Expansion and Consolidation of British Empire in Africa between 1857 and 1914

Expansion and Consolidation of British Empire in Africa between 1857 and 1914

1. Reasons for expansions

   • Trade and Economy
     • British Merchants
       • Been trading in Africa since 1500's
       • By the time slavery had been outlawed in 1807 Britain had exported 3 million slaves to its American and Caribbean Colonies
     • Trade
       • Prospect of furth er trade opened up new routes in Africa
       • Coal, iron, and timber
       • Britain needed to boost their imports of raw materials from Africa in order to manurfacture goods to then re-sell back to Africa
   • Personal Influence
     • Merchant imperialists
       • Cecil Rhodes
       • Goldie
       • Capitalised on new commodities
     • Explorers and missionaries
       • Livingstone
         • 1858
       • Captured the imagination of the public
   • Strategic factors
     • Coastal interest in West Africa demanded protection
       • Forts along Gold Coast
     • Coastal defences in Sierra Leone and Gambia
     • Cape colony gave a route to India before the building of the Suez canal
   • Moral Factors
     • Missionaries
       • Saw it as their duty to spread the word of Christianity
     • 'Convert the heathen'

2. Extent of British expansion in Africa 1857-90

   • Territory acquired
   • 1890's
     • wasn't until this time period that expansion really accelerated

3. Suez Canal and Egypt

   • Britain and Egypt
     • British traders had been using Egypt for centuries
     • British interests within Egypt were revived during the American civil war where the British were starved of cotton
     • Investment in Khedive Ismail Pasha modernising programme
       • Came to power 1863
       • Railways and irrigation
       • Suez Canal opened in 1869
         • Cut 6,000 miles of route via Cape Colony
   • The Suez
     • Opened 1869
     • Ismail Pasha faced increasing debts
       • Sought a buyer for his 44% share in the canal
       • Wanted £4 Million
     • Benjamin Disraeli
       • British PM
       • Bought the shares
     • Increased GB interest within Egypt
   • Establishment of British Control in Egypt
     • Ismail deposed in 1879
     • Tewfiq became new Kedhive
     • Britain became a economic prop within Egypt
     • £Egyptian army was reduced by 2/3rds
     • Arabi's Pasha led a revolt due to unemployment
     • Bombardment of Alexandria
       • June 1882
       • PM William Gladstone intervened and used British Naval Force were sent to bombard Alexandria
       • Arabi Pasha declared war but was defeated within an hour
     • Britain re-took Egypt as a puppet rule
       • Veil Protectorate
     • Evelyn Baring was installed as Consul General
       • Egypt was under British administrative control

4. The Sudan

   • Kharthoum
     • Charles Gordon
       • Gov. General of Egyptian - administered Sudan
       • Chinese Gordon
     • Muhammad Ahmad
       • Proclaimed himself the Mahdi in June 1983
     • Jihadist movement overtook the area around Khartoum
     • Gladstone ordered Gordon to oversee the evacuation of both British and Egyptian forces from Khartoum in 1884
       • Gordon was beheaded during the attack
   • Gladstone didn't retaliate due to not wanting to have further loss of life
     • Not until 1896 that another campaign was launched to assert GB's authority over the Mahdist and the Sudan

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