1815-1886 1918-1939







Stamps issued for British East Africa, featuring a portrait of Queen Victoria (until 1901)
Currency Rupee, Anna (Indian Currency)



Kenya 1886-1918



A.) Establishment and Expansion of the Colony

During the SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA in the 1880es, European colonial powers were in a rush to establish their spheres of interest in Africa. Germany and Britain found themselves in a competition over the Sultanate of Zanzibar and the interior of Eastern Africa. In 1886, Germany and Britain signed a treaty according to which Germany would receive the coast of present-day Tanzania, while Britain would receive the coastal strip around Mombasa, where Britain had interests reaching back as far as 1824.
German colonial politicians gained treaties asking for German protection from the Kingdom of Buganda and from chiefs from a region located north of Mombasa called WITULAND (1887). In a second Anglo-German treaty of 1890, Germany ceded it's claims over Buganda, Wituland and to Britain and conceded the latter to establish her protectorate over islands of Zanzibar and Pemba in exchange for the island of Heligoland, located in the North Sea, the Caprivi Strip etc. Another border agreement with Germany was signed in 1893, one with Italy in 1901. On July 1st 1895 the British Government assumed responsibility for the company's territories. In 1905 the protectorate was placed under the Colonial Office


B.) Administration

Mombasa and it's hinterland were granted to the BRITISH EAST AFRICA COMPANY. In 1895, Britain proclaimed the BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE; the British government took over from the company. NAIROBI was founded in 1899 as a camp on the railway line. In 1905, the capital was moved from MOMBASA to Nairobi. A LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL was established in 1906.
British East Africa's Governors
1896-1900
1900-
-1909
1909-1912
1912-1917 		Sir Arthur Hardinge (Commissioner)
Sir Charles Eliot (Commissioner)

Sir Percy Girouard
Sir Henry Belfield



C.) Colonial Economy

In 1887 Sir WILLIAM MACKINNON founded the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) designed to open the hinterland for British trade; the company obtained a concession from Sultan Bargash of Zanzibar for the Sultanate's territory on the coast within the British sphere of interest, for fifty years. In 1891 it experienced financial difficulties, aggravated when Britain declared that the Sultan's possessions fell within the Congo Free Trade Zone (1892), thus depriving the company of customs revenues. On July 1st 1895 the British Government assumed responsibility for the company's territories. When the British government declared a protectorate over Uganda in 1894, it decided to cover the expenses of the MOMBASA-KISUMU RAILWAY which was constructed (1896-1901, nickname LUNATIC EXPRESS). For the construction, c. 35,000 workers from India were brought into the country, many of whom were to stay and form the country's Asian community. When railroad construction was finished, Uganda, the neighbouring British protectorate, ceded it's Eastern Province to Kenya, for the purpose of having the area crossed by the railway under a unified administration (1902).
At first, the British government regarded the land between the coast and Uganda wasteland. The government declared idle land state property and handed it out to Indian settlers (1900-1902), from 1903 onward to white settlers. The settlers grew coffee (first introduced 1893) and cotton on plantations, since 1904 also sisal.
A customs union between Kenya and Uganda was introduced in 1917.


D.) Relations with the Natives

The establishment of British rule met resistance; the Luo and Luhya resisted 1895-1899, the Nandi 1895-1906, the Kikuyu and Embu revolted 1904-1907, the Kisii 1907-1914. Pacification was not concluded until 1912-1914, although the region around the railway and the coastal region were pacified much earlier.
On the railway construction, many Indians had been employed, starting Indian immigration into the protectorate. Around 1910 there had been agitation among the colony's Asiatic (Indian) population for equal rights (with the whites, that is). In 1905 Nandi raids were responded to by an expedition against them; in 1906 they were moved into a reservation.


E.) World War I

World War I broke out in 1914, and Kenya saw military action, as German East Africa was the only German colony not to fall to Entente forces within the first months of the war. Only in 1916 were British and South African troops able to penetrate into German East Africa, which now was untenable for the small German forces to hold; German commander Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck switched to a guerilla tactic and kept the British/South African forces busy until the end of the war. As a result, Kenya suffered considerable wartime damage.




