Problems Faced by Colonial Agents and the Consequences of Exploration – Colonial Agents in Africa (Senior 4 History) | Ganzaa

Colonial Agents in Africa

Lessons

Senior 4 · History

Colonial Agents in Africa

4 lessons

Lesson 4 of 4

Problems Faced by Colonial Agents and the Consequences of Exploration

25 min

The source: three voyages up the Niger

Europeans called West Africa "the white man's grave". Study the figures from three British expeditions up the River Niger, all collected from accounts of the voyages.

Worked example: what explains the change?

Describe. In 1832 about four in five Europeans died (39 of 48, 81%); in 1841 more than a quarter (42 of 150, 28%, or 35% on another count); in 1854 none died in a voyage of 118 days.
Use other evidence. On the 1832 voyage doctors rarely gave quinine and blamed "bad air" (miasma). The 1841 surgeons carried quinine to prevent malaria. Quinine had been isolated from the bark of the cinchona tree in 1820, and historians often call it the main reason Africa stopped being "the white man's grave".
Be careful. The 1841 expedition had quinine and still lost many men, so having the medicine was not enough: how and how regularly it was used mattered. The three voyages also differed in size, season and length, so the figures suggest a cause but do not prove one.
Conclude. Better use of quinine is the most likely main reason for the fall in deaths. Its result was historic: from the 1850s Europeans could stay longer inland, which made trade, missions and conquest easier.

Definition

Malaria: a disease carried by mosquitoes, the biggest killer of early European visitors to tropical Africa. Quinine: a drug from the bark of the cinchona tree that treats and helps prevent malaria. Sleeping sickness: a disease spread by the tsetse fly, which also kills cattle and horses. Cataract: a large waterfall or rapids that blocks boats on a river.

Partition: the division of Africa among European powers, mostly between 1880 and 1914. Maxim gun: the first fully automatic machine gun, invented in 1884 and heavily used in the conquest of Africa.

Problems faced by colonial agents

Problem	Example	How it was later overcome
Disease (malaria, sleeping sickness)	Bishop Mackenzie of the Universities' Mission died of malaria near Lake Malawi on 31 January 1862; Livingstone was ill for most of the last four years of his life	Quinine; better medical knowledge
Transport	Rapids blocked the lower Congo, so Stanley had to build a wagon trail around them; tsetse flies killed pack animals, so goods went on the heads of porters	Steamers on rivers and lakes, then railways (the Uganda Railway reached Lake Victoria in 1901)
African resistance	The coastal revolt of 1888 against the German East Africa Company; Mwanga's executions of converts in Buganda; rulers who refused entry	Treaties, alliances with African rivals, and superior weapons such as the Maxim gun
Language and knowledge	Speke and his guide Bombay could only talk in Hindi; every treaty depended on interpreters	Missionaries learned and wrote down African languages; African interpreters and clerks
Terrain and climate	Deserts, swamps, dense forest and long rainy seasons	Local guides; better maps from earlier explorers
Money and rivalry	The Imperial British East Africa Company nearly went bankrupt; Burton and Speke quarrelled; Catholic and Protestant missions fought in Buganda	Governments took over from companies; agreements between powers such as the Berlin Act of 1885

Consequences of the exploration of Africa

Area	Consequences
Political	Maps and treaties turned into claims; explorers' reports fed the rivalry that led to the Berlin Conference (1884 to 1885) and the partition of Africa; African states lost their independence
Economic	Routes and resources became known to European investors; "legitimate trade" and later cash crops grew; African economies were tied to Europe's needs; in the Congo Free State, Leopold's search for profit led to forced labour and terrible violence
Religious and social	Missions, schools and clinics spread; African languages were written down; but African beliefs were attacked as "pagan"
Against the slave trade	Explorers' reports strengthened campaigns against the East African slave trade, which Europeans later used to justify conquest
Ideas and names	Explorers spread false racial theories about Africans, such as Speke's; African places were renamed after Europeans: Lake Victoria, Victoria Falls, Léopoldville (named by Stanley in 1881, renamed Kinshasa in 1966)
Rwanda	Götzen's 1894 journey and Kandt's explorations prepared German rule: Götzen became governor of German East Africa, Kandt the first Resident of Rwanda (1907); Speke's theory later shaped colonial policy in Rwanda (units 7 and 8)

Weighing the consequences. Some older books list "positive" results such as maps, schools or the end of the slave trade. A careful historian asks: positive for whom, and at what cost? The maps were made for the Europeans who used them to conquer; schools came with the loss of self-government. And the people who knew Africa best, its own inhabitants, were rarely asked.

