European Colonization Dbq

Land is a precious resource; it is one of the most finite in the world. If someone has land, they can produce things like food or clothes, mine for precious metals, or raise, feed, and house an army. The uses for this resource are the keys to power. It only makes sense then, that for as long as humans have traded with each other they have also fought over this resource. The majority of wars have been fought over rights to control rights to land. The European approach to this was to take over land by force and force the native population into labor. One of the most famous examples of this is during European Expansion in Africa. During this period, Europe attempted to conquer Africa with almost complete success. They made resistance look like an inconvenience; it was a failure. This is clear when one evaluates the amount of time that Europe controlled Africa, the military of the Europeans powers, or the number of Africans killed or maimed.

One of the many reasons that the Europeans were able to take over the continent as they did was that from a militaristic standpoint it was not a fair fight.

Europeans had centuries of experience and powerful firearms to aid them in battle, the Africans had neither. Document D, a curriculum-planning book, explains how Europe took advantage of this, “European powers had agreed not to sell advanced weaponry to Africans.” This left Africans with no way to fight back against Europeans, making resistance a dangerous and futile exercise. In addition, to this the Europeans decided to work together to fracture the continent, “after the Berlin Conference, Europeans countries were united.” Fighting them would be like trying to put out a forest fire with a garden

hose.
The failure of the Africans began with the successes of the Europeans, particularly with oppressing African cultures and forcing Western philosophies upon them. This was explained in Document C, “[In schools] African customs were discouraged. African languages were banned… requiring them to use new, Christian names.” The Europeans were exceedingly good at removing the identity of the Africans. This made resistance seem against God’s own divine will. In fact, some Africans became so complicit that they voluntarily fought alongside the European conquerors. According to Associate Professor at Temple University, Benjamin Talton, who is respected in this field, some tribes collaborated with the Europeans to take down rival tribes.
Some may argue that the resistance must have been a success because Europeans no longer control Africa. While it is true that Europeans no longer make the laws that govern this continent, as shown by in Document H, it would be naïve to think that African resistance was the key to this. That very same document shows that independence took over 100 years. This means that the people who were resisted initial colonization were likely dead by the time this was achieved. Document H c from a 2003 book on world religions and geography so there is no reason to suspect bias from it, as they would gain nothing from providing a false narrative. Document I, an episode of Radiolab, further reinforces this, showing that that over 150,000 people were tortured, beaten, killed, or incarcerated during British rule of Kenya. The lives of the oppressed Kenyans meant little to the British ruling class, so any resistance that ended in a Kenyan death would also mean little to the British.
The fight to remain independent was truly a failure. It only lead to the death of the oppressed and the further suppression of their culture. Africans were fighting against better armies and superior navies that crushed armies over twice their size as seen with the defeat of the Zulu. The Europeans having already taken their lands then conquered the minds of Africans. Many Africans fought and died for freedom but this was realized not by the fighters but by those who protested almost a century later. The power that freed the Africans was not war or resistance but protest. Resistance was a failure.