Maritime East Africa (1888–1899 CE): Colonial Rivalries, Resistance, and Territorial Transformations

From 1888 to 1899 CE, Maritime East Africa—including the Swahili Coast, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Somali coastal cities—undergoes profound changes driven by intensified European colonial ambitions, local resistance movements, and strategic geopolitical rivalries among European powers.

European Colonial Expansion and Rivalries

European powers increasingly seek territorial dominance along the East African coast during this era. The Imperial British East Africa Company establishes its presence in Kenya by 1888, eventually gaining control from Germany, which had earlier asserted influence over coastal possessions of the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1885. The British solidify their position through significant infrastructure projects, notably the construction of the Uganda Railway, attracting a substantial influx of Indian laborers who remain integral to the region’s demographic and economic fabric.

Germany, under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, expands its reach by establishing the colony of German East Africa in 1885, imposing protectorates through aggressive naval demonstrations. Notable resistance movements against German rule emerge, particularly from the Hehe people, led by Chief Mkwawa, who fiercely resist German colonization between 1891 and 1898, ultimately succumbing due to internal divisions exploited by the Germans.

Madagascar: French Annexation and Resistance

In Madagascar, French colonial ambitions culminate in the declaration of a protectorate over the entire island by 1894. Queen Ranavalona III resists French dominion, triggering violent upheavals and eventually prompting France to forcibly occupy the capital, Antananarivo, in 1895. France officially declares Madagascar a colony in 1896, deporting the queen and imposing strict colonial administration.

Somali Peninsula: Fragmentation and Strategic Interests

The Somali Peninsula experiences strategic partitioning among European and regional powers. Italy, establishing its first footholds in 1888, gradually solidifies its control over southern Somalia, creating Italian Somaliland. Concurrently, Britain consolidates control over northern Somalia (British Somaliland), aiming to safeguard naval interests around Aden. France holds French Somaliland (Djibouti), and Ethiopia, under Emperor Menelik II, extends its influence over the Ogaden, profoundly reshaping regional geopolitics.

Portuguese Efforts and Continued Influence

Portugal renews its territorial ambitions in East Africa, notably attempting expeditions across the continent from Angola to Mozambique. Despite these extensive explorations by figures like Serpa Pinto, Capelo, and Ivens, Portuguese authority struggles to assert full dominance in the hinterlands, though they maintain coastal control, particularly around Mozambique, amidst growing competition from British and German interests.

Comoros: French Protectorates and Internal Fragmentation

The Comoros Islands undergo significant political restructuring under French influence. Protectorate treaties are signed with local rulers in 1886, marking a transitional phase from fragmented independent sultanates towards formal colonial annexation, despite persistent local instability and resistance.

Economic and Social Transformations

Economic activities in the region evolve significantly. Mauritius experiences fluctuations in its sugar economy, while the Seychelles transition to less labor-intensive agriculture after the abolition of slavery, becoming increasingly reliant on imported goods and small-scale trade.

Malawi and Mozambique

In southern Malawi, colonial administration under British control solidifies Blantyre as a critical hub of economic and political activity, further shaped by infrastructural developments and missionary education. Central and northern Mozambique witness aggressive Portuguese colonization, with intensive plantation economies dependent on forced African labor expanding rapidly along the Zambezi River and in coastal settlements such as Beira and Quelimane. Resistance among local communities occasionally erupts, reflecting deep-seated tensions in the region’s colonial experience.

Cultural Resilience and Integration

Throughout this era of colonial encroachment, the Swahili Coast and other regions of Maritime East Africa retain resilient cultural identities, integrating new influences while preserving local customs, languages, and traditions amidst dramatic political and social upheaval.

Legacy of the Era

Between 1888 and 1899 CE, Maritime East Africa witnesses dramatic geopolitical reconfigurations due to European colonial partitioning, vigorous local resistance, and complex economic transitions. These developments establish critical precedents for the region’s twentieth-century trajectories.

