The Role of Individuals 1857-90

Question 1

Name 4 Victorian explorers.

Answer 1

1) David Livingstone.
2) John Kirk.
3) Richard Burton.
4) John Hanning Speke.

Question 2

What is legitimate trade?

Answer 2

A term used to refer to ‘moral’ trading, instead of the slave trade, gun running, and alcohol trade.

Question 3

What was the story of David Livingstone (6)?

Answer 3

1) Livingstone was a Scot, who travelled to South Africa in 1841 as a missionary to spread gospel and legitimate trade.
2) He returned to Britain 1856-57, delivering lecturers at Cambridge about his experiences, languages, cultures, etc that he had encountered in Africa.
3) He received government funding to return to Africa to ‘open up a path for commerce and Christianity’.
4) He explored along the Zambezi River, sending back 2000 letters to Britain, enthralling the public.
5) He dramatically disappeared, before Henry Stanley (a journalist sent to find him) discovered him in a small village in 1871.
6) He died of dysentery and malaria in Africa in 1873.

Question 4

What was the story of John Kirk (3)?

Answer 4

1) Kirk was a Scottish physician, assigned as chief medical officer and economic botanist for Livingstone’s Zambezi expedition.
2) He collected many aquatic specimens and explored many waterways on this expedition.
3) He returned to Africa in 1868 as the Sultanate of Zanzibar, living out the rest of his career as a diplomat until 1886, ensuring Zanzibar operated as a British client state.

Question 5

Why was Zanzibar of interest to Britain (2)?

Answer 5

1) Because of its clove and ivory exports.
2) It was a wealthy state, home to East Africa’s first steam railway.

Question 6

What was the story of Sir Richard Burton (5)?

Answer 6

1) Burton had become famous for his exploration of Islamic sights in the 1850s.
2) He was injured by a javelin to the jaw on his exploration of the Somaliland in 1855.
3) He want on an expedition to Zanzibar with John Hanning Speke, but was forced to abandon it due to malaria, allowing for Speke to discover Lake Victoria.
4) Burton refuted Speke’s claim that Lake Victoria was the source of the Nile.
5) After Speke’s death, Burton travelled, publishing 43 volumes on his explorations.

Question 7

What was the story of John Hanning Speke (5)?

Answer 7

1) Speke and Burton set out to find the origin of the Nile in 1857.
2) After Burton’s departure, Speke discovered a great lake in 1858, naming it Victoria after the Queen.
3) Speke’s claim that Lake Victoria was the source of the Nile led to great debate in England.
4) Speke returned to Lake Victoria in 1960, mapping it out further.
5) Speke was killed by his own gun whilst hunting (probably suicide).

Question 8

What are Anglicans?

Answer 8

Members of the Protestant Church of England (the established Church of England), with the Monarch of Great Britain as its head.

Question 9

What are Roman Catholics?

Answer 9

Those who believed that the Pope was the Head of the Christian Church and refuted Anglicanism.

Question 10

What is a non-conformist?

Answer 10

A member of a Protestant Church which acts independently from the established Church of England.

Question 11

What are Presbyterians?

Answer 11

A protestant non-conformist denomination preferring simple services and had no bishops. It was particularly strong in Scotland.

Question 12

What are Methodists?

Answer 12

A protestant non-conformist group, and had grown strongly in England’s industrial working class communities.

Question 13

What is Evangelicalism?

Answer 13

A form of Christian belief with a focus on ‘vital’, rather than ‘nominal’, nature of faith.

Question 14

What does secular mean?

Answer 14

Without religious basis. Secular authorities include police, military powers, and governments.

Question 15

How did missionaries spread British influence?

Answer 15

Missionaries helped to open up territories to British rule by penetrating colonial frontiers, establishing links with indigenous communities, and by seeking imperial protection.

Question 16

How did missionaries spread Western culture (3)?

Answer 16

1) Missionary groups set up compounds and churches, providing housing and farm work in exchange for conversions to Christianity.
2) These converts were made to conform to western practices, such as monogamous marriage, British gender norms, and Western clothing and housing.
3) They offered education and the opportunity for personal expansion in exchange for embracing the ‘white man’s culture’, and abandoning indigenous practices and traditions.

Question 17

In what ways did missionaries slow down expansion (4)?

Answer 17

1) They could delay annexations and colonisations.
2) They challenged imperial authority.
3) They provided a focus for local resistance to colonial rule.
4) Some missionaries lobbied for equal rights for the indigenous peoples.

Question 18

Who was Cecil Rhodes (3)?

Answer 18

1) A diamond magnate behind British expansion in South Africa. He held all of South Africa’s diamond mines (90% of global diamond production),
2) He believed in bringing all of the ‘uncivilised’ world under British rule, and held social-Darwinist views.
3) He served as the Prime Minister of Cape Colony 1890-1896.

Question 19

What chartered company did Cecil Rhodes own?

Answer 19

The British South Africa Company of 1889.

Question 20

How did Rhodes increase British control in Africa in the 1890s?

Answer 20

The British South Africa Company was able to control South Zambezi, through concessions and treaties. This territory was renamed to Rhodesia in 1895.

Question 21

Who was Sir William Mackinnon (2)?

Answer 21

A self-made Scottish ship-owner and businessman. Founding the incredibly successful British India Steam Navigation Company, and then the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1888, which was later bankrupted.

Question 22

What chartered company did William Mackinnon own?

Answer 22

The Imperial British East Africa Company of 1888.

Question 23

Who was George Goldie (3)?

Answer 23

1) An English businessman, who initially grew rich through palm oil exports in the Niger basin, establishing the United African Company in 1879.
2) He won a trade war with French competitors, having secured 450 local treaty arrangements, granting the UAC with more territory.
3) The UAC became the chartered company the Royal Niger Company in 1886. Goldie then became a colonial administrator, responsible for Northern Nigeria.

Question 24

What company did George Goldie own?

Answer 24

The Royal Niger Company of 1886.

Question 25

How did George Goldie increase British control in Africa 1880-90?

Answer 25

The territories controlled by Goldie, due to his 450 local treaties, enabled Britain to successfully claim both northern and southern Nigeria as a protectorate at the Berlin Conference 1884-85.

Question 26

Who were ‘men on the spot’?

Answer 26

Company directors, governors, high commissioners, consuls, etc, who typically ran the Empire. Through ambitions of wealth, fame, and influence, they were deemed to have aided British expansion.

Question 27

Who was Sir Evelyn Baring (3)?

Answer 27

1) Baring served in India as a colonial administrator 1872-76, earning himself the nickname ‘Over-Baring’ for his arrogant and efficient nature.
2) He was sent to Egypt in 1877 to aid Isma’il Pasha’s financial difficulties, however he returned to Britain as his advice was ignored.
3) He returned to Egypt as Consul-General in 1882, until 1907, serving as the effective ruler having approved the Dufferin Report of 1883.

Question 28

Who was Bartle Frere (4)?

Answer 28

1) Beginning his career in the Indian Civil Service, Frere earned multiple high positions in India due to his role in crushing the Indian Mutiny in 1857.
2) He became High Commissioner and Governor of Cape Colony in 1877, being chosen to plan out a planned confederation in the area.
3) Frere deliberately provoked a war with the Zulus in December 1878, seeing them an obstacle to confederation.
4) Despite a British victory, the losses at Isandlwana and the high cost, resulted in Frere being withdrawn and denounced by Gladstone’s government in 1880.

Question 29

What is a confederation?

Answer 29

A union of states with some/most power vested in central authority.