Resistance

African resistance was widespread, varied, and often initially successful before being overwhelmed by imperial military power.

• Samori Toure: West African leader who built the Wassoulou Empire and resisted French expansion for nearly two decades before his capture in 1898

• The Zulu under Cetshwayo: Defeated a British army at Isandlwana (1879) but were eventually crushed

• Ethiopia under Menelik II: Modernized its army, played European powers against each other, and defeated Italy at Adwa (1896). Ethiopia remained independent until the Italian conquest of 1935-36.

• The Mahdist State in Sudan: Religious-political movement that resisted Egyptian and then British rule until defeated at Omdurman (1898)

• The Boer Wars (1880-1881, 1899-1902): Dutch-descended settlers (Boers) in South Africa resisted British annexation. Britain ultimately won but used concentration camps for Boer civilians, attracting international criticism.

<mark>Why Ethiopia matters:</mark> Ethiopia's victory at Adwa is the single most important Regents fact about African resistance. The Regents has used it as a case study to show that imperialism was not inevitable; that African states could resist when they modernized their militaries and exploited European rivalries; and that the racial assumptions of imperialism were not based on actual European military superiority but on technological gaps that could be closed.