Abstract
Political objectives were conspicuously missing from the British discussion of African affairs. Not only was government policy firmly opposed to annexation; few of the publicists for African activity even stressed the desirability of empire for the sake of empire. Few suggested that the power to command was worth having as a primary value, or that British dominion over Africa might be sought as a sign of British national glory and greatness. The desired ends of British policy were either wealth or the civilizing mission, or a combination of both. Only the means were political.
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Footnotes
Report of the Committee on Aborigines, PP, 1837, vii (425), p. 5; J. Harris, The Great Commission (London, 1842), p. 238;
W. Howitt, Colonization and Christianity (London, 1838), pp. 504–5;
R. M. Martin, History of the British Possessions in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans (London, 1837), p. 338.
Report of the Committee on Aborigines, PP, 1837, vii (425) p. 76. See also H. Merivale, Lectures on Colonisation and Colonies, 2 vols. (London, 1841–1842), II, 212–13.
S. Motte, Outline of a System of Legislation for Securing the Protection of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of all Countries Colonized by Great Britain (London, 1840), p. 14.
T. F. Buxton, The Remedy: Being a Sequel to the African Slave Trade (London, 1840), pp. 80–98 and 108; Grey to Winniett, 20 January 1849, CO 402/2.
Buxton, The Remedy, p. 99; Glenelg, Memorandum of 18 February 1839, CO 2/22; Report of the West Africa Committee, PP, 1842, xi (551), p. vii. See also Captain Belcher, R. N., “Extracts from Observations on Various Points of the West Coast of Africa, Surveyed by His Majesty’s Ship Aetna in 1830–32,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, II, 278–304 (1832), p. 296.
This discussion of the Niger strategy is based on K.O. Dike, Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 1830–1885 (London, 1956)
and C. C. Ifemesia, “British Enterprise on the Niger, 1830–1869,” (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, London, 1959).
G. d’Eichthal, “Histoire de origine des Foulahs ou Fellans,” Mémoires de la Société Ethnologique, I (2), 1–296 (1841), pp. 148–53, 164–65; R. Mouat, “A Narrative of the Niger Expedition,” Simmonds’s Colonial Magazine, II, 138–53, 311–24, 446–65; III, 117–26 (May-October 1844), HI, 120;
W. B. Baikie, Narrative of an Exploring Voyage up the Rivers Kwora and Binue (Commonly known as the Niger and Tsadda) in 1854 (London, 1856), p. 393.
See J. F. Ade Ajayi, “Christian Missions and the Making of Nigeria, 1841– 1891” (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, London, 1958);
S. O. Biobaku, The Egba and Their Neighbours 1842–1872 (Oxford, 1957);
G. E. Metcalfe, Maclean of the Gold Coast (London, 1962);
C. W. Newbury, The Western Slave Coast and its Rulers (Oxford, 1961).
Sir George Stephen, The Niger Trade Considered in Connexion with the African Blockade (London, 1849), PP. 41–55.
Both the original plan of 1832 and a later version of 1840 are found in CO 2/22. The second version was published as P. Read, Lord John Russell, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, and the Niger Expedition (London, 1840).
J. Rendali to Glenelg, 3 January 1839, CO 2/22; F. H. Rankin, The White Man’s Grave: A Visit to Sierra Leone in 1834, 2 vols. (London, 1836), II, 24–29; Winniet to Grey, 22 May 1850, CO 96/18.
G. Stephen, Letters to the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, on the Plans of the Society for the Civilization of Africa (London, 1840), first letter, p. 28.
C. Dickens, Bleak House (London, 1853), Ch. IV.
C. Fyfe, A History of Sierra Leone (London, 1962), pp. 188–189, 211.
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Curtin, P.D. (1964). The Theory and Practice of Informal Empire. In: The Image of Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00539-0_19
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