10 Whole Number 227
around the turn of the 19th century. The British Act Africa northward to Egypt realized an enthusiastic
of 1807 formally forbidding the slave trade was fol- British public’s idea of an African empire extending
lowed up by diplomatic and naval pressure to sup- “from the Cape to Cairo.” (map 15)
press the trade.
Ironically, some of Britain’s earliest colonies in Af-
rica date from the period after it abolished slavery
and had sent its naval forces to control the African
trade. Sierra Leone (1808), Gambia (1816) and the
Gold Coast (1821) were all occupied by British garri-
sons to serve as bases for suppressing the slave trade
and for stimulating substitute commerce. British na-
val squadrons toured the coast of Africa, stopping and
inspecting suspected slavers of other nations. British
authorities forced African tribal chiefs to sign anti-
slavery treaties, and while these actions did not halt
the expansion of the slave trade, they did help Britain
attain a commanding position along the west coast of
Africa.
British economic and political interests in Africa ex-
panded more rapidly throughout the 19
th
century. In
the far south, Britain had wrested Cape Colony from
Dutch control in 1806 and in 1820 a large group of
British settlers arrived to take up farming in the re-
gion. They formed the foundation of what would even-
tually become South Africa.
In Africa’s northeast Britain confronted and eventu-
ally overshadowed French interests that had built the
Suez Canal in Egypt thereby linking the Mediterra-
nean and the Red Sea in 1869. The United Kingdom’
Map 15 British colonies and other areas where the
s
1882 military occupation of Egypt—itself triggered
British Government was in effective contol of affairs in
Africa circa 1931.
by concern over the Suez Canal—contributed to a
preoccupation over securing control of the entire Nile
One of the most influential exponents of the British
Valley and lead to the conquest of the neighbouring
dream of a chain of colonies from the Cape to Cairo
Sudan in 1896–98.
was Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes came to South Africa from
The Royal Niger Company began to extend British
Britain in the early 1870s and eventually founded De
influence in West Africa’s Nigeria during the second
Beers, the most influential company in the Kimberly
half of the 19
th
century, and the Gold Coast and The
Diamond Mines. As a man of wealth he began a mis-
Gambia—two possessions gained earlier—were de-
sion to build a railroad from Cape Town to Cairo. His
veloped to produce raw materials for the Empire. The
overall goal was to encourage his fellow Britons to
Imperial British East Africa Company operated in
settle the highlands of east Africa much as the Ameri-
what are now Kenya and Uganda, and the British
cans had colonized the West of the United States.
South Africa Company operated in Southern and
Rhodes convinced Queen Victoria to establish the
Northern Rhodesia. Britain’s victory in the South
British South Africa Company with the objective of
African War (1899–1902) enabled it to annex the
acquiring and exercising commercial and administra-
Transvaal and the Orange Free State in 1902 and to
tive rights in south-central Africa—soon to be known
create the Union of South Africa in 1910. The result-
as Rhodesia and now divided into Zambia and Zim-
ing chain of British territories stretching from South
babwe. In 1890 Rhodes became the Prime Minister
of Cape Colony. He held the post until 1896.
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