According to the theory of
recent African origin of modern humans, the mainstream position held within the scientific community, all humans originate from East Africa.
[18] Some of the earliest fossilized hominid remains have been found in East Africa, including those found in
Awash Valley of
Ethiopia,
Koobi Fora in Kenya and
Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
[
edit] Arab and Portuguese eras The
Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore the region of current-day
Kenya,
Tanzania, and
Mozambique,
Vasco da Gama having visited
Mombasa in 1498. Gama's voyage was successful in reaching
India and this permitted the Portuguese to trade with the
Far East directly by sea, thus challenging older trading networks of mixed land and sea routes, such as the
Spice trade routes that utilized the
Persian Gulf,
Red Sea and
caravans to reach the eastern Mediterranean.
The
Republic of Venice had gained control over much of the trade routes between Europe and Asia. After traditional land routes to India had been closed by the
Ottoman Turks, Portugal hoped to use the sea route pioneered by Gama to break the once Venetian trading monopoly. Portuguese rule in East Africa focused mainly on a coastal strip centred in Mombasa. The Portuguese presence in East Africa officially began after 1505, when flagships under the command of
Don Francisco de Almeida conquered
Kilwa, an island located in what is now southern
Tanzania. In March 1505, having received from
Manuel I the appointment of viceroy of the newly conquered
territory in India, he set sail from
Lisbon in command of a large and powerful fleet, and arrived in July at Quiloa (
Kilwa), which yielded to him almost without a struggle. A much more vigorous resistance was offered by the
Moors of Mombasa, but the town was taken and destroyed, and its large treasures went to strengthen the resources of Almeida. Attacks followed on Hoja (now known as Ungwana, located at the mouth of the
Tana River), Barawa, Angoche,
Pate and other coastal towns until the western
Indian Ocean was a safe haven for Portuguese commercial interests. At other places on his way, such as the island of Angediva, near
Goa, and
Cannanore, the Portuguese built forts, and adopted measures to secure the Portuguese supremacy.
Portugal's main goal in the east coast of Africa was take control of the
spice trade from the
Arabs. At this stage, the Portuguese presence in East Africa served the purpose of control trade within the Indian Ocean and secure the sea routes linking Europe to Asia. Portuguese naval vessels were very disruptive to the commerce of Portugal's enemies within the western Indian Ocean and were able to demand high tariffs on items transported through the sea due to their strategic control of ports and shipping lanes. The construction of Fort Jesus in Mombasa in 1593 was meant to solidify Portuguese hegemony in the region, but their influence was clipped by the
British,
Dutch and
Omani Arab incursions into the region during the 17th century. The Omani Arabs posed the most direct challenge to Portuguese influence in East Africa and besieged Portuguese fortresses, openly attacked naval vessels and expelled the Portuguese from the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts by 1730. By this time the
Portuguese Empire had already lost its interest on the spice trade sea route due to the decreasing profitability of that business. The Arabs reclaimed much of the Indian Ocean trade, forcing the Portuguese to retreat south where they remained in
Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) as sole rulers until the 1975 independence of Mozambique.
Omani Arab
colonization of the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts brought the once independent
city-states under closer foreign scrutiny and domination than was experienced during the Portuguese period. Like their predecessors, the Omani Arabs were primarily able only to control the coastal areas, not the interior. However, the creation of clove
plantations, intensification of the
slave trade and relocation of the Omani capital to
Zanzibar in 1839 by
Seyyid Said had the effect of consolidating the Omani power in the region. Arab governance of all the major ports along the East African coast continued until British interests aimed particularly at ending the slave trade and creation of a
wage-labour system began to put pressure on Omani rule. By the late
nineteenth century, the slave trade on the open seas had been completely outlawed by the British and the Omani Arabs had little ability to resist the British navy's ability to enforce the directive. The Omani presence continued in Zanzibar and
Pemba until the 1964
revolution, but the official Omani Arab presence in Kenya was checked by German and British seizure of key ports and creation of crucial trade alliances with influential local leaders in the 1880s.
