British Imperialism In Things Fall Apart

The Imperialism between the 19th century Boers and the Nigerian Tribes in Things Fall Apart both share a common but different story of British cultural collision. The British presence brought both positives and negatives to the Boers and Tribes in Things Fall Apart. With that said we see the origins of each civilization, and the path leading to how the cultural collision began. Both the Nigerian Tribes and the Boers eventually became hugely exposed to British imperialism. What separates the two were their responses to the huge influences. After the Dutch settlers under the Dutch East India Company began disliking the laws that were being set, the trekking of South Africa began. The common occupancy of these people was generally

In response, the British were sent to Cape Town, the Dutch’s first established and main port town. After a decade of wars and treaties being broken, the land finally fell to the British crown. Common to the Boer’s response to Dutch East India Company’s form of ruling, the Boers once again began to trek, this time known as the Great Trek. They began to explore the interior land the British had given them, and it was then when the discovery of diamonds came into play. Unlike the defiant Boers, we see an opposite approach to British Imperialism in Things Fall Apart. Though the loyal tribal men were very hostile towards the British, their first instinct was not rebellion and war over dissatisfaction. It wasn’t til the British truly were destroying the religion, and had “killed” one of their gods did

When the Great Trek began, the Boers crossed the Orange River, and found grass lands. This was great for the Boers to begin settling away for British, and to raise their cattle. After easily conquering local tribes, they became dominant over the flourishing terrain with little resistance. In due time of learning the terrain, the discovery of diamonds happened. This allowed the settlement to start gaining money to fund them. They began developing a republic, which in return some did not agree. This brought a stop to the Great Trek. In this they split apart and some headed north. Unknowingly, this was the land of the Zulu. With little to no effort the Zulu also were defeated, common to the other local tribes. Not too long after the British, took back the land they had given the Boers unfairly, and stripped with nothing again while still under the British rule. Dissimilar to the Boers, the British actually purchased land from the Nigerian Tribes in Things Fall Apart. To the tribes’ surprise, the British at the end won the barter once again as we see in Chapter 17 II“Let us give them a portion of the Evil Forest. They boast about the victory over death. Let us give them a real battlefield in which to show their victory”. We see in this quote that the tribe thought they had won the barter, but from later reading and general knowledge we can conclude that both situations