As
you read this essay, keep in mind that there were several hundred distinct
African groups living in East Africa in the 19th century, and that most of
their histories are only available through oral traditions collected later by
European or African scholars. The exceptions were Ethiopia, which produced its
own literature for centuries, and Swahili coastal cities which were inhabited
by Muslims who produced records in Arabic.
In
the early 19th century, the East African coast was theoretically under the
control of the Ottoman Empire through the Sultan of Oman, whose capital was in
the city of Muscat on the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula. The East
African interior was divided into a number of local states which included the
Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, the animist kingdom of Buganda and many smaller
states. The ZuluMfecane created
a number of new states towards the south in the area that is now Tanzania and
Malawi, while Mehemet Ali's modernization led to the expansion of Egyptian
administration into the Upper Nile River (modern Sudan).
Although struggles within the Muslim world and local
political disputes also played a role, European industrialization and overseas
trade combined to undermine the stability of the region during the 19th
century. First, ocean voyages around Africa meant that Europeans sailed along
the East African coast, and they brought concerns about the security of their
ships and sailors. Second, the end of the slave trade along the West African
coast shifted slave traders to the East Coast, encouraging the expansion of
existing slave markets. Third, industrialization created the demand for tropical
products like rubber and ivory, and East Africa's plains and forests were a
particularly good place to find elephant ivory.
THE RISE OF ZANZIBAR
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One of the major changes
on the East African coast in the 19th century was the decline in the power of
the Ottoman Empire. After two centuries of Portuguese control beginning in
the early 16th century, Muslims reasserted their authority along the Swahili
Coast as far south as Cape Delgado (just below the border between Tanzania
and Mozambique). Omani influence ebbed and waned until Seyyid Said, the
Sultan of Oman, subdued his enemies on the East Africa coast in the first
half of the 19th century. He attracted the interest of the British, who were
sailing regularly to India by then, and in 1840 they assisted Said to move
his capital from Muscat to Zanzibar, an island off the coast of modern
Tanzania. Within a few years, the USA, Germany, France and Britain all opened
diplomatic missions on Zanzibar.
Zanzibar had been part of
Muslim trading networks in the Indian Ocean for more than eight hundred
years. Under Said, its economy became based on the exploitation of clove
plantations that used African slave labor to produce spices for export to
India and Europe. Slaves brought to the coast were also used to carry ivory,
and through the second and third quarters of the 19th century, Zanzibari
traders established posts as far inland as Tabora in western Tanzania.
European powers,
especially Britain, recognized Seyyid Said as the "Sultan of Oman and
the East African Dominions." After Said died in 1856, his domains were
divided between two sons, Majid (half-Ethiopian) in Zanzibar and Thwain
(half-Georgian) in Oman. Britain's Viceroy in India, Lord Canning, promptly
recognized the division, making permanent the division of Oman and Zanzibar.
Majid ruled from 1856 to 1870, when he was succeeded by his brother Barghash
(1870-1888). During Barghash's reign, British
influence increased in Zanzibar. Sir William Mackinnon, a Scottish
shipbuilder, organized the first regular mail service between Britain, India
and Zanzibar in 1872. The following year, the British made Sir John Kirk the
permanent Consul-General to Zanzibar and he convinced Barghash to sign a
document abolishing the slave trade. He almost convinced Barghash to accept a
British protectorate in 1877, but by then two German shipping firms had begun
to operate in the region and Barghash began to play them off against the
British.
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In fall 1884, a German
explorer named Karl Peters, traveled inland from Zanzibar and spent the next
several months collecting signatures on treaties from local African chiefs. His
travels took him to the area around Lake Victoria-Nyanza, at the western edge
of the territory claimed by the Sultan of Zanzibar. Peters was only 28 years
old, the son of a Lutheran pastor, and a university graduate who had spent some
time in London where he became enthused by the progress of British imperialism.
When he went to East Africa, he presented himself as the representative of
something he called the "Society for German Colonialism" (Deutsche
Kolonialverein).
Although he had no official
position or government backing, he returned to Germany at a fortunate moment.
His return in February 1885 was just before the end of the Congress of Berlin,
and his "treaties" gave German Prime Minister Bismarck the basis for
a German claim onr African territory. The German government awarded Peters a
charter for the "German East African Company" and he went on to
achieve fame as a lecturer and promoter of African colonization. His GEAC did
not do as well, and the government had to take it over in 1888 after local
revolts destroyed much of its equipment.
