Once the former king, T’Chaka, had passed away, T’Challa had taken over as king and ruled Wakanda. This country is filled with technological advancements and rich traditions. Later on, Killmonger (Erik) came to Wakanda and fought T’Challa to be the new ruler and imperialize the country. He destroyed the traditions of Wakanda by burning the heart shaped herbs. To add on, he was attempting to give vibranium to other countries by expanding the borders of Wakanda. Lastly, T’Challa was still alive because of the help of the J’bari tribe and he fought Killmonger and won Wakanda back. Imperialism means to extend a country’s power with military force. Colonialism means to control a country through influence and to establish a territory in that area and exploiting from it. These terms connect through governing defenseless countries with political and economical power. The film expresses both imperialism and colonialism and how it can really affect an area that has been living in a traditional way for so long.

The control of other countries by European nations is a prime example of imperialism. Another example is when Killmonger takes over Wakanda and becomes king.  To tie this scene in the film to global history, many years ago a part of Nigeria had been imperialized because of their religious beliefs, thinking they could protect themselves from bullets by sprinkling “magical water” on them (Hestevold, 2023). Based on McDougall’s research, European nations gained control of Africa and Asia due to those continents having weak defensive strategies; Killmonger, similarly, took advantage of T’Challa’s weak defense in their fight (2023).            

Scientific racism is the ideology of science to justify racial inequality (Harvard, 2023). A lot of those European nations justified their imperialism through scientific racism, which plays a major role in history and ties back to modern day films. A scenario that exemplifies scientific racism is when Ulysses Klaue calls the Wakandans “savages”. This relates to the concept of scientific racism and the belief of white people being superior to black people. Klaue’s statement paired with his interrogation he had with Agent Ross implies Klaue believes white people are of a higher class than Wakandans both physically and intellectually. This topic in the movie connects to scientific racism in the world due to Klaue being biased towards Americans, which is the whole point of the superiority complex and thinking that one race is more powerful than another. Africans were enslaved prior to the 1900s and treated horribly by the Europeans. These Europeans who thought they were superior to Africans, commanded them and thought themselves more intelligent than the Africans just because of the way they looked or acted (Harvard, 2023). Imperialism of these countries in Africa was done to gain natural resources that these countries had.

Natural resources and influence played big roles in the film. Vibranium is a natural resource that has been in Wakanda for many generations and the Wakandans thrive from it. People like Klaue and Killmonger wanted to use it and expand the country’s borders. This relates to modern day societies because some countries are still being imperialized for their resources. In addition, a lot of countries like France and Austria are fighting for the technological advancement of data (Brussels, 2017). Technology is a big factor in today’s society as it has shaped the way society functions. One of the biggest reasons for the competition of data is because of the hype of social media and how people need these apps everywhere they go to post videos and pictures. This relates to history because European nations, in the past especially,  would imperialize continents like Africa and Asia and exploit their resources by trade. Likewise, Klaue and Killmonger wanted to take advantage of the vibranium in Wakanda. Based on research, the European nations wanted gold from Africa which was one of their natural resources. The Europeans wanted to exploit the gold and use it for trade. The actions of Europe from Europe led to the “Scramble of Africa,” a petition to open the borders of Africa through trade (Beck, 2020). Based on a source, once multiple countries had been imperialized by European nations, there were many negative effects on those countries. For example, Africa and India had lost a part of their culture such as religions and traditions, due to European imperialism (Ferguson, 2011). It is significant to discuss the topics brought up in Black Panther because many other children and adults could realize the power of history and how it still plays an important role in present-day. To conclude, a historical analysis of a modern-day film exemplifies the importance of imperialism, scientific racism, and natural resources to our current day society.