Responding to Western Imperialism

FOCUS QUESTION What was the general pattern of non-Western responses to Western expansion?

To Africans and Asians, Western expansion represented a profoundly disruptive assault. Everywhere it threatened existing ruling classes, local economies, and long-standing ways of life. Christian missionaries and European secular ideologies challenged established beliefs and values. Non-Western peoples experienced imperialism as an invasion, one made all the more painful by the power and arrogance of the European intruders.