Page 83 - All About History - Issue 33-15

A-Z of the British Empire

The Boston Tea Party
was the most famous act Slavery
of defiance against tax
and contributed to the
outbreak of the American Ashamefulblotontheempire’slegacy
WarofIndependence
With the empire ever expanding, shortages of
labour in British territories were common. To
remedy this, Britain (along with many other
Europeanpowers)decideduponaterrible
solution: the slave trade. The first trip was
undertaken by John Hawkins in 1562 and the
transatlantic slave trade was born. A triangle
between Europe, the Americas and Africa, millions of Africans
were removed from their homes and forced to work on
plantations in the New World. This free workforce greatly
benefited the economies of the European powers. In 1807, the
AbolitionoftheSlaveTradeActwaspassed,finallybringing
an end to the vile practice, but it continued in some colonies
until 1838. Up until the 20th century, a Royal Navy fleet of
shipsknownastheWestAfricaSquadronscouredAfrica’s
coast,freeingalltheslavestheycouldasattitudeschanged.

UgandawaspartofBritishEast-
Africa and many local men were
hiredtobuildthetracks

The
entirety of
Tea the railway was
Thedrinkthatbecameamajor actually located in
commodityintheempire Kenya and helped
OneofthefinestresultsofBritain’s buildupthecity
expansion into Asia was the tea trade. Uganda Railway of Nairobi
Primarily a drink for the wealthy due The‘LunaticExpress’thatblazedatrail
toitshighprice,thefirstorderwas
takenin1664.Tealeavessoon throughbothUgandaandKenya
became big business and the East 1,062 kilometres of track, most dangerous part of the job, however, was
IndiaCompanyquicklysteppedup theUgandanrailwaybegan theso-called‘man-eatersofTsavo’.Whenthe
tea production, especially in Assam, India. Hiring cheap itslifeon30May1896 railwaywasbeingconstructedovertheTsavo
tea-pickinglabourers,itbecameaprofitableindustryanda when the first plate was River, the workers were preyed upon by a
cultural phenomenon back in Britain, rivalling coffee for laid.Thefirsttrainwould number of lions that killed about 20 men.
the nation’s favourite drink. Each crossing from China or leave Mombasa station two Thereweremanyperilsalongtheway,
IndiatoBritainwouldtakemonthsandtaxationonteawas yearslater.Thetrackwas but the railway was finally completed in
veryhigh,whichoftenresultedintaxavoidancethrough thebrainchildofGeorgeWhitehouse,a 1901. The Lunatic Express helped the British
smuggling.AfterthedemiseoftheEastIndiaCompany, veteran of railway construction in England, prevent German influence in the area and
theteatradebecameafree-for-alland South Africa and India. Many of the first was an effective political move to control the
merchants chartered fast ships known engines to hit the tracks were NileandaccesstotheeastAfricancoast.The
as clippers to get a piece of the second-hand imports from India. railwaywasn’tpopularwiththenativesand
action.Sinceitwasfirsttraded,it 31,983 Indians were sent to Africa wasknownasthe‘IronSnake’.TheKedong
hasundoubtedlybecomethedrink to construct the railroad along Massacre of 1895 resulted in 500 deaths
of Britain and the drink of empire. with a few thousand East Africans. afteraworker’scaravanwasattackedbythe
The conditions were harsh for the Maasai people who were incensed after two
Right: Tea bags weren’t invented yet, so the
precious tea leaves were transported back to workers and they would sometimes girls were allegedly raped. Parts of the track
Britain in wooden chests known as caddies go for days without water due to are open today and have been incorporated
late or derailed water trains. The into the Kenya Railways Corporation.
83