Partition of Africa — resistance and collaboration

Answer

Political leadership, military strength, social factors, and the impact of colonial rule already felt.

Answer

Built the Mandinka/Wassoulou Empire in West Africa and fought a 16-year guerrilla resistance against France (1882-1898) before being captured and exiled.

Answer

Ethiopian forces under Menelik II decisively defeated an invading Italian army, making Ethiopia the only African state to defeat a European colonial invasion outright.

Answer

It combined centralised political leadership, modern imported rifles, and defensible mountainous terrain — conditions most other African states lacked.

Answer

A rebellion in German East Africa against forced cotton cultivation, uniting many ethnic groups around a spirit medium's promise of magic water (maji); crushed by a German scorched-earth famine campaign killing 250,000-300,000+ people.

Answer

Uprisings in present-day Zimbabwe against the British South Africa Company after land and cattle seizures; spiritual leaders like Mbuya Nehanda helped unite fighters, but British firepower crushed the rising.

Answer

An agreement placing a territory under a foreign power's protection and control.

Answer

Travelled to Britain in 1895 and negotiated a protectorate treaty directly, securing more lasting self-government than most colonised African territories.

Answer

Niger Delta ruler who cooperated with British palm-oil merchants for years, using the relationship to control trade — until Britain exiled him in 1887 once his independence became inconvenient.

Answer

Some communities relocated to remote or difficult terrain to preserve independence, but this usually only delayed colonial control by a decade or two as railways and telegraphs extended.

Answer

Military resistance (e.g. Samori, Maji Maji) could impose high costs on colonisers but was usually eventually defeated by superior firepower; negotiated collaboration (e.g. Khama III) sometimes secured lasting self-government, but most collaborating rulers (e.g. Jaja) were still absorbed into empire once convenient.

Answer

French colonial army units recruited heavily from African societies — meaning African soldiers often did the actual fighting in European wars of conquest against other Africans.