HISTORIC MAPS Map of Africa 1892, from Gardiner's Atlas of English History, 1892, British East Africa here indicated as 'British sphere of influence', extending into Uganda, southern Sudan, southern Ethiopia





EXTERNAL
FILES 		Articles from Infoplease : Kenya
Kenyan History, by Timothy F. Bliss
Mombasa's History, from Mombasa Online
Detailed Timeline from Kenyaweb
Wituland (Deutsch-Witu), from Deutsche Schutzgebiete, in English
The MacKinnon Treaty, by Hugh Fergusson
The Partition of Africa and the 'Lunatic Express' 1884 - 1902 , from Kenya Online : Hakuna Matata
Witu Campaign Medals 1890 and 1893, from East and West Africa Medal by british-forces.com; also Juba River Campaign 1893
History of the East African Community, from EAC
DOCUMENTS Map of Kenya, from Timothy F. Bliss
Flag of British East Africa, from FOTW
Captain F.D. Lugard, The Rise of Our East African Empire, 1893, from Modern History Sourcebook
Documents on British East Africa, Wituland in Protokolle des Reichstags, facsimiles posted by Bayrische Staatsbibliothek :
(1) Agreement achieved by the exchange of notes between Great Britain and Germany on Oct. 29th and Nov. 11th 1886, regarding the Sultanate of Zanzibar and the delimitation of the British and German spheres of interest in East Africa, click : 1871-1895, click : 1884-1887, click : Band.104 Anlagen 1-56, click : Anlagen Nr.54-56. all 4 pages (pp.367-370) contain the text, both in English and German
(2) Denkschrift ueber die Deutschen Schutzgebiete (Memorandum concerning the German protectorates), 1885, click : 1871-1894, click : 1884-1887, click : Band 98 Anlagen 1-112, click : Anlagen 43-44, pp.134-137 and Anlagen 45 p.138 contain the text, in German, Gothic font; on the Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft pp.135-136, on Wituland pp.137-138, in German
(3) Sammlung von Aktenstuecken, die Ermordung von Deutschen in Witu betreffend (Collection of documents concerning the murder of Germans at Witu), 1890, click : 1871-1895, click : 1890-1893, click : Band 137, Anlagen 141-192, click : Anlagen 161,162,163,164, pp.1172-1189, in German, Gothic font
Images of Colonial Africa (mostly Kenya, c. 1900), from Billy Graham Center Archive at Wheaton College, photos taken by Laura Neva Collins
From British Military Medals : East & West Africa Medal, 1887-1900
REFERENCE Foreign Area Studies (FAS), American University : Area Handbook for Kenya, 2nd edition, Washington : USGPO 1976, 472 pp. [G]
Charles Miller, The Lunatic Express, an Entertainment in Imperialism (1971)
South and East African Year Book and Guide, 49th edition, 1949, pp.755-757, 770-808 [G]
Colin Wills, Who killed Kenya ?, London : Dennis Dobson 1953 [G]
Michael Twaddle, The Settlement of South Asians in East Africa, pp.74-76 in : Robin Cohen, The Cambridge Survey of World Migration, Cambridge : UP 1995, KMLA Lib.Sign. 304.809 C678c
Article East Africa Protectorate, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1913 pp. 643-644 (on events of 1912) [G]
Article : East Africa, British (I.B.E.A.), in : Statesman's Year Book 1895 pp.180-181 [G]
Article : East Africa, British, in : Statesman's Year Book 1898 pp.180-181 [G]
Article : East Africa Protectorate, in : Statesman's Year Book 1901 p.196, 1905 pp.209-212, 1910 pp.170-173 [G]
Article : East Africa, British, in : International Year Book 1898 p.276 [G]
Article : East Africa Protectorate, in : International Year Book 1898 p.277 [G]
Article : East Africa - British East Africa, in : Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events 1894 pp.245-246 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on September 6th 2007

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