The origins and expansion of the British Empire in Africa, 1857 -1890

Question 1

Men on the spot - George Goldie

Answer 1

1. West Africa - trader
2. 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
3. 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.

Question 2

Men on the spot - David Livingstone

Answer 2

1. East and South Africa - explorer
2. 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
3. Gave a series of celebrated lectures at Cambridge Uni and wrote a total of 2000 letters back to Britain from his expeditions in Africa.
4. 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

Question 3

Livingstone - really trade and commerce

Answer 3

2. He went to Africa ‘to try and make an open path for commerce and Christianity’

Question 4

Goldie - really trade and commerce

Answer 4

1. UAC controlled 30 trading ports
2. 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

Question 5

Men on the spot - Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke

Answer 5

1. February 1858: first europeans to reach Lake Tanganyika
2. July 1858: abandoned by Burton, Speke discovered Lake Victoria and claimed it was the Nile’s source
3. 1860: Speke (with someone else) mapped parts of Lake Victoria

Question 6

Men on the spot - Mary Slessor

Answer 6

1. West Africa - Nigeria - missionary
2. 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
3. Missionary groups established compounds, set up churches, and typically provided food, housing, resources and education in return for conversions to Christianity
4. Advanced imperialism not only by staking a claim to (or consolidating) territorial control, but also extending Britain’s commercial reach

Question 7

List all the men on the spot

Answer 7

Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, George Goldie, David Livingstone, Mary Slessor

Question 8

Politicians - Frere and Carnarvon

Answer 8

1. 1877 - Sir Bartle Frere appointed as High Commissioner and Governor of Cape Colony.
2. The Conservative Colonial Secretary, Lord Carnarvon, chose him to carry out a planned confederation in the area. e
3. The Transvaal was annexed in order to ‘protect’ the Boers against the Zulus.
4. Frere led imperial troops against the Xhosa

Question 9

Frere and Carnarvon - financial counter

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

Administrators - Frere and Shepstone

Answer 10

1. 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

Question 11

Frere and Shepstone - counter

Answer 11

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)

Question 12

Trade and Commerce - Egypt

Answer 12

1. By 1870, 40% of Egypt’s imports were coming from Britain
2. Gladstone’s decision to establish a ‘veiled protectorate’ over Egypt in 1882 was to protect British markets
3. Suez Canal 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.

Question 13

Trade and Commerce - Griqualand West

Answer 13

1. Diamonds discovered near Kimberly (Griqualand West) in 1867.
2. In the few years after the discovery, South Africa yielded more diamonds than India had in over 2000 years.
3. Increasing financial significance of Griqualand West motivated British annexation of the area in 1871.

Question 14

Trade and commerce - Cape colony

Answer 14

Strategically important for trade with Asia, to improve Britain’s economic position. In 1867, India imported £21million worth of British goods

Strategic importance influenced occupation of Basutuland in 1868 and Zululand in 1887

Question 15

trade and commerce - West Africa

Answer 15

1. 1873-82: British trade in West Africa worth about £34 million (becoming increasingly financially important)
2. Establishing economic influence enabled the colony to be officially established in 1885 at the Berlin Conference – ‘effective occupation’

Question 16

Trade and Commerce - South Africa - Rhodes

Answer 16

Rhodes was a trader who was crucial in British expansion into South Africa:
1885 - lobbying of the British govenrment through Cape legislature arguably led to the annexatino of the Bechuanaland
1888 - Rhodes amalgamated Kimberley Diamond Companies
1889 – Rhodes’s South African Company gets charter
1890 – Rhodes’ company establishes a fort at Salisbury in Mashonaland, forcing yet another area under British control.
1890 – becomes Prime Minister of Cape Colony

Question 17

The Berlin Conference 1884-5

Answer 17

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)

Question 18

Great Power Rivalry - East Africa Mackinnon

Answer 18

1. Mackinnon’s Imperial British East Africa Company received a charter in 1888 only five months after its founding.
2. 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.
3. Karl Peters was given an official backing in 1884.
4. 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.

Question 19

GPR East Africa - financial counter

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

Great power rivalry - Bechuanaland

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

Strategic factors - Egypt

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

Strategic factors - Cape colony

Answer 22

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