Chapter 4 - Attitudes To Empire - The Role And Influence Of Individuals Flashcards
What type of individuals took an interest in the empire?
Explorers
Missionaries
Traders + colonial administrators
Government
Who were the most famous explorers?
David Livingstone
John Kirk
Richard Burton
John Hanning Speke
How did they open up the interior of Africa?
Lectured and published their findings
Produced maps
Who did they open the option of travelling to Africa to?
Missionaries
Traders
Who was the most famous Victorian explorer?
David Livingstone
How did he begin his travels?
As a missionary doctor in South Africa
What nationality is he?
Scottish
What society was he part of?
The London Missionary Society
What was his aim?
To spread Christianity and Commerce in Africa
What year did he first travel to SA?
1841
Why did he return to the UK?
He fell out with his missionary partner
Where did he lecture in the UK?
Cambridge University
What did he talk about in his lectures?
Geography
Mineralogy
Diseases
Languages
Cultures in Africa
What year did he return to Africa?
1858
Why did the government fund Livingstone in his return?
He claimed to ‘go back and try to open up a path for commerce and Christianity’
What official title did he receive?
Consul for the East Coast of Africa
What river did he start to explore?
Zambezi
How many letters did he send back from this?
2000
What exemplified Livingstone’s ‘saintliness’?
Accounts published with illustrations
What expedition did Livingstone go missing on?
Finding the source of the Nile
What year did Livingstone die?
1873
What did he die from?
Malaria + dysentery
What was he seen as by the British public?
A martyr who sacrificed his life for Africa and the Empire
What did Livingstone think about slavery?
He disagreed with it
What were men like Livingstone known as?
‘Men on the spot’
What nationality was John Kirk?
Scottish
What were his jobs?
He was a physician and botanist
Which explorer did he assist?
Livingstone
What expedition was it?
To find natural resources along the Zambezi River
How did he nearly die?
Drowning in rapids
What did he collect on the exhibition?
Mussels and sent them back to Britain
What did he become in 1870?
British consul in Zanzibar
What did he want to do in Zanzibar?
Abolish slavery
Why was Zanzibar of commercial interest?
It’s clove and ivory exports
What was Zanzibar the first to have in East Africa?
A railway
What did Kirk ensure?
That Zanzibar operated as a British client
What year did East Africa become British?
1895
What were the jobs of Richard Burton?
Linguist
Scholar
Explorer
What was Burton interested in?
Muslim life and manners
When did he become famous for his stories?
1850s
How did he get the information for his book on Muslim life and manners?
Visited sacred Islamic cities like Mecca
Why was this famous?
No Western Christian had been there before
What was he in his early life?
A captain in the EIC’s army
How was he wounded in his exploration of Somaliland?
A natives javelin went through his jaw
Why did he have to abandon his expedition in Zanzibar?
He got malaria
Who became his companion?
John Speke
What did they discover together?
Lake Victoria
What did Speke believe Lake Victoria was?
The source of the Nile
Did Burton agree?
No
What association wanted them to discuss this?
Association for the Advancement of Science
Why didn’t Burton attend?
Speke died
What did he spend his last years doing?
Travelling and publishing
How many books did he produce?
43
Why did he have a dangerous reputation?
He wrote essays on pornography, homosexuality and sexual education of women
What society did he co-found?
The Anthropological Society
Who did he co-found it with?
Dr. James Hunt
What did the society promote?
Racist views that people of different races have different genetic origins
What was this known as?
Scientific racism
What other scientific theory supported this view?
Social Darwinism
What did social Darwinists think?
That there was survival of the fittest and only the strongest societies could survive
What was the concept used to justify?
Colonisation
What did this inspire in the twentieth century?
The Nazi regime
Was it actually Darwin’s theory?
No it was adapted
Who did John Hanning Speke work alongside and in competition with?
Richard Burton
What did they try and find together?
The source of the Nile
What lake did he find when he separated from Burton?
Lake Victoria
What did he believe Lake Victoria to be?
The source of the Nile
Why couldn’t Speke dispute the findings with Burton?
He died in a shooting accident
(Probably suicide)
What were missionaries committed to doing?
Spreading God’s message to the ‘uncivilised’ in the colonies
What were the types of missionaries?
Anglicans
Roman Catholics
Presbyterians
Methodists
What are Anglicans?
Members of the Protestant church of England
What are Roman Catholics?
Believe the Pope to be head of the Christian Church
What are non-conformists?
A member of a Protestant church that acts independently from the established church of England
What are Presbyterians?
