Expansion in Africa Y12 Flashcards
Men on the spot - George Goldie
- West Africa - trader
- 1879, Goldie persuaded all the British trading firms along the Nigel River to join forces with his family’s firm to create the United African company
- Through this company, Goldie secured over 450 local treaty arrangements transferring territory and jurisdiction to the UAC. Enabled the declaration of a protectorate under ‘effective occupation’ in the Berlin Conference.
Men on the spot - David Livingstone
- East and South Africa - explorer
- Did expeditions into South Africa during the 50s and 60s, during which he identified numerous geographical features for Western science, such as Lake Ngami and Lake Malawi
- Gave a series of celebrated lectures at Cambridge Uni and wrote a total of 2000 letters back to Britain from his expeditions in Africa.
- The spreading of this scientific knowledge shaped the Victorian understanding of the interior of Africa, laying the inroads for the proclamation of the British Central Africa Protectorate in 1889
Livingstone - really trade and commerce
- He went to Africa ‘to try and make an open path for commerce and Christianity’
Goldie - really trade and commerce
The UAC controlled 30 trading ports (from 1879 when the companies amalgamated)
The concessions Goldie secured form tribal chiefs obliged them to trade solely with the Company’s agents in return for a commitment to buy up all the local exportable products
Men on the spot - Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke
- February 1858: first europeans to reach Lake Tanganyika
- July 1858: abandoned by Burton, Speke discovered Lake Victoria and claimed it was the Nile’s source
- 1860: Speke (with someone else) mapped parts of Lake Victoria
Men on the spot - Mary Slessor
- West Africa - Nigeria - missionary
- Lived among the tribes of Calabar in Nigeria in the late 1870s, where she fought hard to end the practice of killing twins, which the local tribes attributed to the work of the devil
- Missionary groups established compounds, set up churches, and typically provided food, housing, resources and education in return for conversions to Christianity
- Advanced imperialism not only by staking a claim to (or consolidating) territorial control, but also extending Britain’s commercial reach
List all the men on the spot
Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, George Goldie, David Livingstone, Mary Slessor
Politicians - Frere and Carnarvon
- 1877 - Sir Bartle Frere appointed as High Commissioner and Governor of Cape Colony.
- The Conservative Colonial Secretary, Lord Carnarvon, chose him to carry out a planned confederation in the area.
- The Transvaal was annexed by Shepstone in 1877 in order to ‘protect’ the Boers against the Zulus.
- Frere led imperial troops against the Xhosa, and then moved to invade the independent Zulu kingdom in 1879.
Frere and Carnarvon - financial counter
Annexing the Transvaal would help foster economic growth, including development of the Transvaal’s diamond mines. Annexation also supposed to protect white settlers (many of whom were there for the diamonds) against the Pedi and Zulu tribes.
Administrators - Frere and Shepstone
- 1878: Sir Battle Frere and Theophilus Shepstone conspired to engineer a war with the Zulu King, though he had shown no hostility to his southern neighbour Natal
Frere and Shepstone - counter
They were interested in the Zululand partly because of their desire for the Zulu population to provide labour in the diamond fields of Southern Africa (diamond had been discovered in 1867)
Trade and Commerce - Egypt (Suez and cotton)
Cotton was widely produced in Egypt and so when British mills were starved of raw cotton during the American Civil War of 1861-1865, British companies began investing heavily in Egyptian cotton, so leading to British involvement there.
By 1870, 40% of Egypt’s imports were coming from Britain.
In 1875, Britain bought a 44% share in the Suez Canal, which offered a route to India that was 6,000 miles shorter than via the Cape.
In the early 1880’s, 80% of Suez Traffic was British, which made up 13% of Britain’s entire trade.
Therefore, Britain’s declaration of a ‘veiled protectorate’ over Egypt in 1882 was driven by economic factors. This is further evident in the fact that Egyptian cotton exports trebled over the following decade.
Trade and Commerce - South Africa (diamonds)
- Diamonds discovered near Kimberly (Griqualand West) in 1867.
