will look at various ways the Africans took the order to
respond to imperialism.
Body
Between 1895-and 1945, the European imperial power had adverse effects on the lives of
the African residents under their power. These effects made the African leaders and their
residents look for ways to get out of imperialism. The European power forced Africans to work
in the colonial plantations at very low salaries. The Africans used to work six days a week
(Nabożny,2020). At the same time, the Africans working on the plantations received very low or
no salaries at all.
The people working on the plantations experienced a bad diet in most cases. They were
mostly subjected to having food that was not suitable for even an animal diet could have. In the
plantations, the people who worked the plantations were enslaved. The enslaved people in the
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plantations lived in very small shacks with unhygienic conditions. The shacks had a very dirty
floors with little or no furniture. The workforce the Africans received led to the death of
hundreds of thousands of people working on the plantations.
African men and women enslaved by the European countries performed all sorts of labor.
Women worked on domestic jobs like laundering, wet nursing, cooking meals, taking care of the
colonialists' animals and attending to kitchen duties in their houses. Men were subjected to heavy
jobs like smelting iron, working on the plantations, mining, and being taken as carpenters and
blacksmiths (Sorentino,2020). The European power introduced the slave trade, where many
people were enslaved to work in Jamaica and other European countries without any wage given.
Over 1,200 ships used to bring over 400,000 enslaved Africans to Jamaica to work in Britain's
largest sugar-producing colony. Children below ten years were forced to take care of the young
enslaved children, whereby they worked in and around the main areas of the colonies (house).
In most cases, very few children were enslaved together with their parents. Those
children who were about ten years of age took care of very young children while their parents
responded to various heavy duties shown by the colonial powers. Slavery and the enslaved
person trade were among the most significant issues that the colonial power had and, hence,
brought a signatory action of Africans responding to it. The respondents were looking at various
ways European imperialism would stop the abolishment and suffering of enslaved Africans.
African countries came up with groups protesting against the European imperial
expansion. The emergence of resistance groups to resist the colonial rule from expansion helped
silence and steer away from the colonialists (Cabecinhas,2018). The groups protested against
longstanding grievances against colonial taxation, labor exploitation, arbitrary violence and
racism. For example, chimurenga resistance (Zimbabwe), Maji-Maji uprising (Tanganyika),
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Asante Resistance (Ghana) and the Libyan Resistance are groups that came up in some of the
African countries to overthrow the European imperialism.
European was strongly harmed by fighting highly technologized weapons, and most of
them were deadlier weapons. The colonized people had no strength to fight them back, but they
used different means by which they could resist the European power. Most of the colonized
people were peasants, and hence they could not fight them with weapons. African countries used
the Cold War to fight back against European colonies. Many African resistance groups defined
ways in which they would use to stop the colonialists. African showed interest in joining the
colonizer army. Many African joined the army deep in mind knowing that they needed to take
vengeance and overthrow the European power. Many of the appointed soldiers in the colonial
barracks used to take some of the weapons and give them to the resistant groups. The groups
were divided into various subgroups and went to the top places where the imperial government
had trouble reaching. This was an advantage of how the subgroups would attack the imperial
soldiers. The cold war developed for a longer period where many imperial government soldiers
were killed and their number reduced. The reduction of the number made the other soldiers in the
army of the colonies join the other Africans in fighting the imperials. Eventually, the groups
managed to weaken the European army and finally, they had no power over the African land.
Africans used nonmilitary tactics to escape the colonial military. When they heard the
colonial armies approaching, tax collectors or labor recruiters, Africans fled their homes and hid
themselves to avoid direct and violent attacks and dispossession. The Africans developed a
strategy to destroy the income-generating crops for the colonials. Colonialists were convinced
that there were better crops that would register high income than the ones they used to cultivate.
The enslaved people on the coffee, tea and sugarcane plantations gave the colonialists an idea of
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cultivating cassava on the plantations since they didn’t have its knowledge. The imperials
decided to cultivate cassava in different plantations, which generated a lot of income. Generally,
cassavas take long before they produce their yield. Since the crops needed less attendance on the
farm, many enslaved people were free to return to their homes. After the cassavas were ready for
extraction and taken to the market, very low income was generated. The less income meant that
they had reduced capital to bring in new weapons to their army. Africans took advantage of it
and made plans to attack. By making this strategy, African countries could secure their rich
agricultural lands back to their maintenance.
