Ap World History Dbq Essay

During the 1800s, Europeans began to have their eyes set on the continent of Africa, as they went after their natural resources. As they scrambled for Africa, their hypocritical actions enraged some Africans while others just gave in to the Europeans since they had more technology, and seemed more powerful. Some African nations, tired of the European treatment towards them, decided to unite and fight them. (Doc7).Others simply stood firm and didn’t want anything from the Europeans. They didn’t want their technology or developments. They wanted to keep their customs and traditions (Document 2). Some didn’t want to be colonized but they didn’t start any battle immediately, but started peacefully. Even though this period was a time of anger, sadness, …show more content…
This can be seen in Document 1, as the British government in charge of the Royal Niger Company, makes the African chiefs sign a document that gives power to the British but doesn’t interfere with the native laws and traditions. The authors of this document clearly saw that they couldn’t just come in and take total control of the country, so they decided to give these chiefs some power, so as to make them feel important and loyal to them. Another example of the Europeans taking advantage of the Africans can be seen in Document 7, as an African leader talks about how patient and obedient he has been to the Europeans (Germans) but instead of giving him some kind of reward, they kill his people everyday. Another reason that the Europeans used to come to Africa was to come and modernize them. This can be seen as a German officer observes some traditions in East Africa and post them in German newspapers to show how savage Africans ware and how badly they needed European colonization. This is seen in Document 8 as a German military officer describes the idea that the spirit of a snake provides medicine that guarantees good harvest and