This excerpt from Peters'
1885 correspondence gives an idea of his personality and attitude towards
Africa:
"As the
[Society] wanted to found independent German colonies under the German flag,
its activity naturally was limited to those areas which at that time had not
yet been taken. In fact, only Africa was suitable ... Already in November 1884
this task basically had been fulfilled by the expedition sent via Zanzibar. On
December 14th 1884 I found myself, as representative of the Society for German
Colonization, as the rightful owner of 2500 square miles of very lush tropical
land, located to the west of Zanzibar. Now the task was to gain the German
government's recognition for the new acquisitions. This was achieved in short
negotiations, and already on February 27th 1885 our society had been granted
the Imperial charter by his Imperial Majesty."
Source:
Kolonial-Politische Korrespondenz (Colonial-Political Correspondence). 1st
Year, Berlin, 16. Mai 1885, available at www.zum.de/psm/imperialismus/peters1e.php
Note that in Peters' mind, land that was under African or
Zanzibari authority was "not yet taken" and that as a result of his
treaties, he considered himself "the rightful owner of 2500 square
miles," an area half as large as Connecticut.
Peters continued to promote German interests in East
Africa, and even led an expedition to Buganda in 1888 to search for "Emin
Pasha," one of the many Europeans who were forced to flee the Upper Nile
Valley following the rise of the Mahdi. Although Peters did
not find him, he concluded a treaty with the leader of Buganda, then left the
area in a hurry when a much stronger British force arrived. Later, he served as
the German high commissioner for East Africa, was convicted of brutality
towards Africans and relieved of his post. He continued to work in East Africa
in the early 20th century and obtained a reputation as a racist for some of his
writings.
THE CONQUEST OF BUGANDA
Karl Peters' travels in
East Africa instilled fear in British imperialists, especially since his claims
straddled the proposed Cape-to-Cairo overland route. But European interest in
East Africa was already strong thanks to the writings of missionaries like
David Livingstone and explorers like Richard Burton and William Speke. For the
British especially, the East African interior seemed critical because it
contained the elusive "source of the Nile" on which Egypt's economic
well-being and stability depended.
As European explorers
ventured into the "great lakes" region of East Africa (where Uganda,
Tanzania and Kenya meet), they encountered an African state that was unlike any
other. Buganda was situated in a region of great fertility and was so densely
populated that its leaders exercised control through title to land rather than
lineages. That gave Buganda a political structure that reminded Europeans of
their own feudal period, with a hereditary king (called the kabaka) and a landed nobility that
served as a counterweight to the monarchy. For missionaries seeking a point of
departure for the "civilizing" of African, Bugandan society seemed to
offer an advanced place from which to proceed. Europeans with commercial
priorities also noticed that Buganda offered plentiful supplies of ivory and
tropical crops. Finally, Buganda contained the source of the Nile River, so it
possessed strategic importance to Europeans preoccupied with Egyptian stability
and the Suez Canal.
By the 1880s however,
Buganda was in a state of turmoil as a result of foreign influences. Muslims
began to arrive from the coast in the 1860s and in 1868, Kabaka Mutesa converted to
Islam. This alienated Bugandan nobles whose land claims were based on
traditional religious beliefs, so after H. M. Stanley visited Buganda in
1876, Kabaka Mutesa
issued an invitation to Christian missionaries and the first representatives of
the Anglican Church Missionary Society arrived a year later. In 1879, the first
French Catholic missionaries reached Buganda and made converts, creating three
competing factions--Swahili Muslim, British Anglican and French Catholic.
After Kabaka Mutesa
died in 1884, this precarious balance disintegrated. His successor Kabaka Mwanga feared that the
missionaries would bring in other Europeans, so he had an Anglican missionary
named James Hannington assassinated in November 1885 and executed 30 Catholic
Bugandans when they refused to give up their new religion. As the country divided
into Protestant, Catholic, Muslim and animist factions, civil war ensued.
