Out of Africa

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Britain and other European nations became increasingly interested in East Africa. Explorers, missionaries, hunters, traders, and scientists roamed the land and interacted with its people, and their reports home stirred up an interest in “civilizing” this “savage” territory. Meanwhile, European governments evaluated the political and economic benefits of further involvement with the region. East Africa was not teeming with natural resources, but it did contain seemingly fertile land and the important port of Mombasa, which attracted the attention of import/export companies. By the 1880s, however, concerns about the profitability of investment in East Africa had been superceded by fear that other European nations would get there first. Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, and Germany scrambled to appropriate as much African land as possible in an attempt to limit the imperial reach of their rivals. By 1886 Germany had already taken possession of a sizable portion of East Africa, so Britain felt compelled to stake its claim on present-day Kenya, the region it named British East Africa. In 1888 the British government entrusted its new land to the Imperial British East Africa Company, which was charged with developing it for trade.