THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUALS
On many occasions exceptional non-Europeans determined the outcome of early cross-cultural encounters. Employing an admittedly imprecise classification scheme whose categories are not mutually exclusive,47 one may identify four types:
1.
Preservers: Rulers who used diplomatic and governing skills to try to preserve a polity’s independence. In some cases the effort was successful. In the many cases in which it was not, the individual’s actions affected how and when the takeover occurred. In phases 1 and 2 the preservers included Hideyoshi and leyasu (Japan), Powhatan (Virginia), Gia Long (Vietnam), and Kamehameha I and II (Hawaii). In phase 3, Ranjit Singh (Punjab, India), Moshoeshoe (Sotho; Basutoland), Lewanika (Lozi; Northern Rhodesia), Mongkut, Chulalongkorn and Prince Devawongse (Thailand), Ismail (Egypt), Menelik II (Abyssinia), Mutesa (Buganda; Uganda), Radama I, Ra- navalona I, and Premier Rainilaiarivony (Imerina; Madagascar), Kgama (Ngwato branch of Batswana; Bechuanaland).2. Resisters: Rulers whose armies fought Europeans and leaders in early violent resistance movements against settlers or colonial administrators. In phases i and 2, Cuitlahuac (Mexica Aztec; New Spain), Manco Inca (Inca; Peru), Metacom (Wam- panoag; Massachusetts Bay Colony), Pop£ (Pueblo Indians; New Spain), Nzinga Mbande (Angola), Coxinga (Taiwan), and Tipu Sultan (Mysore). In phase 3, Bagyi- daw (Burma), Abd al-Qadir (Algeria), Dingane (Zulu; South Africa), Lakshmi Bai and Rani of Jhansi (India), Te Ua Haumene and Te Kooti (Maori; New Zealand), Samory (sudanic West Africa), Rabeh (sudanic West-Central Africa), Muhammad Ahmad and Ibn Abdallah, proclaimed the Mahdi (Sudan), Ahmad Urabi (Egypt), Mkwawa (Hehe; German East Africa), Behanzin (Dahomey), Bai Bureh (Temne; Sierra Leone), Sayyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan (British Somaliland), and Samuel Maherero (Herero; German Southwest Africa).
3.
Facilitators: Individuals who assisted European explorers, soldiers, traders, mission agencies, or settlers (for example, as guides, translators, or missionaries). In phases 1 and 2 Ahmad ibn Madjid (Vasco da Gama; Indian Ocean), Malinche (Dona Marina) (Hernan Cortes), and Squanto (Wampanoag; Pilgrims). In phase 3, Samuel Adjai Crowther (missionary pioneer, Nigeria), James Chuma (guide for David Livingstone), and Munisi (Matabeleland guide; Southern Rhodesia).4. Collaborators: Politically prominent individuals who formed alliances with Europeans to increase their power or to ward off challenges from others. In phases 1 and 2, Sultan ofMalindi (Vasco da Gama; East Africa), Mir Jafar (Robert Clive; Bengal), and Sultan of Kedah (Penang). In phase 3, Tawfiq (Egypt) and Akitoye (Lagos, Nigeria).
CONCLUSION
This chapter illustrates the multiple ways in which non-Europeans shaped their own history. Clearly, a theory of European imperialism that ignores the rest of the world is inadequate. Likewise, an account that concentrates only on resistance fails to capture the indigenous “pull” factor, which in turn affected the timing, location, and overall results of the European “push.” Indigenous actors are not in danger of being ignored when the topic is the end of empire. But the danger is present when one is trying to explain the outset of empire. Hence the need for this chapter as a supplement to the three Eurocentric chapters preceding it.
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