East Africa Protectorate

{{short description|British protectorate in Africa from 1895 to 1920}} {{Use British English|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} {{Infobox Former Country | native_name = | conventional_long_name = East Africa Protectorate | common_name = British East Africa | era = | status = British protectorate | status_text = | year_start = 1895 | year_end = 1920 | event_start = Established | date_start = 1 July | event_end = | date_end = 23 July| | p1 = Imperial British East Africa Company | flag_p1 = Flag of the Imperial British East Africa Company.svg | s1 = Kenya Colony | flag_s1 = Flag of Kenya (1921–1963).svg | image_flag = Flag of Kenya (1895–1921).svg | image_coat = Badge of the East African Protectorate (1895-1920).svg | flag = | flag_type = Flag | symbol = | image_map = Africa 1909 16a.png | image_map_caption = Map of British East Africa in 1909| | capital = Mombasa (1895–1905) Nairobi (1905–1920) | symbol_type = Badge | national_motto = | national_anthem = God Save the Queen (1895–1901) God Save the King (1901–1920) {{center|File:God Save the King Historical National Anthem of Great Britain(1914).ogg}} | common_languages = English (official), Swahili, Kikuyu, Kamba, Luo, Kisii, Kimeru, Nandi–Markweta, Somali also spoken | title_leader = Monarch | year_leader1 = 1895–1901 | leader1 = Victoria | year_leader2 = 1901–1910 | leader2 = Edward VII | year_leader3 = 1910–1920 | leader3 = George V | religion = Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, traditional African religion | currency = Indian rupee {{small|(1895–1906)}} East African rupee {{small|(1906–20)}} | stat_year1 = 1904 | stat_area1 = {{convert|268,900|mi2|km2|-2|disp=number}} | ref_area1 = <ref name="britcensus">{{cite web|title=Census of the British empire. 1901|url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924030396067#page/n245/mode/2up|publisher=Openlibrary.org|access-date=26 December 2013|page=178|year=1906}}</ref> | stat_pop1 = 4,000,000 | ref_pop1 = <ref name="britcensus" /> | stat_year2 = | stat_pop2 = | ref_pop2 = | representative1 = Arthur Henry Hardinge | year_representative1 = 1895–1897 | representative2 = Sir Edward Northey | year_representative2 = 1919–1920 | title_representative = Commissioner, Governor | today = Kenya and Somalia }} {{History of Kenya}}

'''East Africa Protectorate''' (also known as '''British East Africa''') was a British protectorate in the African Great Lakes, occupying roughly the same area as present-day Kenya, from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west part. Controlled by the United Kingdom in the late 19th century, it grew out of British commercial interests in the area in the 1880s and remained a protectorate until 1920 when it became the Colony of Kenya, save for an independent {{convert|10|mi|km|adj=mid|-wide|order=flip}} coastal strip that became the Kenya Protectorate.<ref name="BEACo">[http://flagspot.net/flags/eaf-brit.html#%3Cww1 British East Africa Company]</ref><ref name="Council 2343, p. 968">Kenya Protectorate Order in Council 1920 (SR&O 1920/2343), S.R.O. & S.I. Rev. VIII, 258, State Pp., Vol. 87 p. 968</ref>

== Administration == {{Main|History of Kenya}}

European Christian missionaries began settling in the area from Mombasa to Mount Kilimanjaro in the 1840s, nominally under the protection of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. In 1886, the British government encouraged William Mackinnon, who already had an agreement with the Sultan and whose shipping company traded extensively in the African Great Lakes, to establish British influence in the region. He formed a British East Africa Association which led to the Imperial British East Africa Company being chartered in 1888 and given the original grant to administer the dependency. It administered about {{convert|150|mi|km|order=flip}} of coastline stretching from the Jubba River via Mombasa to German East Africa which were leased from the Sultan. The British "sphere of influence", agreed at the Berlin Conference of 1885, extended up the coast and inland across the future Kenya. Mombasa was the administrative centre at this time.<ref name="BEA_Sinclair">[http://www.heliograph.com/trmgs/trmgs2/bea.shtml British East Africa, by Grant Sinclair]</ref>

