Ana nzinga resistance ap world history
Good question—yes, enslaved people were often closely monitored, but several factors let them organize resistance anyway. First, large numbers and shared languages/religions created social networks (family ties, African traditions, and creole religions) that made coordination possible. Second, geography and labor patterns helped: plantations, mines, and port towns had hidden spaces, isolated work sites, or nearby forests where runaways formed maroon communities (e.g., Quilombo dos Palmares, Caribbean maroons). Third, skilled leaders and insiders (drivers, artisans, sailors) could communicate, plan escapes, or disrupt systems. Fourth, everyday resistance (work slowdowns, sabotage, feigned illness) undermined control and built confidence for larger actions. Finally, colonial states and owners had limited manpower across vast territories, so surveillance had gaps—holidays, market days, and ship departures were moments of weaker oversight. For AP review, focus on maroon societies and slave rebellions as illustrative examples (see the Topic 4.6 study guide: https://library.fiveable.me/ap-world-history/unit-4/state-power-1450-1750/study-guide/x3Js208xx6AEye7b1nJQ). Want practice quest
4.6 Internal and External Challenges to State Power
Unit 4.6 Internal and External Challenges to State Power
Challenges to State Power: Social, political, and economic groups resisted state expansions, Fronde Civil disturbances. Trying to curb growing royal power. Royalty trying to put down revolutions. Metacom’s war and King Phillip’s War. In Americas against English colonists.
Resistance to Portugal in Africa: Pushed out of South Asia by the Dutch and British, Went to Africa.
1624- Ana Nzinga becomes ruler of Ndongo:
- Allied with Portugal
- Alliance fell apart
- Incited rebellion in Ndongo (with the Dutch)
- Ruled Matamba for decades
Local Resistance in Russia: Pressure on the state came from within. Serfs in Russia had terrible conditions compared to those in Europe. Central power weakened due to wars in the 14th and 15th centuries. Peasants had been heavily taxed and were forced into serfdom.
Serfdom, Power, and Control: Serfdom benefitted the government because it kept peasants under control. Also provided free labor to landowners. Serfs were practically enslaved because they were chained to their land. Russian serfs kept working long after the practice was ended
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In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, states on the Central African coast found their economic power and territorial control threatened by Portuguese attempts to establish a colony at Luanda (in present-day Angola). Many of these states had become regional powers through trade in African slaves. It was the growing demand for this human labor in New World colonies such as Brazil that ultimately led Portugal to seek military and economic control of this region. Old trading partners came under military attack by Portuguese soldiers and indigenous African raiders in search of captives for the slave trade, and rulers were forced to adapt to these new circumstances or face certain destruction. One leader who proved to be adept at overcoming these difficulties was the queen of Ndongo, Ana Nzinga.
In 1624, Ana Nzinga inherited rule of Ndongo, a state to the east of Luanda populated primarily by Mbundu peoples. At that moment, the kingdom was under attack from both Portuguese as well as neighboring African aggressors. Nzinga realized that, to remain viable, Ndongo had to reposition itself
World-Changing Women: Queen Nzinga
| Queen Nzinga | c.1581-1663 | Modern-day Angola | State Leadership |
Drawing of Queen Nzinga In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, city states along the Central African coast began to be of interest to Portuguese Atlantic slave traders who established a fort and settlement at Luanda (in present-day Angola) in 1617. African rulers were faced with a dilemma; submission meant sacrificing nominal self-determination whereas resistance risked losing established trading relations and potential benefit over rival African neighbours. One leader who handled this dilemma shrewdly was Queen Nzinga.
Born into the royal family of Ndongo in central West Africa, Nzinga became Queen of the Mbundu people in in 1626, having served both as her brother’s envoy and as regent following his death. Initially, Nzinga made accommodation with the Portuguese. In so-doing she gained an ally in the struggle against her African enemies and, at the same time, called a halt to Portuguese slave raids in her own kingdom. She converted to Christianity, adopting the name Dona Anna de Souza.
However, the treaty was short-lived
“Sir, Your Highness should know how our Kingdom is being lost in so many ways that it is convenient to provide for the necessary remedy, since this is caused by the excessive freedom given by your agents and officials to the men and merchants who are allowed to come to this kingdom to set up shops with goods and many things which have been prohibited by us, and which they spread through our Kingdoms and Domains in such an abundance that many of our vassals, whom we had in obedience, do not comply because they have the things in greater abundance than we ourselves; and it was with these things that we had them content and subjected under our vassalage and jurisdiction, so it is doing a great harm not only to the service of God, but the security and peace of our Kingdoms and State as well.
And we cannot reckon how great the damage is, since the mentioned merchants are taking every day our natives, sons of the land and the sons of our noblemen and vassals and our relatives, because the thieves and men of bad conscience grab them wishing to have the things and wares of this Kingdom which they are ambitious of, they grab them and get them to be sold; and so great, Sir, is the corrup