The Abushiri Revolt of 1888 is put down with British help the following year.

The Hehe people, led by Chief Mkwawa, resist German expansion between 1891 and 1894.

They are defeated because rival tribes support the Germans.

After years of guerrilla warfare, Mkwawa himself is cornered and commits suicide in 1898.

Alfred Robert Tucker becomes Anglican Bishop of eastern equatorial Africa (covering the contemporary countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania).

Born in 1849, raised in the Lake District in England, and following in the tradition of his family, he had become an artist, exhibiting at the Royal Academy.

1879, Tucker had become a mature student at Oxford University.

This was unusual for an evangelical ordinand of his time, as by far the greater proportion of evangelical students went to Cambridge.

In 1882, he was ordained curate in Bristol, then at St Nicholas' Church, Durham before being sent out in 1890 by the Church Mission Society to become the third bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa. He will serve  in this position until 1899, when he will become the Bishop of Uganda, serving until 1908.

Britain cedes the Heligoland islands (in the German Bight) to Germany, in return for protectorates over Wituland and the Sultanate of Zanzibar (the islands of Pemba and Unguja) in east Africa, by the terms of the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty signed on July 1, 1890.

Germany thus gains the small but strategic Heligoland archipelago, which its new navy needs to control the new Kiel Canal and the approaches to Germany's North Sea ports.

In exchange, Germany gives up its rights in the Zanzibar region in Africa, allowing Zanzibar to provide a key link in the British control of East Africa.
 
Germany gains the islands of Heligoland (German: Helgoland) in the North Sea, originally part of Danish Holstein-Gottorp but since 1814 a British possession, the so-called Caprivi Strip in what is now Namibia, and a free hand to control and acquire the coast of Dar es Salaam that will form the core of German East Africa (later Tanganyika, now the mainland component of Tanzania).

In exchange, Germany hands over to Britain the protectorate over the small sultanate of Wituland (Deutsch-Witu, on the Kenyan coast) and parts of East Africa vital for the British to build a railway to Lake Victoria, and pledges not to interfere with British actions vis-à-vis the independent Sultanate of Zanzibar (i.e. the islands of Unguja and Pemba)

In addition, the treaty establishes the German sphere of interest in German South West Africa (most of present-day Namibia) and settles the borders between German Togoland and the British Gold Coast (now Ghana), as well as between German Kamerun and British Nigeria.

Britain thereby divests itself of a naval base that covers the approaches to the main German naval bases in the North Sea, but which will be impossible to defend as Germany builds up its navy.

It immediately declares a protectorate over Zanzibar and, in the subsequent 1896 Anglo-Zanzibar War, will gain full control of the sultanate.

The treaty serves German chancellor Leo von Caprivi's aims for settlement with the British.

After the 1884 Berlin Conference, Germany had already lost the "Scramble for Africa": the German East Africa Company under Carl Peters had acquired a strip of land on the Tanganyikan coast (leading to the 1888 Abushiri Revolt), but had never had any control over the islands of the Zanzibar sultanate; the Germans give away no vital interest.

In return, they acquire Heligoland, strategically placed for control over the German Bight, which, with the construction of the Kiel Canal from 1887 onward, has become essential to Emperor Wilhelm's II plans for expansion of the Imperial Navy.

Wilhelm's naval policies abort  an accommodation with the British and will ultimately lead to a rapprochement between Britain and France, sealed with the Entente cordiale in 1904.

The misleading name for the treaty will be introduced by ex-Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who intends to attack his despised successor Caprivi for concluding an agreement that Bismarck himself had arranged during his incumbency.

However, Bismarck's nomenclature implies that Germany has swapped an African empire for tiny Heligoland ("trousers for a button").

This will be eagerly adopted by imperialists, who will complain about "treason" against German interests.

Carl Peters and Alfred Hugenberg will appeal for the foundation of the Alldeutscher Verband ("Pan-German League"), which will take place in 1891.