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Explorers of Africa
by Aaron Stutz
Class of 1997
Before the age of European imperialism in Africa, the interior of the continent was all but unknown to European
civilization. Prior to the colonial interests of the major European nations, the age of exploration in Africa
opened up many parts of the continent's interior. Numerous expeditions, notably those of Dr. David
Livingstone, Sir Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke, Heinrich Barth, de Brazza, and Sir Henry Stanley,
facilitated the rapid colonization of Africa by making known features of potential interest. These explorers were
the key that would open up entirely new issues of rivalry and conflict between the European powers of the late
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, ultimately contributing to the opening shots of World War One.
One of the first, and most well-known, explorers to penetrate the interior of Africa was Dr. David Livingstone, a
British physician and missionary. He was sent to South Africa as a medical missionary during 1840, and his
subsequent expeditions and discoveries caused many parts of the extant maps of Africa to be redrawn. Among
his many important contributions are his discovery and exploration of the Zambezi River in its entirety, as well
as several African lakes. During a visit to England in 1865, he wrote Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi
and its Tributaries, exposing the slave trade of the Arabs and the Portuguese, as well as revealing the
commercial possibilities of the Zambezi region. Dr. Livingstone marked the beginning of the influx of explorers
into Africa's interior.
Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, both from England, together explored Somaliland during 1854,
and located Lake Tanganyika in 1858. Speke, traveling alone, discovered Lake Victoria, the main source of the
Nile, a feat which many explorers, even Dr. David Livingstone, had failed to accomplish. Their explorations
contributed to the potential desirability of parts of Africa for economic purposes.
During 1850 to 1853, Heinrich Barth, from Germany, explored the middle section of the Niger River and
Timbuktu. He published Travels and Discoveries of North and Central Africa in 1858, which contained detailed
maps and information on many of Africa's little-known regions. Likewise, his explorations mapped parts of
many rivers, which would support commerce by providing a means of transportation.
Pierre-Paul-Francois-Camille Savorgnan de Brazza, an Italian count, explored the Ogowe River from the coast
of Gabon to the interior. Being an officer in the French navy, de Brazza secured many treaties with local chiefs
in 1880 which would eventually result in a French protectorate over the area that became the French Congo. De
Brazza secured France a part in the race for African territory, once it had begun.
Sir Henry Morton Stanley, and Anglo-American journalist and explorer, lead numerous explorations intended to
continue the work of Dr. David Livingstone, who he had lead an expedition to find in 1871. Funded by the New
York Herald and the London Daily Telegraph, Stanley circumnavigated Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria, and
navigated down the Lualaba and Congo rivers between 1874 and 1877. In 1878, Stanley explored much of the
Congo, under the sponsorship of Leopold II, and claimed the part that de Brazza had not claimed for France.
Before the age of exploration of Africa had finished, the "scramble" for Africa had begun, with the help of these
explorers. Most of Europe interpreted their expeditions as economic, ethical, and spiritual reasons for the
colonization of Europe. Indeed, most of these explorers strongly urged the colonization of the interior of Africa
by their countrymen. Even Dr. David Livingstone told his assistants in the Zambezi expedition to remember that
they went among the river's tribes "as members of a superior race and servants of a Government that desires to
elevate the more degraded portions of the human family."[Christopher Hibbert, pg. 426] They opened Africa to
European civilization, creating a new source of conflict that would contribute to the conflict that was World
War One.