Why Europeans explored the interior of Africa

1Why this matters

Between about 1770 and 1900, European travellers journeyed into the interior of Africa, looking for the sources of great rivers and sending home reports, maps and books. European histories call this the exploration of Africa. But the word needs care. The lakes, rivers and kingdoms these travellers "found" were home to millions of Africans who already knew them, named them, traded across them and governed them. The explorers travelled along African trade routes, depended on African guides and porters, and entered kingdoms only with (or against) the permission of African rulers.

So in this unit, "exploration" means Europeans gathering knowledge of the African interior for European purposes. Those purposes matter, because within a few decades the maps and reports were used to divide Africa among European powers.

2What Europeans knew before 1800

Europeans had traded on the African coast since the fifteenth century, when Portuguese sailors reached the Cape of Good Hope (1488). For centuries they stayed near the coast: disease, especially malaria, killed many newcomers, and strong African states controlled access to the interior. By the early nineteenth century European maps of inner Africa were still largely empty, although Arab, Swahili and African traders had long crossed it by well-used routes.

3The motives for exploration

1. Geographical and scientific curiosity. Where does the Nile begin? Where does the Niger flow? Explorers also collected plants, animals, rocks and information about peoples and languages.
2. Economic motives. Industrial Europe wanted raw materials, new markets and trade routes. Explorers reported on crops, minerals, ivory and navigable rivers.
3. Humanitarian motives. Britain abolished its slave trade in 1807. Campaigners wanted to expose and end the slave trade that continued inland and on the East African coast, and to replace it with "legitimate trade" in goods.
4. Religious motives. Missionaries wanted to spread Christianity. Some of the best-known explorers, such as David Livingstone, Johann Krapf and Johannes Rebmann, were missionaries.
5. Political and strategic motives. Governments wanted information that could support future claims. Later explorers, such as Stanley for King Leopold II, signed treaties with African rulers that were used to claim territory.
6. Personal motives. Fame, adventure, promotion and money from books, lectures and newspaper stories.
7. The "civilising mission". Many Europeans believed, wrongly, that their culture was superior and that they had a duty to "civilise" Africans. This racist idea later served to justify colonial rule.

4Who paid, and what made it possible

• The African Association, founded in London in 1788, sponsored early journeys to the Niger.
• The Royal Geographical Society (London, 1830) funded and honoured explorers.
• Missionary societies such as the London Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society.
• Newspapers: the New York Herald paid for Stanley's search for Livingstone.
• King Leopold II of Belgium founded the International African Association in 1876.
• Quinine, used against malaria from the mid-nineteenth century, cut the death rate of European travellers.

Worked example: classifying motives

Question: Classify each as economic, humanitarian, religious or political: (a) reporting on ivory and navigable rivers; (b) describing slave caravans to campaigners in Britain; (c) founding a mission station; (d) signing a treaty with a chief on behalf of a European king.

(a) Economic: it identifies goods and trade routes. (b) Humanitarian: the aim was to build pressure to end the slave trade. (c) Religious: missions spread Christianity. (d) Political: the treaty was used to claim territory. Note that one explorer could have several motives at once; Livingstone combined religious, humanitarian and economic aims in his slogan "Christianity, commerce and civilisation".

Practice

Solution. Tropical diseases, especially malaria, killed many Europeans; strong African states and traders controlled access to the interior; and coastal trade was profitable without going inland.

Solution. European factories needed raw materials such as palm oil, cotton and rubber, and new markets for their goods. Explorers were sent or funded to find resources, markets and routes such as navigable rivers.

Solution. Any two of: the African Association (1788); the Royal Geographical Society (1830); missionary societies; the New York Herald; Leopold II's International African Association (1876).

Solution. Africans already lived at, named and used the places the explorers reached. The explorers were the first Europeans to see or record them, so "discovery" describes a European point of view, not a fact about Africa.