British Expansionism
British expansion during the late 19th century primarily focused around the scramble for Africa. Although there had been a British and greater European presence in Africa prior to the last two decades of the 19th century it was primarily coastal and revolved around the slave trade. With the abolition of the slave trade within the British Empire in 1803 and a complete abolition of slavery across the empire in 1834 there was little interest in Africa by Britain until the end of the century. This lack of interest in Africa did not include The Cape Colony though, which the British gained at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and which served a key role in outfitting ships on the British trade route to India. The role and importance of Africa to the British soon changed though do to imperial competition with France and Germany. Germany under the aggressive policies of Bismarck set out to take a leading role in Africa and catch up to other European powers such as Britain and France !in terms of empire by gaining new control over territory and expanding their spheres of influence. Other important factors made Africa the hot spot for British and European expansion including the discovery of gold in
British imperial growth in Africa during the last two decades of the 19th century was on the grand scale but as porter and to some degree Lloyd point out this growth was not do to a British expansionist policy. This is made particularly clear under Gladstone's government but through reactionary response to other European powers imperial conquests, both failed and successful economic reasons were also influential in expansion, and by British imperialists at home and in Africa who were kept on shoestrings and forced expansion such as with the cape colony and to some degree the British East Africa company in the Boganda Kingdom. Porter sums up the value of African expansion that would come to be recognized in the later by making a comparison with Asian expansion, economic status in the Afrikaner states economic changed British interests. Valuable diamond mines were discovered in the Orange Free State and the richest gold strike in the known world was found in the Transvaal. These discoveries resulted in a massive influx of people not only from the Cape Colony and Britain but from around the world. This mass emigration made the Afrikaners insecure and they didn't want to grant citizenship to the newly arrived people they called Uitlanders because it would mean that they would lose political control. This economic growth produced a renewed interest in consolidating the south of Africa but the British were still no closer to a solution as Porter explains, The Cape Colony as was mentioned before was procured in 1795 from the French as a victor prize at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Although the British had gained the colony from France it was really Dutch in origin. The Dutch had begun settling the region as early as the middle 17th century. The Dutch population that represented the majority of the European population up until the middle of the 19th century settled the area so as to escape religious persecution in the Netherlands. The Dutch population that inhabited the cape colony was known as Afrikaners or Boers and they were staunch Calvinists. The Afrikaners were a unique culture that caused a fare degree of conflict when the British took over. They spoke their own version of Dutch known as Afrikaans and they were primarily agricultural and thus relied heavily on slave labor. As England encouraged emigration to the Cape Colony and the slave trade and slavery were abolished throughout the British Empire greater cultur! procuring areas of Africa, and the special case and significance of the Cape Colony and British Afrikaner relations. When Lloyd states that this occurred in other places he is making reference to Sudan as well as other areas of Africa. Sudan is important though because with Britain's occupation in Egypt so came Sudan as the Khedives had been occupying it. Potter describes in greater detail, the Transvaal and diamonds in the Orange Free State, the palm oil industry in Nigeria, scientific discoveries such as the way to treat malaria, and the mapping and exploration of the previously mysterious African interior early in the 19th century. In order to explore the nature of British expansion in Africa Porter's The Lion's Share and T.O. Lloyds The British Empire 1558-1995 are indispensable texts. Using their information on British expansion throughout Africa as a foundation it becomes possible to break down the period of greatest growth between 1880 and 1900 by analyzing British role in Africa prior to 1880, the external roles that competitors such as Germany and France had in forcing England's imperial hand coupled with the internal economic drives for! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Livingston was an icon to remind the British of Africa but his role alone did not fully set the foundation for later British growth in Africa. African expansion hadn't particularly been considered by because it wasn't viable do to high mortality rates caused by mala
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3653
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)
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