British East Africa
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{{Wikisource1911Enc|British East Africa}}
'''British East Africa''' was an area of East Africa controlled by the [[United Kingdom|British]] in the late 19th century, which became a [[protectorate]] covering roughly the area of present-day [[Kenya]]. It grew out of British commercial interests in the area in the 1880s and lasted until 1920, when it became the colony of Kenya.
[[Image:Britisheastafrica 1.png|200px|thumb|Map of British East Africa in 1911.]]
[[Image:British_East_Africa_Currency.JPG|right|200px|thumb|One cent and ten cent British East Africa pieces (note the inscription: ''REX ET IND. IMP. GEORGIVS V'' or ''George V, King and Emperor of India'')]]
European missionaries began settling in the area from [[Mombasa]] to [[Mount Kilimanjaro]] in the 1840s, nominally under the protection of the [[Sultan]] of [[Zanzibar]]. In 1886 the British government encouraged [[Sir William Mackinnon, 1st Baronet|William Mackinnon]], who already had an agreement with the Sultan and whose shipping company traded extensively in East Africa, 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. It administered about 150 miles of coastline stretching from the river [[Tana River (Kenya)|Tana]] 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, and after [[1890]] included [[Uganda]] as well.
However, the company began to fail, and on [[July 1]], [[1895]] the British government proclaimed a protectorate, and in [[1902]] made the Uganda territory part of the protectorate also. In 1902, the [[East Africa Syndicate]] received a grant of 500 square miles in order to promote white settlement in the Highlands. The capital was shifted from Mombasa to [[Nairobi]] in [[1905]], and on [[July 23]], [[1920]] the protectorate became the [[Kenya#Colonial history|Kenya Colony]].
== Colonization ==
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 500 sq. m., and this was followed by other applications for considerable areas, including a large Jewish settlement. In April 1903, Major [[Frederick Russell Burnham]], the famous American scout and then a Director of the East African Syndicate, sent an expedition conisting 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", traveled from [[Nairobi]] via [[Mount Elgon]] northwards to the western shores of [[Lake Rudolph]], experiencing plenty of privations from want of water, and of the danger from encounters with the [[Masai]].<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 [[Masai]] of their rights of pasturage, and the decision was made to entertain no more applications for large areas of land.
In the carrying out of this policy of colonization a dispute arose between [[Charles Eliot (diplomat)|Sir Charles Eliot]], then Commissioner of British East Africa, and [[Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne|Lord Lansdowne]], the British [[Foreign Secretary]]. Lansdowne, believing himself bound by pledges given to the East Africa Syndicate, decided that they should be granted the lease of the 500 sq. m. they had applied for; but after consulting officials of the protectorate then in London, he refused Eliot permission to conclude leases for 50 sq. m. each to two applicants from South Africa. Eliot thereupon resigned his post, and in a public telegram to the prime minister, dated [[Mombasa]], the 21st of June 1904, gave as his reason:- "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." On the day Sir Charles sent this telegram the appointment of Sir [[Donald William Stewart]], the chief commissioner of [[Ashanti]] ([[Ghana]]), to succeed him was announced.
== Stamps and postal history of British East Africa ==
[[Image:Flag of British East Africa.png|left|200px|thumb|Flag of British East Africa and the subsequent Colony of Kenya.]]
[[Image:Stamp British East Africa 1896 2.5a.jpg|right|100px|thumb|2 1/2 annas, 1896]]
The territory had its own mail system during the 1890s; see [[Postage stamps and postal history of British East Africa]] for further details.
==Sources==
*[http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=149&inst_id=19 Sir William Mackinnon]
*''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]''
==See also==
* Sir [[Charles Eliot (diplomat)|Charles Eliot]]
*[[Colonial Heads of Kenya]]
*[[East Africa Protectorate]]
* [[East African Campaign (World War I)]]
==Further reading==
*John S. Galbraith, '' Mackinnon and East Africa 1878-1895'' (Cambridge 1972)
*[http://unimaps.com/kenya1901/index.html Map of British East Africa in 1901]
*[http://purl.pt/787/1/index.html ''A map of part of Eastern Africa, prepared by authority of the Imperial British East Africa Company'', 1889]
*[http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/British 1911 Encyclopedia]
{{Territories of the British Empire}}
[[Category:Former British protectorates]]
[[Category:History of Kenya]]
[[Category:East Africa]]
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{{UK-hist-stub}}
[[id:Afrika Timur Britania]]
[[de:Britisch-Ostafrika]]
[[fr:Afrique orientale britannique]]
[[sw:Afrika ya Mashariki ya Kiingereza]]
[[nl:Brits Oost-Afrika]]
[[no:Britisk Østafrika]]
[[pl:Brytyjska Afryka Wschodnia]]
[[sv:Brittiska Östafrika]]