{{anchor|East Africa Order in Council 1902}} However, the company began to fail, and on 1 July 1895, the British government proclaimed a protectorate, the administration being transferred to the Foreign Office. In 1902, administration was again transferred to the Colonial Office. In 1897 Hugh Cholmondeley, the pioneer of white settlement, arrived in the Kenya highlands, which was then part of the Protectorate.<ref name=" Kenneth Roberts-Wray 1966. P. 761">"Commonwealth and Colonial Law" by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. P. 761</ref> Lord Delamere was impressed by the agricultural possibilities of the area. In 1902, the boundaries of the protectorate were extended to include what was previously the Eastern Province of Uganda.<ref name=" Kenneth Roberts-Wray 1966. P. 761"/><ref>East Africa Order in Council 1902 (SR&O 1902/661), S.R.O. & S.I. Rev. 246</ref> Also, in 1902, the East Africa Syndicate received a grant of {{convert|500|sqmi|km2|order=flip}} to promote white settlement in the Highlands. Lord Delamere now commenced extensive farming operations, and in 1905, when a large number of new settlers arrived from England and South Africa, the Protectorate was transferred from the authority of the Foreign Office to that of the Colonial Office.<ref name=" Kenneth Roberts-Wray 1966. P. 761"/> The capital was shifted from Mombasa to Nairobi in 1905. A regular government and legislature were constituted by Order in Council in 1906.<ref>"Commonwealth and Colonial Law" by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. P. 762</ref> This constituted the administrator, known as a governor, and provided for legislative and executive councils. Lieutenant Colonel J. Hayes Sadler was the first governor and commander in chief. There were occasional troubles with local tribes, but the country was opened up by the government and the colonists with little bloodshed.<ref name=" Kenneth Roberts-Wray 1966. P. 761"/> After the First World War, more farmers arrived from England and South Africa, and by 1919 the European population was estimated at 9,000 settlers.<ref name=" Kenneth Roberts-Wray 1966. P. 761"/>

On 23 July 1920, the inland areas of the protectorate were annexed as British dominions by Order in Council.<ref>Kenya (Annexation) Order in Council 1920 (SR&O 1920/2342)</ref> That part of the former protectorate was thereby constituted as the Colony of Kenya. The remaining {{convert|10|mi|km|adj=mid|-wide|order=flip}} coastal strip (with the exception of Witu), remained a protectorate under an agreement with the Sultan of Zanzibar.<ref>Agreement of 14 June 1890: State pp. vol. 82. p. 653</ref> That coastal strip, remaining under the sovereignty of the Sultan of Zanzibar, was constituted as the Protectorate of Kenya in 1920.<ref name="Council 2343, p. 968"/><ref name="BEA_Sinclair"/> The East Africa Protectorate was bounded to the north by the Ethiopian Empire and the Huwan, a semi-independent vassal state of the Ethiopian Empire; to the east by the Italian Geledi, to the south by German East Africa; to the west by the Uganda Protectorate.<ref>Rayidow, poem 80; Diiwaanka gabayadii, 1856–1921</ref>

== Development == In April 1902, the first application for land in British East Africa was made by the East Africa Syndicate – a company in which financiers belonging to the British South Africa Company were interested – which sought a grant of {{convert|500|sqmi|km2|order=flip}}, and this was followed by other applications for considerable areas, many of which came from prospective settlers in South Africa.<ref name=EB1911>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=British East Africa |volume=4 |pages=601–606 |first=Frank Richardson |last=Cana}}</ref> In 1903, Joseph Chamberlain, then serving as Secretary of State for the Colonies, offered {{convert|5000|sqmi|km2|order=flip}} at Uasin Gishu in British East Africa to Zionist settlers as part of the Uganda Scheme. However, opposition to the scheme at the Sixth Zionist Congress led to the plan falling through and Chamberlain swiftly withdrew the offer.<ref name="Birnbaum1990">{{cite book|author=Ervin Birnbaum|title=In the Shadow of the Struggle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GB8uPatYT6kC&pg=PA40|year=1990|publisher=Gefen Publishing House Ltd|isbn=978-965-229-037-3|pages=40–}}</ref><ref name="Mitchell2013">{{cite book|author=Thomas G. Mitchell|title=Israel/Palestine and the Politics of a Two-State Solution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppQX6EcgZkcC&pg=PA152|date=13 May 2013|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-7597-1|pages=152–}}</ref> In April 1903, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, an American scout then serving as a director of the East African Syndicate, sent an expedition consisting of John Weston Brooke, John Charles Blick, Mr. Bittlebank and Mr. Brown, to assess the mineral wealth of the region. The party, known as the "Four B.'s", travelled from Nairobi via Mount Elgon northwards to the western shores of Lake Rudolf, experiencing plenty of privations from want of water, and of the danger from encounters with the Maasai.<ref>Fergusson, W.N. (1911). ''Adventure, Sport and Travel on the Tibetan Steppes'', p. preface. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York</ref> With the arrival in 1903 of hundreds of prospective settlers, chiefly from South Africa, questions were raised concerning the preservation for the Maasai of their rights of pasturage, and the decision was made to entertain no more applications for large areas of land.<ref name=EB1911/>

