Resistance Records

This sequence shifts the focus of imperial history from European expansion to Indigenous agency, exploring how various leaders and movements across Africa, Asia, and the Americas resisted colonial control through military, diplomatic, spiritual, and intellectual means. Students analyze case studies like the Battle of Adwa and the Maji Maji Rebellion to challenge narratives of passive victimhood.

Resistance Spectrum

Students define and categorize four primary forms of anti-colonial resistance: military, diplomatic, spiritual, and intellectual, using modern and historical parallels to understand the spectrum of agency.

Ethiopian Defiance

A deep dive into Ethiopia's successful defense of its sovereignty against Italian invasion, focusing on Menelik II's modernization of the military and strategic diplomatic maneuvers.

Faith and Fire

A comparative look at the Maji Maji Rebellion and the Ghost Dance movement, examining how spiritual beliefs unified diverse groups against technologically superior colonial forces.

Intellectual Insurgency

Focuses on the rise of Western-educated elites in colonized regions who used the colonizers' own political and legal language to argue for self-determination and rights.

Rebel Gallery

Students research and present on a specific resistance leader or movement, culminating in a gallery walk that showcases the global diversity of anti-colonial efforts.