Explorers as Colonial Agents – Colonial Agents in Africa (Senior 4 History) | Ganzaa

Colonial Agents in Africa

Lessons

Senior 4 · History

Colonial Agents in Africa

4 lessons

Lesson 2 of 4

Explorers as Colonial Agents

25 min

The source: a king's orders to an explorer

In 1879 the journalist-explorer Henry Morton Stanley returned to the Congo, this time working for King Leopold II of the Belgians. His job was to build stations along the river and sign treaties with local rulers. Leopold was not satisfied with the first treaties and wrote to his aide, Colonel Strauch:

"The terms of the treaties Stanley has made with native chiefs do not satisfy me. There must at least be an added article to the effect that they delegate to us their sovereign rights [...] the treaties must be as brief as possible and in a couple of articles must grant us everything."

Leopold II to Colonel Maximilien Strauch, early 1880s, as quoted on Wikipedia.

Analyse it. The letter shows that by the 1880s "exploration" had become something else. Stanley was no longer only mapping rivers; he was collecting signatures that would let a European king claim sovereignty, the right to rule. The treaties were to be short and quick to sign, and they were to "grant us everything". The Berlin Act of 26 February 1885 then recognised Leopold's claims, and the Congo Free State became his personal possession.

Definition

Explorer: in this unit, a European who travelled into parts of Africa unknown to Europeans and reported on them; Africans, of course, already knew these places. Expedition: an organised journey, usually with dozens or hundreds of African porters, guards and guides. Sponsor: the body that paid for an expedition, such as a geographical society, a newspaper, a king or a government.

Sovereignty: the right to rule a territory. Treaty of protection: an agreement, often misunderstood by the African signatory, by which a ruler placed his land under a European power. Sphere of influence: an area where one European power claimed the right to act, recognised by the others.

Who explored, and who paid?

Explorer	Sponsor	Journey	How it served colonisers
Mungo Park (1795 to 1797; 1805 to 1806)	The African Association, London	The upper Niger	Opened the question of the Niger's course to British trade
David Livingstone (1841 to 1873)	London Missionary Society; later the British Foreign Office (Zambezi Expedition, 1858 to 1864)	Across southern Africa; first European to see Mosi-oa-Tunya ("the smoke that thunders"), which he named Victoria Falls (1855)	His best-selling Missionary Travels (1857) called for "Christianity, Commerce and Civilization" to replace the slave trade
John Hanning Speke (1857 to 1863)	Royal Geographical Society	First European to see Lake Victoria (30 July 1858), guided by Sidi Mubarak Bombay; with Grant, the Nile's outflow (1862)	Mapped the Great Lakes; his Journal (1863) also spread an invented racial theory about the region's peoples
Henry Morton Stanley (1871 to 1889)	New York Herald and Daily Telegraph; then King Leopold II	Found Livingstone at Ujiji (10 November 1871); followed the Lualaba-Congo to the sea (1874 to 1877)	Signed treaties for Leopold (1879 to 1884) that became the basis of the Congo Free State
Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza (1879 to 1882 mission)	The French government	North bank of the Congo	Treaty with Makoko Iloo I of the Teke placing his kingdom under French protection, and a French post at Malebo Pool: the basis of France's claims on the Congo

The activities of explorers as colonial agents

Mapping: rivers, lakes, routes and passes, so that later armies and traders knew where to go.
Reporting resources: ivory, rubber, fertile land, minerals and the size of markets, which attracted investors.
Publicity: best-selling books and lectures made Africa a public cause in Europe, and persuaded voters and parliaments to support expansion.
Treaty-making: in the 1880s explorers such as Stanley, Brazza and Carl Peters (for the German East Africa Company) collected treaties that their sponsors used as claims.
Campaigning against the slave trade: ending the East African slave trade became Livingstone's main goal; on 15 July 1871 he recorded a massacre of around 400 people by slave traders at Nyangwe market. Anti-slavery campaigns became one of the reasons Europeans gave for intervening in Africa.
Spreading ideas about Africans: some, like Speke, wrote theories that ranked African peoples. His claim that certain peoples of the Great Lakes, including Tutsi, were a "superior race" from Ethiopia was invented and is false. Colonisers later used this false idea in Rwanda, with terrible consequences (unit 8).

The Africans behind the expeditions. No European crossed Africa alone. Sidi Mubarak Bombay, a Yao guide, led Speke's caravan to Lake Victoria and later worked for Stanley; Speke and he talked in Hindi, the only language both knew. The Royal Geographical Society gave him a silver medal and a pension in 1876, but he was never invited to England. Exploration depended on African knowledge, labour and permission.

Case study: the first Europeans in Rwanda

Year	Explorer	What happened
1892	Oscar Baumann (Austrian, map-maker of the German "Maasai Expedition")	The first European to enter Rwanda, briefly
1894	Count Gustav Adolf von Götzen (German officer)	Crossed the Akagera at the Rusumo Falls on 2 May 1894, travelled right across the kingdom, met Mwami Kigeli IV Rwabugiri at his palace at Kageyo, reached Lake Kivu and climbed in the Virunga mountains
1897 to 1898	Richard Kandt (German doctor)	Searched for the source of the Nile; in 1898 he reached springs in the Nyungwe forest that he considered the Nile's true source

Look at what happened to these men next. Götzen became governor of German East Africa in March 1901 and commanded the forces that crushed the Maji Maji rising of 1905. Kandt was appointed Resident of Rwanda in 1907 and founded Kigali as the administrative capital. The explorer became the coloniser.

