economy and livelihoods of colonised people. Sir Henry Morton Stanley in Central Africa Stanley was a journalist and explorer sent by the New York Herald to find Livingston, a missionary and explorer who had been in Africa for several years. Like other European and American explorers of the time, Stanley went with arms, mobilised local hunters, warriors and labourers to help him, fought with local tribes, investigated African terrains, and mapped different regions. These explorations helped the conquest of Africa.
Geographical explorations were not driven by an innocent search for scientific information. They were directly linked to imperial projects. Box Fig. – Map of colonial Africa at the end of the nineteenth century.
Fig. – Sir Henry Morton Stanley and his retinue in Central Africa , Illustrated London News, . MOROCCO ALGERIA SPANISH SAHARA RIO DE ORO PORT GUINEA FRENCH SUDAN FRENCH WEST AFRICA NIGERIA TOGO CAMEROONS MIDDLE CONGO CONGO FREE STATE (BELGIAN CONGO) ANGOLA GERMAN SOUTH WEST AFRICA UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA NORTHERN RHODESIA SOUTHERN RHODESIA PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA MADAGASCAR GERMAN EAST AFRICA BRITISH EAST AFRICA BRITISH SOMALILAND ETHIOPIA ITALIAN SOMALILAND FRENCH SOMALILAND ERITREA ANGLO- EGYPTIAN SUDAN EGYPT LIBYA (TRIPOLI) TUNISIA MEDITERRANEAN SEA FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA SPANISH MOROCCO RED SEA ATLANTIC OCEAN BELGIAN BRITISH FRENCH GERMAN ITALIAN PORTUGUESE SPANISH BRITISH DOMINION INDEPENDENT STATE GOLD COAST IVORY COAST SIERRA LEONE . Rinderpest, or the Cattle Plague In Africa, in the 1890s, a fast-spreading disease of cattle plague or Rinderpest had a terrifying impact on people’s livelihoods and the local economy.
This is a good example of the widespread European imperial impact on colonised societies. It shows how in this era of conquest even a disease affecting cattle reshaped the lives and fortunes of thousands of people and their relations with the rest of the world. Historically, Africa had abundant land and a relatively small population. For centuries, land and livestock sustained African livelihoods and people rarely worked for a wage.
In late- nineteenth-century Africa there were few consumer goods that wages could buy. If you had been an African possessing land and livestock – and there