DBQ24-99

Document # 1

"While most Europeans in Egypt lived according to principles, they had two sets of principles; the same rules did not apply in dealing with the in-group of Westerners and the out-group of natives...All, however, were agreed that Egyptian society was backward and Egyptian civilization inferior; that the European could not afford to submit to the customs of the country, but that the Egyptian would have to learn the ways and accept the justice of the Europeans; that the standards of behaviour accepted in Europe, the values of honesty, fair play, reasonableness, that shaped the social and business relations of the West...

David Landes, The Effects of Imperialism, 1958

Document # 2

"Colonialism is not satisfied merely with holding a people in its grip and emptying the natives brain of all form and content. By a kind of perverted logic, it turns to the past of the people, and distorts, disfigures and destroys it."

Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth, 1961

Document # 3

On the unconscious plane, colonialism therefore did not seek to be considered
by the native as a gently loving mother who protects her child from a hostile environment, but rather as a mother who unceasingly restrains her fundamentally perverse offspring from managing to commit suicide and from giving free rein to its evil instincts.. The colonial mother protects her child from itself, from its ego, and from its physiology, its biology, and its own unhappiness which is its very essence. For this much the whole world knows, that the right of a people to rule themselves does not depend on the generosity of the overlords, nor does it depend on the preparedness of the people. The truth is. . . that any man has the right to break crockery in his own house. If he bungles, he will soon learn how to set up things right.

LEWIS NKOSI, A Black African Journalist, 1961

Document # 4

....colonialism is not satisfied merely with holding a people in its grip and emptying the native's brain of all form and content. By a kind of perverted logic, it turns to the past of the people, and distorts, disfigures and destroys it...

Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth, 1958

Document # 5

The emergent African nationalism, in many ways, represents the degree to which the white man's magic spell, which at the beginning of the nineteenth century had been cast on the African, is wearing off...He adjusted as well as he could to what he thought were gods, though gods that ate corn..As long as the white man was able to hold up his pretensions to the African as real, the African was scared, and never challenged the white man as his national ruler..Alas, the externals have had their day...

Ndabaningi Sithole, African Nationalism, 1960

Document # 6

"The rulers of Europe thought primarily in terms of political not economic advantage and...the colonial policies of the Continental states were formulated in the light of the European balance of power and designed to serve European ends. When they no longer served those ends the colonial scene slips unobtrusively into the background."

Nicholas Mansergh, circa 1940-1950

Document # 7

The Mask of Anarchy

Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanqiushable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you--
Ye are many--they are few...

Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with the measured words that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free....

With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise ,
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away.

Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek....

And that slaughter to the nation
Shall steam up like inspiration,
Eloquent, oracular;
A volcano heard afar.

By Percy Bysshe Shelley , later quoted and memorized by Mahatma Gandhi, 1946

Document # 8

ACCORDINGLY, WE, the members of the National Council, representing the Jewish people in Palestine and the Zionist movement of the world, met together in solemn assembly today, the day of the termination of the British mandate for Palestine, by virtue of the natural and historic right of the Jewish and of the Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations...THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations...

Declaration of Israel's Independence, Tel Aviv, May 14, 1948

Document # 9

The General Assembly, mindful of the determination proclaimed by the peoples of the world in the Charter of the United Nations to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freeom...declares that:

1. the subjection of the people to alien subjugation, domination, and exploitation constitues a denial of a fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nationsand is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and cooperation.

2. All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that they freely determine their polotical status and freely persue their economic, social, and cultural development.

3. Inadequacy of political, economic, social, or educational preparedness should never serve as pretext for delaying independence.

4. All armed action or repressive measures of all kinds directed against dependent peoples shall cease in order to enable them to exercise peacefully and freely their right to complete independence.

The United Nations Declaration Against Colonialism (1960)

Document 10

For centuries, Europeans dominated the African continent. The white man arrogated to himself the right to rule and to be obeyed by the non-white; his missions; he claimed, was to "civilize" Africa. Under this cloak, the Europeans robbed the continent of vast riches and inflicted unimaginable sufering on the African people....Its is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems, and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world...Never before have a people had within their grasp an opportinity for developing a continentis endowed with so much wealth. Individually, the independent states of Africa, some of them potentially rich, others poor can do little for their people. Together, by mutual help they can achieve much......There is a tide in the afairs of every peoplewhen the moment strikes for political action Such was the moment in the history of the United States of America when the Founding Fathers saw beyond the petty wranglings of the separate states and created a Union. This is our chance. We must act now.

Kwame Nkrumah: An Independent Africa, 1961