In 2018 Black Panther was released to critical and fincial success making its budget of 200 million back on the opening weekend becoming a instant hit. Behind this box office success is years of crucial history that still impacts billions to this day.
European colonization of Africa began with the conquest of the canary islands lasting from 1402 to 1496 by Portugal and Spain with two subsequent waves of European conquers rushing to take power. In the 15th century when European powers had fully cemented themselves in west Africa they began to kidnap natives from their homes and export them across the globe, In total European ships took more than 11 million people from the west African coast between 1562 and 1807 British ships alone carried up to three million people into slavery with most going to the relatively new superpower across the pond, the Americas. Even before this slavery was rooted in the heart and soul of the "land of the free" with enslaved Africans contributing to the establishing of colonies in America and continuing to labor after America gained independence. Through the 17th century European settlers in north America turned to enslaved Africans for cheap labor over the free population made up of mostly poor Europeans with the Africans slaves coming to mainly work on tobacco, rice and indigo plantations in the south especially which became a point of conflict with the north in the upcoming years to the American civil war.
During this time America began to take up more and more land leading to some what of a competition between the north and the south to see who could get more states to align with the their values so neither could outvote each other in political matters which eventually lead to the south leaving America to form the Confederate States of America leading to a civil war. The norths president at the time was Abe Lincoln was anti-slavery and saw that British forces could be joining the south, to combat this he made the norths reason for fighting in the civil war a moral issue not a political one, the north fought to end slavery in America and they did.
But sadly the after effects of slavery in America were to be felt for years to come with African American being discriminated against by all of society for years to come with simple rights for decent education, voting and fair treatment having to be fought for in the 20th century.
Eventually in the 60s after years of peaceful protest under men like Dr Martin Luthor King some African Americans gave up on fighting for these rights with non-violent means leading to the rise of black power movements across America and in Oakland California with the Black panthers. The Black Panthers were set up to protect the black community and get them the services they needed with Black panthers setting up schools and soup kitchens to help the local community but they are most know for their armed patrols around neighborhoods open carrying fire arms to combat police brutality against African American by showing they were willing to fight back, in the panthers this was know as cop-watching. Some criticize the Black Panthers for being willing to use violence in this way and their more radical views but considering what horrors this community had faced for no reason i see this as a justified reaction to systemic racism at its strongest During this time two renewed comic creators working at marvel at the time Stan Lee and Jack Kirby realized that the strip had no African American Heroes and simply wanted for Black readers to feel included and took inspiration from the real life superheroes protecting their communities and Black Panther appeared in Fantastic Four issue 52. This leads us back to 2018 and Black Panther were one of the first scenes is that flashback that takes place in Oakland California during the 60s showing the amount of history that lead to the creation of this film.
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