Evaluate the factors that influenced African decisions to resist European imperialism.

The question requires that candidates make an appraisal of the factors that influenced African decisions to resist European imperialism, weighing up the significance, or not, of those factors. Candidates may note that the desire to maintain independence was a primary factor in any decision to resist, they may also suggest that access to modern firearms may have given impetus to their grievances. Candidates may suggest that large, powerful, politically unified states were in a stronger position to offer resistance than small and divided states. They may also argue that African states often chose to resist because all other options, including negotiation, had been exhausted, or because the colonizing power was determined to end their independence come what may, thus ensuring that collaboration was out of the question.