NOTE: Underlined geographic names are used in the activity described under Perry-Castenada Library Map Collection in Appendix 6.
| 1760s |
British East India Company asserts controls Bengal (after Battle of Plassey); Treaty
of Paris (1763) excludes French troops from India Portuguese retain Goa; their sphere in
eastern Africa is confined to Mozambique and parts of its hinterland. |
|
Oman claims the East African coast (above the Portuguese sphere), but does not
effectively control it. French traders become more interested in the East Coast; expansion
of French sugar plantations on Mauritius and Reunion. |
| 1770s |
Kilwa's ivory and slave trade increases significantly: Kilwa exports slaves to
French territories, Zanzibar, and the Middle East. |
| 1772 |
French slave trade with Oman's East African subjects benefits the ruler of Oman, who
levies a tax on every slave exported. |
| 1780s |
Price of a slave at coastal markets is MT$40. |
| 1780 |
Zanzibar remains loyal to Oman, but Mombasa controls much of the East Coast
north of Zanzibar; Omanis occupy Kilwa. |
| 1784-85 |
Omani rebel flees to Kilwa; ruler of Omani sends force to reoccupy Kilwa; other
Swahili towns submit to Omani rule. |
|
Oman redirects European trade through Zanzibar; Indian merchants in Mozambique
move to Zanzibar. |
| 1799 |
Oman signs treaty with Britain, agreeing to keep French ships away from all Omani
territories. |
| c. 1800 |
Nyamwezi traders from central Tanzania reach the East Coast. |
|
Mozambique becomes an important source of slaves for Brazil (rising to more than
15,000 per year in the 1820s and 1830s). |
|
Rising ivory prices in India; Bombay merchants re-export ivory to Britain; price of
ivory (1805) is MT$29/frasila at Bombay, MT$39/frasila at London . |
| 1806 |
Seyyid Said becomes ruler of Oman and Zanzibar; his policies promote foreign trade. |
| 1807 |
British legislation makes slave trade illegal for all British subjects. |
| 1810s |
Price of a slave at coastal markets is MT$15-25. |
| 1811 |
East Coast caravans set out for central Tanzania. |
| 1815 |
Congress of Vienna settlement: France cedes Mauritius and Seychelles to
Britain; British use these islands as bases for naval patrols trying to prevent British
subjects from engaging in the slave trade. |
|
British treaty with Portugal restricts the Portuguese slave-trade (subsequent treaties
with stricter limits). |
| 1820s |
Egypt invades Sudan; Egyptian conquests in the upper Nile Valley open up a vast region
to traders looking for slaves and ivory. |
|
British treaty with Oman bans export of slaves to Christian countries or to
non-Muslims; British may appoint agents on coast and search dhows. |
|
Drop in price of slaves stimulates expansion of clove production on Zanzibar; cloves
prices high price on world market. |
| 1823 |
Price of ivory at Zanzibar is MT$22/frasila. |
| 1825 |
East Coast caravans reach south-central plateau in Tanzania and soon on to areas
beyond Lake Tanganyika. |
| 1829-30 |
First British steamship travels from Bombay to Suez. |
| 1830s |
Crews of ocean-going dhows are mostly slaves and freedmen. |
| 1831 |
East Coast caravans establish base at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika. |
| 1833 |
Commercial treaty between Oman and the United States. |
| 1835-45 |
Zanzibar's clove "boom" (trees come into production); high prices spur
investment in plantations; price of cloves (1836) is MT$ 5.25/frasila. |
| 1837 |
Seyyid Said conquers Mombasa. |
| 1839 |
British take over Aden, use it as a coal depot and it becomes "one of the
busiest ports in the world." |
| 1840 |
Seyyid Said moves the Omani capital to Zanzibar; price of ivory at Zanzibar is nearly
MT$30. |
| 1840s |
Coastal traders, using Ujiji as a base, cross Lake Tanganyika to obtain ivory and
slaves in eastern Congo. |
|
Nyamwezi traders operate in areas west of the corridor between Lake Tanganyika and
Lake Malawi. |
|
Arab traders reach Buganda; expansion of Buganda's fleet of canoes on Lake
Victoria. |
| 1844 |
Commercial treaty between Oman and France. |
|