Warning

Avoid "discovered". Speke did not discover Lake Victoria: the people living on its shores knew it as Nnalubaale, Nam Lolwe or Ukerewe. Write "the first European to reach" or "made known in Europe". And never repeat Speke's racial theory as if it were history: it was an opinion, without evidence, that was later used to divide Rwandans.

Tip

Four M's of how explorers served empire: Maps (routes), Materials (resources reported), Messages (books and lectures at home) and Marks (rulers' marks on treaties). For a fifth, add Myths: the false ideas about Africans that some of them spread.

Important

Discuss. In 1898 Kandt reached springs in Nyungwe that he believed were the Nile's true source, and Europeans praised his "discovery". People living near Nyungwe already knew those springs. Who decides what counts as a discovery? Whose knowledge is written into history books, and whose is left out? How could you find out what Rwandans of the 1890s knew and said about these visitors?

House of History, "The Nile Quest" (Project Africa series). Watch for the rivalry between European explorers and for how much they depended on African guides, porters and rulers.

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Practice

Name three kinds of sponsor that paid for expeditions, with one example of each.
What did Leopold II want from the treaties Stanley signed? Quote the source.
Explain how books such as Livingstone's Missionary Travels helped colonisation.
Who was Sidi Mubarak Bombay, and what does his story show about exploration?
Describe Götzen's journey through Rwanda in 1894.
Using Götzen and Kandt as examples, explain the statement "the explorer became the coloniser".
"Explorers were scientists, not colonial agents." Assess this view.

Show answersHide answers

Any three: a geographical society (the Royal Geographical Society for Speke); a newspaper (the New York Herald for Stanley's search for Livingstone); a king (Leopold II for Stanley, 1879 to 1884); a government (France for Brazza); a missionary society (the London Missionary Society for Livingstone).
He wanted the rulers to hand over their sovereign rights: the treaties "must be as brief as possible and in a couple of articles must grant us everything".
They were best-sellers that made Africa a public cause in Europe, described routes and resources, and argued that "Christianity, Commerce and Civilization" should replace the slave trade, which encouraged missions, trade and later government intervention.
A Yao guide who led Speke's caravan to Lake Victoria and later worked for Stanley. His story shows that European exploration depended on African knowledge and labour, which was rewarded far less than the Europeans' fame.
He crossed the Akagera at Rusumo on 2 May 1894, travelled across the kingdom, met Mwami Kigeli IV Rwabugiri at Kageyo, reached Lake Kivu and climbed in the Virunga mountains.
Götzen, the first European to cross Rwanda (1894), became governor of German East Africa in 1901 and crushed the Maji Maji rising; Kandt, who explored Nyungwe (1898), became Resident of Rwanda in 1907 and founded Kigali. Their knowledge from exploring made them useful as colonial rulers.
For "scientists": they mapped lakes and rivers, collected specimens and published geographical findings (Speke, Kandt). Against: their sponsors were often kings, governments and companies; they reported resources, made treaties (Stanley, Brazza, Peters), spread racial myths (Speke) and some became colonial officials (Götzen, Kandt). Judgement: e.g. early explorers were mainly geographers, but by the 1880s exploration and colonisation were the same activity.

Quick check

Leopold II wanted treaties that were short and would "grant us everything". What does this reveal about Stanley's work in 1879 to 1884?

Key points

Explorers were sponsored by societies, newspapers, missions, kings and governments; they mapped, reported resources, publicised Africa in Europe and, from the 1880s, signed treaties (Stanley for Leopold, Brazza for France, Peters for Germany).
Their expeditions depended on African guides and porters such as Sidi Mubarak Bombay; some, like Speke, also spread false racial theories that later harmed Rwanda.
In Rwanda, Baumann (1892), Götzen (1894) and Kandt (1898) came first; Götzen became governor of German East Africa (1901) and Kandt Resident of Rwanda (1907): the explorer became the coloniser.

Sources and credits

Leopold II's letter as quoted in Wikipedia contributors, Henry Morton Stanley.
Facts checked against Wikipedia contributors: Henry Morton Stanley, David Livingstone, John Hanning Speke, Mungo Park, Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, Sidi Mubarak Bombay, Oscar Baumann, Gustav Adolf von Götzen, Richard Kandt and German East Africa, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0; adapted by Ganzaa.
Image: Henry Morton Stanley, Charles Reutlinger (about 1884), Gallica, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Image: Rusumo Falls, Malte Christiansen (2013), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Video: The Nile Quest | #ProjectAfrica, House of History, embedded from YouTube.

Written by Ganzaa: the timeline, the tables, the analysis and the exercises. This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1The source: a king's orders to an explorer

2Who explored, and who paid?

3The activities of explorers as colonial agents

4Case study: the first Europeans in Rwanda

The source: a king's orders to an explorer

Who explored, and who paid?

The activities of explorers as colonial agents

Case study: the first Europeans in Rwanda