The Africans did not welcome the European colonizers who were uninvited guests in Africa. The Africans attempted to resist the European colonizers as much as they could. The colonial powers employed different methods to colonize Africa. They used fake treaties to extend their control of the continent. When treaties failed to bring them what they wanted, the European colonizers resorted to the use of force. The Africans, on the other hand, reacted to the colonial aggression in two ways. The African reaction to colonial rule included both peaceful and violent methods. Practically, the African society resisted the colonizers using any means, and there was resistance in almost every region of European advance. But there were differences in the intensity of resistance from one region to another. The African resistance had a clear ideological basis, that is, the resistance was an attempt to safeguard their sovereignty.

The attempts made by the Africans to stop the European powers from colonizing their countries were not successful. It was partly because the African resistances against the European invaders were not well-organized. The Europeans had also a marked superiority in military training and quality of firearms. Sometimes the Europeans were able to mobilize the Africans against fellow Africans who were determined to fight them. The only successful anti-colonial struggle in Africa was that of Ethiopia. Ethiopians under Emperor Menelik II had managed to defeat the Italians at the battle of Adwa in 1896 and Ethiopia became the only country in Africa whose independence was recognized by the colonial powers in the era of colonialism.