Question

How did conquered African elites react to European domination? What were the economic considerations foremost in the minds of European governments concerning their African colonies?

Answer 1

Answer.

The African resistance to European colonialism is often thought of in racial terms of a white European and Black African power struggle. However, this presumption underestimates the complexity in the Africans’ responses that were employed to address the challenges of European colonial rule. African responses to the imposition of colonial rule was a choice between either collaboration or resistance against their European domination. Given that the different independent African princely states and tribes were in conflict with each other, the African elites saw the colonial rule as a strategic way to avoid attacks from the rival kingdom or tribe. collaboration with the colonizers in these instances was seen as a rational response to European conquest . However, many elites of some other conquered territories organised a constant resistance to European authority. For instance, Ethiopia stands as the example of one African society to successfully defend itself against direct European political domination. Many other states such as the Ndebele ( of Present day Zimbabwe), the Fante( in modern Ghana), also offered intitial resistences to the British and German incursions in their territories but later changed their position to one of collaboration with the European forces primarily die to the latter’s military and technological might.