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Dbq Essay On Imperialism

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It may seem unintuitive that a large number of Africans willingly broke off from their native religion to follow Christianity. Why would someone willingly leave their own culture, something that was familiar to them, to join a completely new religion? As the growth of industrialized nations began to plateau, Western powers looked to other corners of the world for raw materials and to expand their markets. When these powers expanded across the globe, they brought with them their traditions and religion which they planned to spread to the native people. Chinua Achebe, an author who was a converted Christian as well as an African native, has experienced both Christian and Igbo traditions, putting him in an ideal position to describe both sides …show more content…

Edward Sambourne, a political cartoonist, aims to depict the strict control of King Leopold the Second over the Congolese people and illustrates a Congolese man, whose wife and child are also shown in the cartoon, as a powerless worker being restricted by King Leopold the Second, illustrated as a snake. (Document 6) In illustrating King Leopold the Second as a snake, Edward Sambourne uses symbolism to describe the power of the king over the Congolese man and the man’s powerlessness over his own life as well as his inability to protect and provide for his family. This political cartoon establishes that imperialism causes division between native peoples because it forces those at the top of the original system of power to the bottom, as shown by the snake controlling the Congolese father, hindering their ability to provide for their clansmen and destroying the clansmen’s sense of security. The imperialists, through humiliating the distinguished men of Umuofia, fractured many Africans’ sense of security within their clan, creating an appeal to join a culture that would give them a better sense of security,

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