Expansion of the Empire in Africa (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
Expansion of the Empire in Africa
Context and motivations for expansion
During the 1890s, British expansion in Africa was driven primarily by strategic and diplomatic considerations rather than commercial interests. As one British foreign secretary observed in 1895, the vast central African territories consisted largely of barren deserts and inhospitable regions unsuitable for European settlement, populated only by scattered indigenous communities. Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister, shared this assessment of Africa's limited economic value.
Despite the lack of economic value, Africa's territories were seen as crucial bargaining chips in maintaining Britain's international prestige and diplomatic leverage among European powers.
However, Salisbury recognized that territorial acquisitions in Africa served a different purpose: maintaining Britain's standing among the great powers. France remained Britain's principal European rival, and competition between these two nations over African territory threatened to escalate into armed conflict. The challenge for British policymakers was to balance imperial ambitions against the risk of war with France.
East Africa
The British East Africa Company
In 1890, Germany formally acknowledged British claims to Uganda and the Upper Nile territories. The British East Africa Company then established a presence in the regions that would become Uganda and Kenya, operating without direct government involvement. The company's founder, Sir William Mackinnon, was a wealthy shipping magnate characterized by his religious devotion, philanthropic activities, and commitment to spreading what he considered civilization in Africa.
Expansion into Uganda
Captain Frederick Lugard, representing the company, led an expedition into Buganda (modern-day Uganda) in 1890. Through negotiation, Lugard persuaded the local ruler to accept the company as his overlord. This arrangement satisfied British political objectives by extending British influence, but it created financial difficulties for the East Africa Company. The region lacked sufficient trade to justify the costs of expanding so far inland.
Lugard's negotiation strategy proved effective in expanding British influence, but the economic reality of the region meant that political success came at considerable financial cost to the company.
From company to colony
By 1894, Uganda was declared a British protectorate as the company withdrew from direct administration. The following year, the company collapsed into bankruptcy. Salisbury's government then compensated the company for its expenditure on administration and proceeded to construct a railway line connecting Mombasa to Uganda.
The railway project proved commercially disappointing. East Africa remained too impoverished and underpopulated to meet British economic expectations. By 1900, the two colonies of Kenya and Uganda, into which the East Africa Company's former territories had been divided, still required substantial British government grants to function.
West Africa
British territories and the hinterland question
Britain controlled several coastal territories in west Africa: Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, Lagos, and the Niger region. The central question facing British administrators was how far their hinterlands (inland territories) should extend. Although Britain demonstrated greater commitment to west Africa than France, possessing military forces ready for deployment, the agreed boundaries for Sierra Leone, Gambia, and the Gold Coast ultimately favored French interests.
The Royal Niger Company and Anglo-French competition
The situation along the River Niger developed differently. Sir George Goldie's Royal Niger Company maintained substantial claims to extensive hinterland territories and possessed the resources to defend them. Goldie's strategy involved persuading local rulers to sign treaties through which they surrendered jurisdiction in exchange for British protection. French authorities pursued identical tactics in their own zones of influence.
Frederick Lugard, who had demonstrated his capabilities in East Africa, became Goldie's most effective agent. Lugard succeeded partly through his determined approach to his duties, but also because African communities generally preferred the Niger Company's methods—which emphasized trade relationships and diplomatic gifts—over French military governance.
The 1897 crisis and resolution
In 1897, French forces advanced into territories that the Niger Company had administered since the mid-1880s. The company requested government assistance. Salisbury's government agreed to help but sought to avoid armed conflict, concerned that the company's board of directors might precipitate a wider European war through their actions.
The government initiated negotiations to purchase the political and administrative functions of the company. Meanwhile, company officials continued operating as government representatives, helping to define the western frontier of Nigeria. British and French military forces conducted expeditions through disputed territories, planting their respective flags as close to each other's positions as possible without triggering hostilities.
The tension between Salisbury's diplomatic caution and Chamberlain's firmer stance reflected broader debates within the British government about how aggressively to pursue imperial interests in Africa.
Salisbury and the Foreign Office demonstrated willingness to make territorial concessions to France, but Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain maintained a firmer position on defending the Niger Company's claims. Eventually, in 1898, France agreed to a settlement that made Nigeria larger than French negotiators had preferred.
