The Martyr | Historical Context

The Martyr Historical Context

Kenya

The history of this region during the late 19th and the 20th centuries is characterized by European colonization and exploitation of members of the tribes native to the area, such as the Massai and the Kikuyu. Britain, Germany, and France all had a hand in colonizing the area. The Imperial British East Africa Company dominated these efforts, beginning in the 1880s. In 1894, the British government declared the area the East Africa Protectorate. In the 1890s, British military forces were employed in order to quell resistance by African tribes to European rule. A railway, built between 1895 and 1903, was a key factor in encouraging European settlement and cultivation of the East Africa Protectorate in the early 1900s. During this time, members of the native African tribes were restricted to reservations and forced into labor on European plantations. In 1920, the region was renamed the Kenya Colony, after the region's...
(read more)