The death of a missionary
stirred passions in Britain, and in 1890, the Imperial British East Africa
Company (IBEAC) sent a military unit under the command of Captain Frederick Lugard
to Buganda. Lugard's army supported the Protestant faction, which defeated the
Catholics in February 1892. The result was a treaty that divided Buganda along
religious lines, but Lugard's success also extended the authority of the IBEAC
and limited the effect of new treaties collected by Karl Peters about the
same time.
In late 1890, the IBEAC's director Mackinnon asked the
British government to guarantee the interest on a loan to finance the
construction of a railway from Mombasa (on the Kenyan coast) to Lake Victoria.
After the proposal failed in July 1891, the IBEAC threatened to withdraw from
Buganda. Some members of the government encouraged withdrawal, because they
feared that with Lugard in control, the company would entangle the British
government in another action like the Gordon
incident in the Upper Nile Valley. To prevent the IBEAC's
retreat, English missionary groups roused public opinion by claiming a British
withdrawal would lead to the death of more Christians, while the directors of
the IBEAC rallied support from assorted Chambers of Commerce and trading
organizations. They were assisted by a new Foreign Secretary (Roseberry) who
supported continued British intervention as a way to show his independence from
the previous generation of British politicians like William Gladstone, who had
criticized his predecessor's purchase of the Egyptian Suez Canal shares. In the
end, the interventionists won and Uganda became a formal British protectorate
in 1894.
THE SURVIVAL OF ETHIOPIA
Like Buganda, Ethiopia was
a centralized state located inland from the Muslim-controlled East African
coast. Unlike Buganda, it occupied a fairly poor area that was best suited to
animal grazing rather than farming. Fortunately, Ethiopia was very mountainous
and that enabled the Ethiopians to survive numerous invasions in the past. In
the 19th century, Ethiopia's leaders were able to create the basis for survival
during the European conquest by cultivating a sense of nationalism and using
Ethiopia's strategic trading position between the coast and the Upper Nile
Valley. A noble named Theodore (Tewodros) founded the modern Ethiopian state in
1855 by confiscating lands owned by the Ethiopian Christian church to finance
the purchase of modern weapons and construction of roads to connect the capital
at Addis Ababa to the rest of the country.
Although Tewodros' actions
produced some internal resistance, the most damaging result was European fear.
The British sought the right to assign a British consul to Addis Ababa, so
Theodore responded with his own demand for technical assistance in exchange.
When the British refused, Theodore took their consul hostage, so the British
sent a force of some 30,000 in 1868 and defeated a much smaller Ethiopian army
at the battle of Magdala.
Theodore's government
disintegrated and chaos ensued until the two main rivals for the throne,
Yohannes IV and Menelik II, reached an agreement in 1872. Yohannes became the
new king with the understanding that Menelik would succeed him, and Yohannes
restored the privileges of the church and nobles. The reunited Ethiopian army
stopped an Egyptian invasion in 1875-1876 and defeated the Italians at Dogali
(near the Red Sea coast) in 1887, but they were unable to stop the Italians
from occupying the port of Massawa in 1885 or Mahdist forces from
invading and killing Yohannes in 1889. But Menelik II took the throne
peacefully and Ethiopia remained independent, despite increasing European
interest in the area. Not only did the Italians occupy part of the Red Sea
Coast (modern Eritrea), but the British declared a protectorate along the
northern Somali coast facing the Gulf of Aden on July 20, 1887. Meanwhile the
French established a protectorate at Djibouti on the main caravan route between
the coast and Addis Ababa in 1887. In February 1888, the French and British
agreed to divide their spheres of influence along the coast and agreed not to
compete for Harrar (located inland from Djibouti).
Meanwhile, Menelik continued to strengthen Ethiopia using
the proceeds from the slave trade between the Upper Nile Valley and the Red
Sea. That slave route boomed to meet the demand in the Ottoman Empire after the
Russian conquest of the Caucasus eliminated one source and the 1847
Anglo-Zanzibari treaty reduced the trade from farther south. Under Menelik,
Ethiopians charged tolls on slave caravans rather than buying or selling slaves
themselves. Menelik used the income to buy military equipment and hire
technical advisors that turned Ethiopia into a modern military power. In 1891
Ethiopia was able to conquer the region to the southwest between Addis Ababa
and Lake Victoria as well as the Ogaden Desert to the east. Menelik II also
introduced a permanent bureaucratic administration into the territories they
occupied using both local leaders and military garrisons.