Protestant non-conformist denomination with simple services and no bishop
What are Methodists?
A Protestant non-conformist group that grew strongly in some of Englands industrial working class commmunities
What was conversion seen as at the start of the 19th century?
As a part of a Christian’s duty
What did the missionary movement represent a distinct form of?
Cultural and ‘Christian imperialism’
What did missionaries also represent the ideas of?
Muscular Christianity
What did missionaries do for the empire?
Open up territories
How else did they allow the empire to have influence?
Going beyond colonial frontiers
Establishing links with indigenous communities
Seeking imperial protection
Sharing knowledge with secular authorities
What does secular mean?
Without religious basis
E.g. police, military and govt
Why did females want to become missionaries?
To escape strict gender roles
What were female missionaries particularly concerned about?
The rights of women and children
How did they win the respect of native people?
Learned local languages
Assimilated the local culture
Who was the most prominent?
Mary Slessor
What did Mary Slessor aim to do?
Stop the killing of twins in Nigeria
Who was another female missionary?
Amy Carmichael
What did Amy Carmichael do?
Fought to rescue ‘temple children’ in India
What were ‘temple children’?
Mostly young girls forced into prostitution
What did missionaries do in return for conversion?
Set up churches
Schools
Housing
Farm work
Answers to moral questions
Who would missionaries conflict with?
Indigenous people
Colonial rulers
Other missionaries
Although missionaries helped expansion what did they also do?
Delayed annexation and colonisation
Challenged imperial authority
Who helped the British flag follow British trade?
Cecil Rhodes
William Mackinnon
George Goldie
What did Cecil Rhodes own?
All the diamonds in South Africa
What percentage of the global production of diamonds did he own?
90%
What did Rhodes do after an epidemic wiped out the vineyards in the Cape?
Invested in fruit growing
What company did he form?
The British South Africa Company
What did the British South Africa Company receive?
A royal charter
Where did Rhodes become the Prime Minister of?
Cape Colony
What did he do to make room for industrial development?
Forced indigenous tribes out of their lands
What was Zambesia renamed to?
Rhodesia
What did he believe about race?
‘The more we inhabit the better for the human race’
What did Sir William Mackinnon do?
Ship-owner and businessman
What company did he found?
The Calcutta and Burma Steam Navigation Company
What did the company then become?
The British India Steam Navigation Company
What company did he make that received a charter?
The Imperial British East Africa Company
How did it establish influence in the region?
With support of the British government
What year was there a conflict between the company and local people?
1892
What did Uganda then become when the British government had the transfer of power?
A protectorate
What did he then combine his company with?
His religious principles making a free church
What did the family of George Goldie buy?
A palm oil plantation in the Niger
What could palm oil be used in?
Soap and candles and lubricant
What did he persuade other trading firms in the Niger to do?
Join to from the United African Company
What did this create?
A monopoly
How many years did it take to be granted a charter?
5
What did F.W. Lorder’s discovery of palm kernels mean?
That he could sell them to make margarine
How did he get along with the tribal chiefs?
Made them sign treaties where they could only deal with him and he will buy all of their produce
In return what were the tribal chiefs offered?
Protection
Compensation
Goods
Annual subsidies
What countries companies did Goldie have to buy out for the monopoly?
French
What other products did he start selling?
Cocoa
Where could Britain assert its authority over northern and southern Niger?
The Berlin Conference
What year did the British government take direct control of Nigeria?
1900
How much did they pay Goldie for this?
£850,000
What did Goldie become in later years?
A British colonial administrator
Who was Britain’s empire typically run by?
‘Men on the spot’
Who were two colonial administrators?
Sir Evelyn Baring
Bartle Frere
Where did Baring serve as a private secretary to the Viceroy?
India
What was his nickname from being arrogant and patronising?
Over-baring
What did he believe in?
British superiority over the Indians and Egyptians
Where was his second posting as Consul General?
Egypt
Who did he help out with financial difficulties?
Isma’il Pasha
What did he approve?
The Dufferin Report
What was the Dufferin Report?
Established an Egyptian puppet parliament
What did this then establish?
A veiled protectorate where he ruled the rulers of Egypt
Where did Bartle Frere begin his career?
In the Indian Civil Service
Why did he receive a knighthood?
For his support in helping crush the Indian mutiny
When was he appointed Commissioner of Cape Colony?
1877
Where did he attempt to increase control?
South Africa
What did this lead to?
A war with the local Zulu tribe
Who removed him from his actions?
Gladstone’s liberal government
