Motives for Expansion into Africa

History: KS3, topic 14.1.3

Britain's Motives for Expanding into Africa

The loss of the American Revolutionary War in 1783 AD forced Britain to look elsewhere to grow its wealth and political control.

The African continent had a wide variety of natural resources that were known due to Britain's involvement with the transatlantic slave trade, where people were taken from West Africa and transported across the Atlantic ocean to be sold as slaves.
After the transatlantic slave trade was abolished by Britain in 1807, Europeans became aware of precious commodities like gold, ivory and diamonds discovered across the continent.
This offered an opportunity to replace the wealth obtained from the slave trade.

Occupying new territories in Africa became increasingly important to secure trade routes.
The Cape (in present-day South Africa) was an important port for ship voyages to the Indies.
There was competition among other European colonial powers such as the French and Dutch to secure these routes for themselves.
Each new colony required protection, and further defences created a knock-on effect as Britain gained control of more and more regions in Africa.

Muscular Christianity was a type of British cultural supremacy, which viewed the native traditions of potential territories as inferior and uncivilized.
Muscular Christianity placed importance on Christian values, masculinity, and athleticism.
This movement occurred mostly within all-boys' public schools in England.
At the time, most government and military officials had attended such schools.

Many British explorers surveyed the interior regions of Africa that were undocumented by European maps, like the Congo Basin and the Great African Lakes.
Prominent British explorers include David Livingstone, Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke.
Livingstone became the first European to visit Victoria Falls (which he named after Queen Victoria), and Burton and Speke were the first Europeans to visit the Great African Lakes.

Many explorers were also missionaries.
They sought to reach people in the heart of Africa who had been previously uncontacted by Europeans in order to convert them to Christianity.
The missionaries viewed traditional African religions as savage and uncivilised.