Warning

Do not treat technology as the whole story. Quinine, steamers and the Maxim gun explain how Europeans could conquer Africa after 1880, not why they wanted to. Combine the "how" (technology, divisions among Africans) with the "why" (economic, political and ideological motives) in your answers.

Tip

Problems: "DR TLM". Disease, Resistance, Transport, Language, Money (and rivalry). For each one, learn one example and one way it was overcome.

Important

Discuss. Léopoldville became Kinshasa in 1966, and many African countries have renamed places named after colonisers. Should places keep the names Europeans gave them, such as Lake Victoria, or return to African names? What does a name say about who owns a place's history?

Geo History, "Colonization of Africa: Summary on a Map". Watch how quickly the map changes after 1880, and link each stage to the explorers' routes and treaties you have studied.

✦

Practice

List five problems faced by colonial agents in Africa.
Using the chart, calculate the percentage of Europeans who died on the 1832 expedition. Show your working.
Explain why the 1841 figures do not prove that quinine alone made the difference by 1854.
How did transport problems shape the work of explorers and companies? Give two examples.
Give two political and two economic consequences of the exploration of Africa.
Explain how exploration prepared German rule in Rwanda.
"The exploration of Africa did more harm than good to Africans." Assess this view.

Show answersHide answers

Any five: disease; transport (rapids, no roads, tsetse fly); African resistance; language barriers; difficult terrain and climate; lack of money; rivalry between agents.
39 ÷ 48 = 0.8125, so 39 ÷ 48 × 100 ≈ 81%.
The 1841 surgeons already carried quinine, yet 42 of 150 Europeans died; the expeditions also differed in size, season and length, so the figures suggest but do not prove a cause. How regularly quinine was used probably mattered.
Rapids on the lower Congo forced Stanley to build a wagon trail around them; tsetse flies killed pack animals, so expeditions needed hundreds of porters; companies spent heavily on roads and steamers, such as the IBEA's road from Mombasa.
Political, any two: treaties became claims; rivalry led to the Berlin Conference and partition; loss of independence. Economic, any two: resources became known to investors; growth of "legitimate trade" and cash crops; African economies tied to Europe; forced labour in the Congo Free State.
Götzen crossed Rwanda in 1894, met Mwami Rwabugiri and reported on the kingdom; Kandt explored Nyungwe and Lake Kivu; the Germans then ruled through people who knew the country: Götzen as governor (1901) and Kandt as Resident (1907), who founded Kigali.
Harm: it led to conquest, loss of independence, exploitation, forced labour and racial myths that later divided Rwandans. Good: geographical knowledge, written languages, schools, and pressure against the slave trade, though most benefits served Europeans first. Judgement: e.g. more harm, because the main use of exploration was conquest, and Africans did not choose the terms.

Quick check

The 1841 expedition carried quinine but lost 42 of its 150 Europeans. What is the best conclusion?

Key points

Colonial agents faced disease, transport problems, African resistance, language barriers, hard terrain and shortage of money; quinine, steamers, railways and the Maxim gun (1884) helped them overcome these after the 1850s.
The fall in deaths on Niger expeditions (81% in 1832, 28% in 1841, none in 1854) shows how medicine opened the interior to Europeans.
Exploration led to treaties, partition and conquest, the spread of missions and trade, renamed places and racial myths; in Rwanda, explorers such as Götzen and Kandt became its first colonial rulers.

1The source: three voyages up the Niger

2Problems faced by colonial agents

3Consequences of the exploration of Africa

The source: three voyages up the Niger

Problems faced by colonial agents

Consequences of the exploration of Africa