Others refused recruitment into colonial armies or labor forces. Some polities took up arms with the intent of overthrowing colonial rule or reconfiguring existing political arrangements between African polities. They cannot be explained by single causal factors, as they frequently drew on multiple discontents. Wartime acts of resistance are best viewed as flashpoints in a longer history of imperial incursions on the continent, with harsh wartime conditions catalyzing action. But the roots of the often violent expressions of outrage that occurred between 19 are located in the diverse local and regional priorities of those who undertook actions later cast as “anti-colonial.” Historical explanations of resistance during the war prioritize colonial fears about losing control of their colonies in the midst of war. The conditions that led African peoples to resist colonial rule often emerged from longstanding grievances against colonial labor exploitation, taxation, racist and paternalist practices, arbitrary violence, and political illegitimacy. It is a mistake, however, to view the many acts of “resistance and rebellion” that occurred during the war as confined to the temporal boundaries of 1914-1918. Many African polities fought to challenge or overturn the colonial order. The colonizers’ wartime priorities and the large-scale abuses they unleashed exposed the colonial state’s exploitative capacities on a new scale.
They also expected Africans to demonstrate absolute loyalty to imperial causes.
Yet European colonial powers expected African participation in the war effort. With few exceptions, Africans had played almost no role in the decisions and acts that started the war, in defining war aims, or in determining how it would be prosecuted. African peoples fought back against overbearing colonial demands during the First World War.
0 kommentar(er)
