Sir John Kirk, the British Consul to the Sultan of Zanzibar, received in 1884 a report from his Vice-Consul John G. (Jack) Haggard. The brother of Victorian writer H. Rider Haggard had summarised his adventurous journey from his station on the Island of Lamu to the rebellious Simba, Sultan of Witu. As the Vice-Consul’s more [...]
Archive for the ‘Imperial History’ Category
Deciphering Livingstone’s 1871 Field Diary
Posted in Contemporary History, Imperial History, tagged Africa, British Empire, East African Slave Trade, Imperial History, Livingstone, Livingstone 1871 Field Diary, Nyangwe Massacre, The David Livingstone Spectral Imaging Project on 16/11/2011 | Leave a Comment »
A year after the great African explorer Dr David Livingstone’s death in 1873, his friend Horace Waller published an edited version of his diaries. In his introduction to ‘The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to his Death’ Mr Waller remarks ‘Whilst in the Manyema country he ran out of note-books, [...]
An East African Israel
Posted in Imperial History, tagged Africa, British Empire, East Africa, Imperial History, Israel, Jewish Settlement, Kenya, Sir Charles Eliot, Uganda on 30/06/2011 | Leave a Comment »
During the first few years of the 20th century, British authorities were speculating into the feasibility of establishing a Jewish settlement on the Gwas Ngishu plateau in the British East Africa Protectorate. In this regard the Commissioner of British East Africa, the multi-linguist Sir Charles Eliot, produced a memorandum contemplating the potential consequences of establishing, what [...]
Glass Beads for the African Trade
Posted in Economic History, Imperial History, tagged African Explorers, Ceresa-Millin, Glass Beads on 03/11/2010 | 1 Comment »
A favourite currency among European and African alike during the 19th century was glass beads. Inexpensive and portable for the European explorer or trader and having a high intrinsic value for the natives, it was used extensively for the exchange of goods and services. It would prove invaluable for those engaged in long-distance expeditions as [...]
McLeod of the Niger
Posted in Imperial History, tagged Africa, Anti-Slavery Squadron, British Empire, Imperial History, Lyons McLeod, Victorian History on 21/08/2010 | Leave a Comment »
An old soldier neglected by an ungenerous country. (The Morning Leader, October 1892) English governments have a rather unpleasant reputation for neglecting the humbler heroes of the nation; and another instance of the kind which goes to support the public impression has been brought before the notice of The Morning Leader. The story of Capt. Lyons [...]
Kamele für Deutsch-Südwestafrika
Posted in Imperial History, tagged Africa, Camels, Deutsch-Südwestafrika, Foreign Office Correspondence, History, Malet, Marschall, Namibia on 22/07/2010 | 1 Comment »
Foreign Office Translation. Berlin. May 31, 1892. Sir, With reference to your note of the 21st instant relative to the employment of Camels in the S.W. African Protectorate, I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that last year 10 Camels were imported from Teneriffe into the Protectorate and have been used with satisfactory results [...]
A Recurring Greek Tragedy
Posted in Contemporary History, Economic History, Imperial History, tagged Greece, Greek Debt Crisis, Lord Salisbury, Sir Edward Malet on 09/07/2010 | Leave a Comment »
The perils of relying upon debt to balance one’s books has been clearly demonstrated by the current financial crisis engulfing the Western economies. A particularly striking example is Greece, where revelations of gross misconduct on behalf of the state has transpired; a prolonged period of government debt-financed overspending leading to it’s rather unenviable current position [...]
Afghanistan Casualty Trend
Posted in Contemporary History, Violence, tagged Afghanistan, Intervention, Violence on 28/06/2010 | Leave a Comment »
An earlier article speculating in the causes for the intra-annual casualty trend: http://thecivilisingmission.com/2010/04/05/fighting-season-in-afghanistan/ Source: icasualties.org …
La Guerre d’Algérie
Posted in Imperial History, Violence, tagged Algeria, Algerian War, Counterinsurgency, Decolonisation, Empire, French Empire, Imperial History, Insurgency, Violence, War on 09/06/2010 | 1 Comment »
“War is an act of violence that has no limit.”[1] Upon Algerian independence in 1962, France and its former colony could look back at an armed conflict that had lasted for eight years, cost the lives of close to half a million people and radically transformed the French Republic itself. When Algerian demands for civil [...]
China’s High-Yield Agriculture: A Double-Edged Sword?
Posted in Economic History, Imperial History, tagged China, Economic Development, High-Yield Agriculture, Physiocratic State, Rice on 01/05/2010 | Leave a Comment »
The climatic and natural conditions found within the northern and southern territories of pre-modern China were conducive to wheat and rice cultivation respectively. Soil qualities, regularity of precipitation, the existence of rivers providing ease of irrigation and the length of frost-free time periods gave these types of agriculture comparative advantages within each respective geo-climatic zone. [...]
A Nigerian Oil Curse?
Posted in Contemporary History, Economic History, Violence, tagged Africa, Bonny Light, MEND Guerilla, Nigeria, Oil Curse, Oil Production on 30/04/2010 | Leave a Comment »
There are often references being made to the oil curse, the supposed wretchedness of resource endowments that plunges developing countries into a never-ending spiral of internal strife and instability. The rationale is partially based upon the developing countries’ weak institutional framework which makes states harbouring valuable extractible resources susceptible to predation from external or internal [...]
The Congo Free State – A Latifundium of Terror
Posted in Economic History, Imperial History, Violence, tagged Africa, Henry Morton Stanley, Imperial History, King Leopold II, Rubber, The Congo Free State on 16/04/2010 | Leave a Comment »
‘Leopold II…has knit adventurers, traders and missionaries of many races into one band of men, under the most illustrious of modern travellers (H.M. Stanley) to carry into the interior of Africa new ideas of law, order, humanity, and protection of the natives.’[1] The Daily Telegraph, 22nd of October 1884 Some of the worst atrocities committed [...]
The Sierra Leone Civil War
Posted in Contemporary History, Imperial History, Violence, tagged Africa, Conflict Diamonds, Imperial History, Intervention, Liberia, Misgovernment, Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone Civil War, Violence, War on 12/04/2010 | Leave a Comment »
As a direct consequence of the abolitionist movement’s campaigns in Britain, the settlement called Freetown was founded 1787 for emancipated slaves. Initially consisting of the so-called black poor from Britain and Nova Scotia, it later would become home for the liberated Africans captured by the British anti-slavery squadron. Assuming status as a crown colony in [...]
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