The process of purchasing the company's governing rights concluded in 1899, with the British government paying £850,000. The government then prepared to assume direct rule over Nigeria. Goldie compared the government's actions to a highwayman who not only robs his victim but steals his clothes as well. Lugard was appointed high commissioner for northern Nigeria in 1900, where he refined Goldie's methods by recruiting local chiefs as collaborators whilst employing force against those who refused to cooperate.
Egypt and the Sudan
Strategic imperatives
By 1890, the British government accepted that Egypt constituted a permanent responsibility. Given the Suez Canal's importance to imperial communications, safeguarding Egypt became a top priority. Consequently, the territories south of Egypt that straddled the Upper Nile also demanded attention.
Salisbury became convinced that Britain must control the entire Nile river system, fearing that another European power might construct a dam upstream, thereby cutting off Egypt's water supply. His government announced that any advance by a European power into regions whose rivers and watercourses flowed into the Nile would be regarded as an "unfriendly act".
By the late 1890s, Baring (who became Lord Cromer) had successfully reduced Egyptian government expenditure, ensuring sufficient funds existed to deploy Egypt's re-equipped and retrained army southward into Sudan. The Mahdi had died shortly after capturing Khartoum, but his successor, the Khalifa, had established a reasonably stable state. British controllers in Egypt supported an advance down the Nile to reconquer Sudan and avenge the death of Major-General Gordon.
The French threat and British response
Britain remained concerned about French ambitions in the Nile valley. France, which controlled extensive north African territories, hoped to occupy Sudan and thereby force Britain to withdraw from Egypt. In 1896, a French military expedition led by Captain Marchand departed via the French Congo with the objective of claiming Sudan for France.
That same year, Britain dispatched a large Anglo-Egyptian force under General Kitchener into Sudan. Kitchener subdued the Dervishes (members of an Islamic sect who opposed Egyptian and British rule in Sudan in the late nineteenth century) as his army advanced southward. His progress was deliberate because his forces constructed a railway line as they marched—clear evidence that Britain intended to maintain permanent control over Sudan once it was conquered.
The Battle of Omdurman
The decisive battle occurred at Omdurman, near Khartoum, on 2 September 1898.
The Battle of Omdurman: A Decisive Victory
The battle demonstrated the overwhelming military superiority of British and Egyptian forces:
- Dervish casualties: 11,000 killed
- British and Egyptian casualties: fewer than 50 soldiers died
This lopsided outcome clearly established Britain and Egypt's military dominance and their claim to Sudan through right of conquest.
The Fashoda Crisis
Captain Marchand's smaller French force reached the Nile at Fashoda two months before the Battle of Omdurman. In September 1898, Marchand and Kitchener met at Fashoda. The two officers conducted friendly discussions, agreed to differ on their respective claims, and awaited their governments' resolution of the question of who controlled Sudan.
Factors determining the Fashoda Crisis outcome:
The outcome was predetermined by several factors:
- Kitchener's army substantially outnumbered Marchand's expedition
- Kitchener possessed a record of military victories that reinforced Egyptian and British claims to the region
- Britain maintained effective control over the territory
- Britain demonstrated willingness to wage war with France to retain control over Sudan
- France recognized it could not win such a war
Marchand subsequently returned to French territory, and France withdrew its claims in the Nile valley. Britain now controlled the Upper Nile region.
Key Points to Remember:
- British expansion in Africa during the 1890s was motivated more by international rivalry, particularly with France, than by commercial opportunities. The territories were often economically unprofitable.
- In East Africa, private company ventures (such as the British East Africa Company) proved financially unsustainable, leading to government takeover and the creation of protectorates and colonies in Uganda and Kenya.
- In West Africa, Sir George Goldie's Royal Niger Company competed with French forces for control of hinterland territories. The British government eventually purchased the company's administrative rights in 1899 for £850,000, with Frederick Lugard becoming high commissioner for northern Nigeria.
- Control of the Nile river system was considered essential to British interests in Egypt and the Suez Canal. This drove the reconquest of Sudan, culminating in British victory at Omdurman in 1898.
- The Fashoda Crisis of 1898 represented the peak of Anglo-French tension in Africa. Britain's military superiority and willingness to fight secured its control over Sudan, whilst France withdrew its claims, recognizing it could not win a war over the territory.