All Activities
History

Empire and Resistance

Overview

Students explore how people responded to imperial control, examining a range of resistance strategies from armed revolt to cultural preservation.

Learning Objective
Students understand that colonised peoples were not passive victims but actively resisted, and can evaluate different forms of resistance.

Resources needed

  • None

Lesson stages

0 / 7 done
  1. 1 Ask: if someone took control of your community, how might you resist?
  2. 2 Introduce: resistance to empire took many forms — armed revolt, civil disobedience, cultural preservation, political organisation.
  3. 3 Give examples of each type from historical contexts relevant to the class.
  4. 4 Discuss: which forms of resistance were most effective? Which were most risky?
  5. 5 Ask: why do some resistance movements succeed and others fail?
  6. 6 Introduce examples of successful independence movements.
  7. 7 Ask: should we judge people who collaborated with colonial powers? What choices did they face?

Tap a step to mark it as done.

Variations

  • Debate: was armed resistance ever justified against colonial rule?
  • Focus on one resistance movement in depth — its methods, success, and legacy.
  • Compare two independence movements — what made one more successful than the other?
More information

Teach: resistance, revolt, civil disobedience, collaboration, independence, agency, strategy. The concept of agency — that people have power to act — is central.

Focus on one clear example of resistance with a positive outcome before introducing complexity and ambiguity.

Can students describe two different forms of resistance and evaluate their effectiveness? Do they understand that colonised people had agency, not just victimhood?

No materials needed. Teacher knowledge provides the examples. Entirely discussion-based.

Students sometimes perceive colonised peoples only as victims. Centring resistance narratives corrects this and reveals the full complexity of colonial history.

Histories of resistance are often underrepresented in textbooks. Teaching them gives students a more accurate, more empowering account of the past.

Activity details
Secondary Challenging 25 minutes no prep Small Group, Whole Class Indoor & Outdoor
Topics
Empire Resistance Power And Agency