Settlements of
Bantu-speaking peoples, who were
iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, were already present south of the
Limpopo River by the 4th or 5th century (see
Bantu expansion) displacing and absorbing the original
Khoi-San speakers. They slowly moved south and the earliest ironworks in modern-day
KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the
Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoi-San people, reaching the
Fish River, in today's
Eastern Cape Province.
Monomotapa was a medieval kingdom (c. 1250-1629) which used to stretch between the
Zambezi and
Limpopo rivers of
Southern Africa in the modern states of
Zimbabwe and
Mozambique. It enjoys great fame for the ruins at its old capital of
Great Zimbabwe. In 1487,
Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to reach the southernmost tip of Africa. In 1652, a victualling station was established at the
Cape of Good Hope by
Jan van Riebeeck on behalf of the
Dutch East India Company. For most of the 17th and 18th centuries, the slowly-expanding settlement was a
Dutch possession.
Great Britain seized the
Cape of Good Hope area in 1795 ostensibly to stop it falling into the hands of the French, but also seeking to use
Cape Town in particular as a stop on the route to Australia and India. It was later returned to the Dutch in 1803, but soon afterwards the
Dutch East India Company declared bankruptcy, and the British annexed the Cape Colony in 1806. The
Zulu Kingdom (1817-1879) was a Southern African state in what is now
South Africa. The small kingdom gained world fame during and after the
Anglo-Zulu War.
Period of European ImperialismEast Africa during the 19th and early 20th century became a theatre of competition between the major imperialistic European nations of the time. During the period of the
Scramble for Africa, almost every country comprising present day East Africa to varying degrees became part of a European
colonial empire.
Portugal had first established a strong presence in southern
Mozambique and the Indian Ocean since the 15th century, while during this period their possessions increasingly grew including parts from the present northern Mozambique country, up to
Mombasa in present day Kenya. At
Lake Malawi, they finally met the recently created British
Protectorate of
Nyasaland (nowadays
Malawi), which surrounded the homonymous lake on three sides, leaving the Portuguese the control of lake's eastern coast. The
British Empire set foot in the region's most exploitable and promising lands acquiring what is today
Uganda, and
Kenya. The Protectorate of
Uganda and the Colony of
Kenya were located in a rich farmland area mostly appropriate for the cultivation of
cash crops like
coffee and
tea, as well as for animal husbandry with products produced from cattle and goats, such as
goat meat,
beef and
milk.
Moreover this area had the potential for a significant residential expansion, being suitable for the relocation of a large number of British nationals to the region. Prevailing climatic conditions and the regions'
geomorphology allowed the establishment of flourishing European style settlements like
Nairobi,
Vila Pery,
Vila Junqueiro,
Porto Amélia,
Lourenço Marques and
Entebbe. The
French settled the largest island of the Indian Ocean (and the fourth-largest globally),
Madagascar along with a group of smaller islands nearby, namely
Réunion and the
Comoros. Madagascar – until then under British control – became part of the
French colonial empire being ceded in exchange for the island of
Zanzibar an important hub of
spices trade, off the coast of
Tanganyika. The British as well held a number of island colonies in the region. The
Seychelles an extended
archipelago and the rich farmland island of
Mauritius, previously under the French
sovereignty, were as such. The
German Empire gained control of a large area named
German East Africa, comprising present-day
Rwanda,
Burundi and the mainland part of
Tanzania named Tanganyika. In 1922, the British gained a
League of Nations mandate over Tanganyika which it administered until Independence was granted to Tanganyika in 1961. Following the Zanzibar Revolution of 1965, the independent state of Tanganyika formed the
United Republic of Tanzania by creating a union between the mainland, and the island chain of Zanzibar. Zanzibar is now a semi-autonomous state in a union with the mainland which is collectively and commonly referred to as
Tanzania. German East Africa, though very extensive, was not of such strategic importance as the
British Crown's colonies to the north: the inhabitation of these lands was difficult and thus limited, mainly due to climatic conditions and the local geomorphology.
