Hist-011 Essay

It has been suggested that many of the revolts that occurred outside of the European realm during the first half of the nineteenth century were merely responses to that continent’s overwhelming power and the diffusion of its ideas. Such a statement, however, would be an overgeneralization and oversimplification of these global revolts. Rather, a more accurate statement concerning these events would take into account the degree to which European power and ideas touched the countries where these revolts occurred. In other words, the nature of these different global revolts varied according to the degree of European contact so that revolts in regions which felt marginal European power and where European ideas had not started to permeate [minimal or no European presence] originated from local tensions and problems while those in regions with a clear and larger European presence followed in line with the original statement and occurred more as a response to European power and ideas. Examinations of the Sokoto Caliphate and British India respectively prove the former and latter, while a study of the Taiping Rebellion demonstrates a hybrid middle case.

The genesis of the Sokoto Caliphate in 1804 was attributed to local causes and not as a reaction to European influences. More specifically, it can be primarily and initially attributed to the religious dissatisfactions of Usman dan Fodio, an Islamic cleric in present day northern Nigeria. In his view, the Hausa nobility, rulers of northern Nigeria, were less than committed to the true fundamentals of early Islam and thus allowed heretical, unorthodox and heathen elements to enter into the religious practices of their subjects. Because of these perceptions, dan Fodio favored a purification of the Muslim religion in West Africa through jihad, or holy war, against the heretics and heathens. His successful overthrow of the Hausa regime was aided by the support of both likeminded religious purists and the...