- In the few years after the discovery, South Africa yielded more diamonds than India had in over 2000 years.
- Increasing financial significance of Griqualand West motivated British annexation of the area in 1871 (and then annexation to Cape Colony in 1880)
- Rhodes made Kimberley Diamonds mines company in 1888, and gets a charter in 1889. In 1890, his company establishes a fort at Salisbury in Mashonaland, forcing yet another area under British control - point being that political control emerged out of economic interest and a desire to profit from diamonds (his company owned 90% of global diamond production)
- By 1891, the Cape exports goods worth £9.5 million, with one third being attributed to the diamond trade.
Trade and commerce - Cape colony
Strategically important for trade with Asia, to improve Britain’s economic position. In 1867, India imported £21million worth of British goods, demonstrating how crucial India was as a market and by extension how important the Cape was in facilitating such trade.
Strategic importance influenced occupation of the Basutuland in 1868 and Zululand in 1887.
trade and commerce - West Africa
In 1873-82, British trade with West Africa was worth about £34 million, including goods like cocoa in the Gold Coast and palm oil in Nigeria.
This led to the British formalising control of the Gold Coast in 1874, Nigeria in 1884, and The Gambia in 1888.
In 1908, the West African gin trade was worth 1.2 million, enticing the British to maintain control there (they sold ‘traders gin’ to the indigenous peoples there, so profited off West Africa as a market).
Trade and Commerce - South Africa (gold)
Gold is discovered at Witwatersrand in 1886.
There is an influx of migrants who come to South Africa to invest in the gold trade, 30,000 of whom are British. This British presence encourages British presence in the area.
The Berlin Conference 1884-5
Involved 13 countries and established the legal terms by which nations could acquire rights over colonial lands.
The conference made Britain increasingly aware that other foreign powers, including France and Germany, had imperial interests in Africa, and so subsequently pressurised the Britain into rapidly seizing colonies in order to maintain her status as a great power.
E.g. Protectorate over the Niger districts officially formed (1885), Bechuanaland (1885) and British Somaliland (1888)
Great Power Rivalry - East Africa Mackinnon
- Mackinnon’s Imperial British East Africa Company received a charter in 1888 only five months after its founding.
- This decision was partly driven by German actions, as the British PM, Lord Salisbury, had become convinced that Zanzibar was under threat from German occupation.
- Karl Peters was given an official backing in 1884.
- Peters became increasingly interested in the Lakes region in 1888. Mackinnon’s company was given their charter in 1888 on the basis that he would attempt to occupy the Lakes region for Britain.
GPR East Africa - financial counter
Partly because of the prospect of making the area economically productive via plantations – lots of fertile land.
The Imperial British East Africa Company was interested in expanding trade in East Africa, so British initial interest in the region was arguably because of economic prospects. Eg the IBEAC oversaw an area of roughly 250,000 square miles along the eastern coast of Africa with Mombasa and its harbour being central to its operations – all grounded in trade.
Great power rivalry - Bechuanaland
Invasion of the Bechuanaland in 1885 was motivated by Germany’s annexation of the Damaraland and Namaqualand, and by the increasing threat that she would unite with the Transvaal.
Declaring a protectorate over Bechuanaland was to form a physical barrier between regions – defensive strategy.
Strategic factors - Egypt
Suez Canal (1869) offered a route to India that was 6,000 miles shorter than via the Cape. In the early 1880’s, 80% of Suez Traffic was British, which made up 13% of Britain’s entire trade.
Gladstone’s declaration of Egypt as a protectorate in 1882 was to protect the Suez canal as a trade route to Asia, which Britain evidently had high financial stakes in.
Strategic factors - Cape colony
20 years after the opening of the Suez Canal (1869), Cape Town was chosen as the principle staging post for reinforcements bound for India in the event of war with Russia.
Territories taken from indigenous peoples: annexation of Basutuland (1868), Zululand becoming a protectorate (1887)
Only strategically important for trade with Asia, to improve Britain’s economic position. In 1867, India imported £21million worth of British goods
