World War I: The Role Of Nationalism In Africa

Nationalism is defined as when another country feels superior over other countries therefore giving them the power to take over. Nationalism played a big role in almost every part of the world including Africa, Asia and also the Middle East. Before the World War 1, nationalism was used by the Europeans as a colonial rule in Africa. Since Africans weren’t really educated, they turned to follow along with whatever the Europeans ordered them to do. According to the article, nationalism emerged gradually and suddenly during the interwar, it evolved over centuries of political and economic centralization in Europe. Nationalism was meant to unite countries and bring unity, but it evolved into an ugly reality. Nationalism meant many things to other people, to the Africans it wasn’t such a good thing. So they wanted to move away from it. …show more content…
Many of the Africans soldiers hoped that independence would be their reward for helping the Europeans win, but they were not ready to give up their colonies. Surprisingly, the volunteers weren’t the only ones who had had a little knowledge about how they could gain freedom but most of the African leaders who had studied abroad such as England, United States and etc were also highly educated on Nationalism and its effects on countries. Some of them include; Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, Nnamdi Azikiwe also the first president of Nigeria who lead the Nigerian Nationalism. Nationalism also had some positive and negative effects on Africans, some positive effects was that, it build up the desire for independence in the Africans which caused them to overthrow colonial rule and nationalism. Overthrowing was not the only thing. It also help make Africans develop scientifically with technology and also educating the