The economy of the African countries had gone down at a very high percentage.
European countries destructed Africa's self-sufficiency, increasing Africa's dependency on
colonial powers. Through the dependence of the Africans on the Europeans, they were unable to
produce and improve their economy. The Europeans built their economy, yet they used some of
the resources from Africa to improve their economy through the extraction of profitable
resources like diamond, aluminum, petroleum, cash crops and other resources from the African
continent. These led to further weakening of Africa's economy. Exploited raw materials from the
African continent should have been used to develop the countries' respective economies rather
than the European economy. The need to reawaken the economy of the African country initiated
ways and plans to be implemented to exit European colonial.
Lastly, the Africans had suffered arbitrary violence and political illegitimacy. Africans
had suffered a lack of full exercise of their rights and freedom. Judgment without restriction was
unheard of by the colonial government. Many colonial leaders made many decisions on things
that the residents had to do. Abrupt violence happened from day today. The governmental army
used to perform violent activities whenever they were collecting taxes. At times Africans
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received inhuman treatment from the colonialists as they were only allowed to follow the orders
given by the colonial kingpins. No African was supposed to secure any political position.
Political illegitimacy was the order of the European powers. There were no basic conditions for
people's governance. The maintenance of the African people's political, social, and cultural
denomination was mostly directed by the European government. The Europeans were outsiders
in the African continent, and they took over the leadership of the African countries. Political
illegitimacy was one of the reasons the tactics displayed by the war women in Nigeria fought
against European imperialism. Likewise to the Maji Maji rebellion, elders amongst many
resistance groups fought deadly battles against the European powers to save African countries
from the European leadership (Rushohora,2019). The battle was to make African leaders who
would accommodate and who are ready to listen to their decisions towards building specific
African continent countries.
Conclusion
The African countries' procedures and strategies toward eliminating the European powers
in the African continent were significant. African bore fruits improvised different strategies of
the cold war. For example, Africans becoming willing to join the colonial military and securing
some leadership positions in the colonial army to provide weapons to people bore a lot of fruits
to the fight against European powers on the African continent. Securing agricultural outcomes
from the plantations was a good method of causing bankruptcy Ness to the colonialists. Securing
the colonials' income-generating sources laid a better position for fighting them back, a success.
The political state of any country is a good consideration that any country should have. Fighting
bloody and deadly battles against the European powers ended up emerging winners. Having
emerged as winners, African resources were able to be secured. African leaders voted in leaders
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who were no longer outsiders from the African continent. Decisions concerning the social,
cultural and economical backgrounds of any African country were able to be reconsidered and
implemented. The profitable resources were able to benefit respective African countries other
than outsiders.
African actions of fighting for independence have high positive impacts and success.
Africans are in a position to exercise their rights and freedoms without hindrance. The lives of
many individuals have changed since they can go to workplaces and receive wages appropriate
to the work done. The economy of African countries has improved since the marketing of the
resources is done for the benefit of the countries, not outsiders. No slave trade is conducted after
excluding colonialists in the African continent. Children can receive adequate parental care,
unlike under the European government, where they were enslaved, others received care from
their parents. Full exercise of human rights is achieved. African countries are united since the
people unitedly fought for their independence, and hence, they work towards improving and
developing the country they live in. The methods were not admirable since many people died
while fighting for their freedom. The methods were innovative to a certain range since the
Africans used nonmilitary methods to outweigh the strong colonial army.
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Reference
Cabecinhas, R., Macedo, I. M., Jamal, C., & Sá, A. (2018). Representations of European
colonialism, African resistance and liberation struggles in Mozambican history curricula
and textbooks.
Nabożny, M. (2020). The Colonization and Decolonization of Africa: The History and Legacy of
European Imperialism across the African Continent. Roczniki Teologiczne, 67(4), 130139.
Rushohora, N., & Silayo, V. (2019). Cults crosses, and crescents: religion and healing from
colonial violence in Tanzania. Religions, 10(9), 519.
Sorentino, S. M. (2020). So-Called Indigenous Slavery: West African Historiography and the
Limits of Interpretation. Postmodern Culture, 30(3).