As a result of Menelik's maneuvering, Europeans extended
diplomatic recognition to independent Ethiopia. Menelik recognized Italian
control of Eritrea in exchange for Italy's recognition of Ethiopian
independence in the Treaty of Wichali on May 5, 1889. Menelik used Italian
recognition plus several border agreements to obtain French and British
recognition. The three major European powers eventually confirmed Ethiopian
independence with the Tripartite Pace signed on July 4, 1906. Before that
occurred, however, Italy and Ethiopia fought a major battle at Adowa in 1896
following an argument about the meaning of the Treaty of Wichali. (The Italians
insisted that Menelik had to consult with them before contacting other European
powers, while Menelik believed that since Ethiopia was independent, no such
consultation was needed.) The Italians invaded in 1895, but on March 1, 1896,
an Ethiopian army that numbered nearly 100,000 wiped out a smaller but better
equipped Italian army at Adowa.
The victory at Adowa confirmed Ethiopian independence in
the eyes of other Europeans. Menelik continued to obtain European investment
capital and technicians to help rebuild the capital at Addis Ababa, construct a
railroad from Djibouti to the capital in 1894, and introduce postal, telegraph
and telephone service by the early 20th century. He also introduced other
reforms included banking, health care, and education, although most Ethiopians
remained largely unaffected by Menelik's modernization.
THE DIPLOMATIC RESULTS
In November 1885 Germany,
Britain and France agreed to a boundary commission to determine the limits of
the Sultan of Zanzibar's domain. In October 1886 the commission announced its
findings. Although East Africa remained nominally under the control of the
Sultan, who exercised direct authority over the islands and a ten-mile wide
coastal strip, Britain and Germany divided up the interior. The British
authorized the British East India Company to assume control over Kenya and
Uganda until a new chartered company, the Imperial British East Africa Company
(IBEAC), took over in 1888 under the direction of Sir William Mackinnon and
a board that included James Hutton, a prominent Manchester merchant. Although
strategic concerns certainly motivated the British to form their East African
protectorate, scholars believe that Manchester merchants and their supporters
convinced the government to stake its claim before other powers could do so.
The profits were slow to appear. The IBEAC needed capital
to build a railroad and develop plantations in Kenya, as well as settlers to
provide labor. Neither appeared in quantity and the IBEAC nearly went bankrupt
in the 1890s. Fewer than one dozen European families had settled in Kenya by
1902. The German companies had no more success in German East Africa, and after
the initial land grab in 1885-1886, disillusionment set in. However, every
attempt to relinquish control over a colony ran into opposition from some
interest group--missionaries, merchants or patriots--which refused to sanction
the loss of territory, no matter how impractical it was to hang on to it.
In 1890, European nations passed a number of agreements
that tidied up the borders between the lands they acquired in 1884-1886. In
East Africa, the most important was the Anglo-German Colonial Agreement (aka
"The Heligoland Treaty") of July 1, 1890 which recognized a British
protectorate over Zanzibar in exchange for recognition of German claims to land
in Togo, Cameroon, the Caprivi Strip (granting access from Southwest Africa to
the Zambezi River), and the North Sea island of Heligoland, which had been held
by the British since the Napoleonic Wars. Other treaties secured French
recognition for Britain's protectorate over Zanzibar in exchange for British
recognition of the French protectorate over Madagascar. Portugal received
recognition for its claims in East Africa by recognizing the British claims in
Nyasaland and Mashonaland.
Thus, by 1890, Europeans had established their claims to
all of Africa's coastal land except for Morocco (independent) and Liberia
(independent under USA protection). Ethiopia remained independent in the East
African interior, as did the two Boer Republics and a few African states in
South Africa, but the major European powers were threatening them all as they
worked to divide up whatever was left of Africa. The French still faced
opposition in West Africa from Samory Toure‚ and in the Lake Chad region from
Rabah, while no European could safely claim dominion over the central Sahara
Desert, where various nomadic groups still controlled the land routes.
The last remaining prizes were the Congo basin,
recognized at the Congress of Berlin as the "Congo Free State" under
the authority of an international association headed by King Leopold II of
Belgium, and the Upper Nile River Valley, which had been in a state of
rebellion against the Egyptian government since the 1880s.
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