History entrance exam, 2013 E.C. (2021)

Europe went into Africa for profit. The stated motives were cheap raw materials for factories, protected markets for finished goods, fresh places to invest capital, and land for surplus population.

Caring for Africa's natural environment was never one of them. Colonial rule pushed the other way, clearing forest and turning land over to cash crops and mines. Since B, C and D are all real motives, the answer is A.

Textbook: History Grade 10, Unit 2 Africa and the Colonial Experience, section 2.2 The Motives of European Colonialism (page 28).

The Berlin Conference of 1884 to 1885 set the principle of effective occupation. Article 35 of the Final Act said a power could claim African land only if it really held it: treaties with local rulers, its flag flying there, and an administration on the ground.

Option A tempts you because the conference did try to keep the Europeans from fighting each other, but the rule written into the Act was effective occupation.

Textbook: History Grade 10, Unit 2, section 2.3.1 Berlin Conference 1884 to 1885 (page 31).

Between the two world wars the protest moved from the countryside into the towns. Educated Africans, trade unions and welfare associations asked the colonial governments for better pay, more schools and a share in government. Full independence became the demand only after 1945.

Option C tempts you because many Africans did fight in the First World War, but ex-soldiers became leaders of protest mainly after the Second World War.

In the inter-war years the usual weapon was the written petition. Associations, unions and educated elites sent petitions to governors and to London or Paris asking for reform.

Armed struggle and guerrilla war belong to the later period after 1945, for example Mau Mau in Kenya and the Algerian war. Africans could not boycott elections they were not allowed to vote in.

After May 1936 the Italians merged Ethiopia with Eritrea and Somalia into Italian East Africa and cut it into six regions drawn largely along ethnic and regional lines: Eritrea with Tigray, Amhara with its capital at Gondar, Oromo and Sidama with its capital at Jimma, Addis Ababa (later Shewa), Harar, and Somalia with the Ogaden.

Option A is the trap. The Italians did invest, but in roads, housing and small light industry, not in steel and chemicals. Racial segregation was strict, and schools for Ethiopians were closed rather than expanded.

Textbook: History Grade 10, Unit 3, section 3.5 Fascist Italian Aggression and Patriotic Resistance (page 72).

The patriots, the Arbegnoch, drew fighters from every part of the country. The resistance ran from 1936 to 1941 and crossed lines of region, language and religion, which is why Italy never controlled the countryside.

Options B, C and D are the weaknesses, not the strengths. The patriots had no national command, could not fight a conventional war against tanks and aircraft, and were based in the rural areas while the Italians held the towns.

Textbook: History Grade 10, Unit 3, section 3.5 Fascist Italian Aggression and Patriotic Resistance (page 72).