In the process of carrying out this policy of colonisation a dispute arose between Sir Charles Eliot, Commissioner of British East Africa, and Lord Lansdowne, the British Foreign Secretary. The East Africa Syndicate had applied for and been pledged the lease of {{convert|500|sqmi|km2|order=flip}} of land. Lansdowne, believing himself bound by the pledges, decided the applications should be approved. In a separate matter, two South African applicants who were each attempting to lease {{convert|50|sqmi|km2|order=flip}} were declined by Lansdowne, and he refused Eliot permission to conclude the transactions. In view of this Eliot resigned his post, giving his reason in a public telegram to the Prime Minister, dated Mombasa, 21 June 1904, stating: "Lord Lansdowne ordered me to refuse grants of land to certain private persons while giving a monopoly of land on unduly advantageous terms to the East Africa Syndicate. I have refused to execute these instructions, which I consider unjust and impolitic."<ref name=EB1911/> Sir Donald William Stewart, the chief commissioner of Ashanti (Ghana), was announced as Sir Charles' successor on the day the telegram was sent.<ref name=EB1911/>

== Legislation == In 1914, the British government banned cannabis ("bhang") in the Protectorate.<ref>{{cite book|title=Kenya Gazette|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-tucX8G18BkC&pg=PA882|date=15 October 1913|pages=882–}}</ref>

== Stamps and postal history of British East Africa == right|100px|thumb|2½ annas, 1896 {{main|Postage stamps and postal history of British East Africa}} The protectorate upon becoming a direct possession of British Empire in 1895 had overprinted postal stamps from India and the former Imperial British East Africa Company issued. Along with this the territory was incorporated into the Universal Postal Union. By 1896, the first line of official stamps was issued, although the protectorate's postage service was short lived as in 1901 it was merged with the Protectorate of Uganda's mail service becoming the East Africa and Uganda protectorates issuing their first stamps in 1904.

== References == === Notes === {{Reflist|30em}}

=== Further reading === * Beck, Ann. "Colonial Policy and Education in British East Africa, 1900–1950". ''Journal of British Studies,'' vol. 5, no. 2, 1966, pp. 115–138. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/175320 online] * Furley, O. W. "Education and the Chiefs in East Africa in the inter-war period." ''Transafrican Journal of History'' 1.1 (1971): 60–83. * John S. Galbraith, '' Mackinnon and East Africa 1878–1895'' (Cambridge 1972) * Gregory, John Walter. ''The Foundation of British East Africa'' (London: H. Marshall, 1901) [https://books.google.com/books?id=fQZBAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22British+East+Africa%22&pg=PA1 online]. * [http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=149&inst_id=19 Aim25.ac.uk: Sir William Mackinnon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808114450/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=149&inst_id=19 |date=8 August 2017 }} * North, Stephen J. ''Europeans in British Administered East Africa. A Biographical Listing 1888-1905'' (3rd ed., 2005) * Savage, Donald C., and J. Forbes Munro. "Carrier Corps Recruitment in the British East Africa Protectorate 1914–1918." ''Journal of African History'' 7.2 (1966): 313–342. * Whitehead, Clive. "The historiography of British imperial education policy, Part II: Africa and the rest of the colonial empire." ''History of Education'' 34.4 (2005): 441–454.

== External links == {{Commons category|position=left|British East Africa}} * [http://unimaps.com/kenya1901/index.html Unimaps.com: 1901 Map of British East Africa Protectorate (Kenya)] * [http://purl.pt/787/1/index.html Purl.pt: ''A map of part of Eastern Africa, prepared by authority of the Imperial British East Africa Company'' (1889)]

Category:East Africa Protectorate Category:Former British colonies and protectorates in Africa Category:Kenya Colony Category:East Africa Category:1890s in Kenya Category:1900s in Kenya Category:1910s in Kenya Category:States and territories established in 1895 Category:States and territories disestablished in 1920 Category:1895 establishments in Kenya Category:1920 disestablishments in Kenya Category:1895 establishments in the British Empire Category:1920 disestablishments in the British Empire Category:19th century in Kenya Category:20th century in Kenya Category:Former countries of the interwar period