Resistance to Imperialism and the Zulu War Essay -- African History Es

Although it is usually 19th ampere-second European imperialism that appears in Western literature, Africans have felt pressure from external powers for over a thousand years. By the year 1200, most of Union Africa had adopted Islam, and the population consisted mainly of a blend of Arab and Berber peoples. It was at this m that the enslavement of black Africans along the eastern coast of the continent by Arabian pirates began. This slave trade, however, met fierce resistance from the flourishing African terra firmas of Kush and the Somalian king, Nagus Yeshaq, who was a Christian Becker). Because the strength of the Arabic incursions was based mainly on conversion, the Islamic armies never penetrated deeply into sub-Saharan Africa. In the middle of the fifteenth century, Portuguese explorers began to establish handicraft outposts along the western coast of Africa, thusly beginning the first steps toward imperialism by European nations. It is estimated that the f irst trading of Africans as slaves by the Portuguese began in 1444. The West African kingdom of Benin, however, still suc...