Consolidation and expansion of the British Empire in Africa

Question 1

Summarise the reasons for British interest in Africa

Answer 1

• South Africa with its diamonds and gold was wealthy. Other areas provided key raw materials. - Suez Canal essential for Britain’s route to India -> needed protection.
• clear-cut humanitarian issue to justify western intervention e.g. the slave trade.
• Britain’s African Interests were easier to defend, British Naval strength could count for more there
  -> military weaknesses show less exposed with Africans than in wars with standing armies.

Question 2

What was the approach to Africa in the 1880s

Answer 2

• The Empire was largely for strategic or trading purposes.
• Occasionally responded to
  other powers - matching settlements by the French/Germans.
• Private chartered companies
  were used to occupy and administrate territory.
• generally cautious but
  there was some direct intervention e.g. in Egypt and South Africa.

Question 3

How did the approach to Africa change from 1890

Answer 3

• People in Britain were more supportive of formal intervention.
• The conservative ‘party of
  empire’ were elected in 1895 and in power until 1906 -> determined to uphold Britain’s position in the World.
• British protectorates were expanded to provide
  security to pre-existing ports, markets or resources.
• New territories were taken to limit the advance of other European powers in wake of the Berlin Conference (1885-5), which had also made it easier to expand.
• Chartered companies seen as inefficient -> formal control seen as better.
• Wanted to feel that the boundaries of their possessions were secure -> if borders and investments were threatened by local crises or resistance -> felt it was necessary to take action with force/coercion.

Question 4

What countries did Britain establish control in West Africa

Answer 4

• Ashantiland (Gold Coast)
• Nigeria

Question 5

How did the British establish control in Ashantiland (Gold Coast)

Answer 5

• Britain was tired of skirmishes with the Ashanti tribe bordering the colony.
• demanded King Prempeh to turn over his empire to a British Protectorate.
  -> refused leading to the
  Anglo-Ashanti War.
• Britain conquered Ashantiland in 1896 and it became incorporated into
  the Gold Coast colony.
• removed the indigenous threat to British trade and it checked French interests in the region.

Question 6

How was control established in Nigeria

Answer 6

• RNC established their claim by virtue of occupation and agreement
  with the French in 1890 (Britain recognised France’s influence in Madagascar).
  -> ended any French interest in the area.
• The British government took direct control from the RNC as pre-existing trade could continue more sustainably without it, in the North in 1900
  and the South in 1906.
  -> It reunited as a colony in 1914.

Question 7

What countries did Britain establish control in East Africa

Answer 7

• Zanzibar
• Uganda
• Kenya
• Sudan

Question 8

how was control established in Zanzibar

Answer 8

• 1890 Britain and Germany signed a treaty recognising German control over Tanzania and
  Britain’s declaration of Zanzibar as a protectorate. - installed ‘puppet’, Sultan Hamad, died in 1896 and Khalid became sultan without Britain’s blessing.
  -> he was ordered to step
  down, refused, and prompted the shorted was in history (38 minutes) in which Britain
  launched a naval bombardment and Khalid was forced to step down.
• replaced by pro-British Sultan Hamud.
  -> Zanzibar seen as a key for the defence of trade in the Indian Ocean and it also helped check German ambitions in the region.

Question 9

How was control established in Uganda

Answer 9

• 19th century, Anglican and Catholic missionaries permeated Buganda and achieved significant success.
• King Mwanga executed 30
  missionaries in an attempt to assert his authority which provoked a civil war, during which he
  fled.
• forced to sign a treaty in 1890 with the Imperial British East Africa Company
  which handed over revenue, trade, and administration of justice to them.
• powers were transferred to the Crown in 1894 and Buganda became a protectorate as part of
  Uganda.
• Built Uganda Railway from Mombasa from 1896.

Question 10

What was the Uganda railway/Lunatic Line?

Answer 10

• built from Mombassa to connect the coast with fertile highlands bordering Lake Victoria.
• linked colonies together and with the Indian Ocean.
• 660 miles, took 5 years and cost £5 million, took the lives of 5 million workers.
• Joseph Chamberlain (colonial secretary) justified the expense to the public:
  
  • access to new markets
  • facilitated export of tea and coffee.
  • protect source of the Nile against Britain’s potential enemies.

Question 11

How was control established over Kenya

Answer 11

• exploited succession dispute between the native Mazrui and the Muslim Sheikh Mbaruk.
• Mbaruk took up arms against the British, obtaining weapons from the Germans.
• took 9 months to defeated them but eventually Mbaruk fled and the territory became part of Britain’s East African Protectorate in 1895.
• Provided access to the fertile land of Uganda, formed a buffer against German interests in Tanzania and could grow tea and coffee.

Question 12

how was control established over Somaliland

Answer 12

• Britain already had a protectorate in Somaliland (established in 1888) but this was reinforced
  by admin and military personnel in 1898.
• had few resources but was useful to defence the
  Red Sea and the route to the Suez Canal.
• It also checked French and Italian ambitions in
  the region.

Question 13

What countries did Britain establish control over in South Africa?

Answer 13

• Rhodesia
• Nyasaland
• Cape Colony