Imperialism, Colonialism, and the Treatment of the Sioux and the Zulu

The Sioux and the Zulu both fell victim to the increasingly frantic wave of territorial aggrandizement that pervaded the 19^th century. The aim of the Europeans, in both cases, was assimilation. In southern Africa, the British wanted to create a native work force for their mining interests. In North America, the European-Americans strove to turn the Native Americans into good Christian farmers. In both cases, the bottom line was removing the ‘savages’ from the road to empire, and extermination was not ruled out as a strategy. The Native Americans, in general, did their best to accommodate white people by signing numerous treaties (Ft. Laramie, 1851, Medicine Lodge, 1867), moving to reservations and ceding vast tracts of land. In the end, in South Africa, as on the Great Plains of North America, the indigenous peoples saw no alternative to armed resistance. In both instances the whites achieved their economic and political aims. The Sioux after ferocious resistance (culminating in G.A. Custer’s last fight) were ultimately forced onto reservations. The Zulus, after initially succeeding in holding the British at bay, were defeated and scattered, leaving their homeland in a state of anarchy. Popular support for these campaigns of conquest was garnered by the age-old trick of dehumanizing your enemy in the eyes of your constituents.     

1)      What role do you suppose technology played in subjugating the Sioux and the Zulus?

Were the Sioux and the Zulu right to resort to armed resistance?