Germans establish trading post on Zanzibar; Germans develop export of cowries shells
(carrying them by sea to West Africa) |
| 1845 |
British treaty with Zanzibar bans shipment of slaves beyond Brava (on the coast
of Somalia); it does not go into effect until 1847. |
| 1846 |
Church Missionary Society builds a mission near Mombasa. |
| 1850s |
Coastal traders establish headquarters at Tabora, in the center of a Nyamwezi
chiefdom, and begin to meddle in Nyamwezi politics. |
|
Msiri (Nyamwezi trader southwest of Lake Mweru) creates a trading and raiding
state; he makes contact with Angolans and trades in two directions, exchanging ivory and
copper for firearms. |
| 1855 |
British merchant ships employ 10,000 to 12,000 "lascars" (60% from India,
the rest from Malaysia, China, Arabia, and East Africa). |
| 1857 |
Richard Burton and John Speke follow trade route from Zanzibar to Lake Tanganyika;
Speke reaches southern shore of Lake Victoria. |
| 1858 |
British consul at Zanzibar confiscates 8,000 slaves belonging to British
Indian subjects. |
| 1860s |
Peak of the East African slave trade: 23,000 slaves a year from the East Coast; this
is an average that includes inividuals exported from the East Coast who were retained on
Zanzibar and inividuals exported directly from Kilwa. |
|
About 6,000 Indian merchants are living in Zanzibar. |
|
Tippu Tip establishes himself on upper Lualaba River in eastern Congo; his
well-armed bands hunt elephants and raid villages. |
|
Mirambo (Nyamwezi chief) uses ruga-ruga to dominate the trade route between Tabora and
Ujiji, demanding tolls from passing caravans. |
| 1860-63 |
John Speke and James Grant take western route around Lake Victoria; in Buganda they
find the source of the Nile; they follow the Nile downstream through southern Sudan
and Egypt. |
| 1862 |
Sultan Majid of Zanzibar settles internal disputes; he is recognized by Britain and
France (France had supported his brother, Barghash. |
| 1866 |
Sultan Majid begins work on a new port called Dar es Salaam. |
| 1868 |
Holy Ghost Fathers (Roman Catholic missionaries) establish a settlement for freed
slaves at Bagamoyo. |
|
Price of ivory at Zanzibar is MT$60/frasila. |
| 1869 |
Opening of the Suez Canal; steamships pass through Red Sea to Indian Ocean; subsequent
increase in number of steamships visiting Jidda. |
| 1870 |
Sultan Majid dies; Barghash, the new sultan, is a close friend of John Kirk (British
agent, appointed British Consul in 1873). |
|
London is now the single largest marketplace for African ivory. |
| 1871 |
Henry Morton Stanley finds David Livingstone at Ujiji, but cannot persuade him to
leave; Livingstone wants to explore the Lualaba (he thinks it's a tributary of Nile, but
it's not). |
| 1871-75 |
Fighting between Mirambo and a coalition of Arabs and Nyamwezi from Tabora seriously
disrupts the ivory trade; Sultan Barghash sends large force to Tabora; it cannot not
defeat Mirambo. |
| 1872 |
Hurricane destroys clove trees on Zanzibar; clove prices rise. |
|
British steamship company (now operating all over the Indian Ocean) sets up a mail
service between Zanzibar and Aden. |
| 1873 |
Price of ivory at Zanzibar is nearly MT$90. |
|
David Livingstone dies near Lake Bangweulu (far from the Nile). |
|
Sultan Barghash signs treaty making the slave trade illegal from any part of his
dominion; he closes Zanzibar's slave market. |
| 1874-77 |
Henry Morton Stanley's trip across Africa (from Zanzibar to Buganda, then following
the Congo river to the Atlantic coast). |
| 1875 |
Stanley's famous letter to New York Herald, urging Christian missionaries to come to
Buganda (Protestants arrive in 1877, Catholics in 1878). |
|
Church Missionary Society settlement for freed slaves at Freretown. |
| 1876 |
Sultan Barghash makes slave caravans illegal; export trade slows to a trickle (last
slaving dhow is seized in 1899); raids continue on mainland. |
| 1879 |
Leopold II of Belgium gives Stanley the task of using the Congo waterway to penetrate
the interior of central Africa. |
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