Role of Colonial Agents in the Colonisation of Africa
Senior 4 · History (Languages)
Role of Colonial Agents in the Colonisation of Africa
Lesson 2 of 4
25 min
The document below is a share certificate (Anteilschein) worth 1,000 marks, issued in Berlin on 2 March 1890 by the German East Africa Company. Whoever bought it owned a small part of a private business that claimed to govern a huge territory in East Africa, the territory that later included Rwanda.
Why would investors in Berlin, London or Paris put money into ruling Africa? And why did European governments let private companies do the work? This lesson analyses three more colonial agents: traders, chartered companies and colonial administrators.
Definition
Chartered company: a private company to which a government granted a charter, an official document giving it the right to trade, make treaties, keep armed forces and govern a territory on that government's behalf. Monopoly: the sole right to trade in a product or area. Concession: a right to land, minerals or trade granted, often by an African ruler, to a company or individual.
Colonial administrator: an official, such as a governor, commissioner, resident or district officer, who governed a colony for the colonial power. Direct rule: governing through European officials who replaced local rulers. Indirect rule: governing through existing African rulers and institutions under European supervision.
Long-distance trade linked East Africa's interior to the coast before any colonial agent arrived: caravan routes carried ivory, and enslaved people, to coastal towns controlled by Arab and Swahili merchants under the Sultan of Zanzibar. European merchants traded along the coasts. Traders became colonial agents in four ways:
| Company | Leader | Charter | Area | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| German East Africa Company (DOAG) | Carl Peters | Imperial charter signed by Bismarck on 27 February 1885 | Mainland Tanzania, later with Rwanda and Burundi | Peters' treaties of 1884 with chiefs in Usagara were written in German and had little legal value. The coastal revolt of 1888 to 1889 forced the company to seek the government's help; in 1891 it sold out to the German state. |
| Royal Niger Company | George Goldie | Royal charter, July 1886 | Lower Niger (Nigeria) | Kept rival powers out of the lower Niger, but could not compete with the state-backed French and German protectorates; its charter was revoked in 1899, and on 1 January 1900 it handed its territories to the British government for £865,000. |
| Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) | William Mackinnon | Royal charter, 6 September 1888 | Kenya and Uganda | Began a 970-kilometre ox-cart track from Mombasa in 1890; nearly bankrupted by a war in Buganda in 1892; transferred its administration to the British government in 1893. |
| British South Africa Company (BSAC) | Cecil Rhodes | Royal charter, 1889 | Southern and Northern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe, Zambia) | Formed its own armed police; governed Southern Rhodesia until 1923 and Northern Rhodesia until 1924. |
Why governments used companies: colonisation "on the cheap". Investors, not taxpayers, paid; the government could claim a territory against rivals without the cost of administering it. Why most failed: the costs of armies, forts and roads were high, profits were slow, and African resistance, such as the coastal revolt against the DOAG, was expensive to crush.
Zamani: Records of African History, "How The Imperial British East Africa Company - IBEAC Seized Kenya and Uganda", about 7 minutes. The video reads the company's own report. As you watch, list the reasons the company gave for its existence, and the reasons it ran out of money.
Once a government took over from a company, or occupied a territory itself, administrators governed it: a governor at the capital, with commissioners or residents over provinces and district officers below them. Their tasks were to keep order, collect taxes, recruit labour, build roads and railways, settle disputes and make sure the colony paid for itself.
They chose between two broad methods. Indirect rule is linked above all with Frederick Lugard, High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria from 1899 to 1906, who governed the conquered Sokoto Caliphate through its emirs because he had few men and little money. Direct rule replaced African rulers with European officials.
Rwanda. Germany ruled Rwanda indirectly, through the Mwami and his chiefs. In 1907 the explorer Richard Kandt was appointed Resident of Rwanda and founded Kigali as the administrative capital. Unit 4 follows what German and Belgian administrators did next.
Warning
A chartered company was not just a business. It made treaties, raised armed forces, taxed and governed: it acted like a state. And a treaty signed by a chief did not mean he had agreed to give away his country. Peters' treaties were written in German, and even a member of his own expedition admitted that the chiefs were probably not clear about what they meant.
Tip
Chartered companies in four Fs: Funded by investors; given Freedom by a charter to trade, fight and govern; Faced resistance and high costs; Failed, and handed over to the state (1891, 1893, 1900, 1923 to 1924).
Important
Discuss. The IBEAC freed enslaved people and also fought a war in Buganda. Was the company a humanitarian force, a business or a conqueror? Can it be all three?
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the company chart, the tables, the four Fs and the exercises. This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Why did European governments often allow chartered companies to colonise for them?
