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87-446: The Shire Highlands south of Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi ) and the lands west of the lake were explored by David Livingstone between the 1858 and 1864 as part of his Zambezi expeditions. Livingstone suggested that what he claimed was the area's benign climate and fertility would make it ideal for the promotion of Christianity and commerce. As a result of Livingstone's writings, several Anglican and Presbyterian missions were established in

174-617: A Shire Highlands Protectorate in Johnston's absence, despite the contrary Foreign Office instructions. It seems probable that Buchanan's action, made without reference to the Foreign Office, but following instructions that Johnston had left before he departed for the north, was to prevent any further advance by Serpa Pinto rather than to establish British rule in the area. However, in October 1889 Serpa Pinto's soldiers attacked one of

261-670: A 99-year lease over Chinde , a port at one of the Zambezi delta mouths where sea-going ships could transfer goods and passengers to river boats. The northern border of the protectorate was agreed at the Songwe River as part of the Anglo-German Convention in 1890. Its western border with Northern Rhodesia was fixed in 1891 at the drainage divide between Lake Malawi and the Luangwa River by agreement with

348-635: A British protectorate over the Shire Highlands, despite contrary instructions, although this was later endorsed by the Foreign Office . Shortly after this clash with Britain, Serpa Pinto returned to Portugal where he was promoted to the rank of colonel . He was governor general of Cape Verde from 20 January 1894 until 17 January 1898. Serpa Pinto died in Lisbon on 28 December 1900 at the age of 54. His earthly remains were laid to rest in

435-636: A British sphere including all the area west of Lake Nyasa and also Mashonaland but not including the Shire Highlands and Lower Shire valley, which were to be part of the Portuguese sphere. This went beyond what the Foreign Office was prepared to accept, and the proposal was later rejected. In 1888, the Portuguese government instructed its representatives in Portuguese East Africa to attempt to make treaties of protection with

522-531: A commercial profit, and to develop European influence in the area. A mission and small trading settlement was established at Blantyre in 1876 and a British consul took up residence there in 1883. Concessionaires holding prazo estates from the Portuguese crown were active in the lower valley of the Shire River from the 1830s and the Portuguese government claimed suzerainty over much of Central Africa, without maintaining effective occupation over more than

609-707: A further protectorate, the Nyasaland Districts Protectorate , west of Lake Malawi was also contrary to Foreign Office instructions. However, it was endorsed by the Foreign Office in May 1891. This was because the discovery of the Chinde channel in the Zambezi delta, which was deep enough to allow sea-going ships to enter the Zambezi, which was an international waterway, without having to enter Portuguese territory, whereas previously such ships had to use

696-418: A handful reduced in size. These Certificate of Claim were issued at a time when no professional judges had been appointed to the protectorate, and the work of Johnston and his assistants was subsequently criticised by judges and later administrators. In total, 59 Certificates of Claim to land rights were registered, mostly between 1892 and 1894, covering an area of 1,499,463 hectares (3,705,255 acres), or 15% of

783-652: A small exhibit dedicated to this famous son of the area. On a small square in front of the Museum is a bust of Serpa Pinto. The house where Serpa Pinto's parents lived in Porto Antigo, Cinfães, on the banks of the Rio Bastanéa (Bestança River), where it flows into the Rio Douro (Douro River), has been transformed into the luxurious Estalagem Porto Antigo and the conference hall there is named after Serpa Pinto. Also

870-625: A small part of it. In 1879, the Portuguese government formally claimed the area south and east of the Ruo River (which currently forms the southeastern border of Malawi), and in 1882 occupied the lower Shire River valley as far north as the Ruo River. The Portuguese then attempted to negotiate British acceptance of their territorial claims, but the convening of the Berlin Conference (1884) ended these bilateral discussions. Meanwhile,

957-638: A special grant to allow Johnston to recruit a further 200 Indian troops and also African mercenaries to take action to counter armed resistance and, by the end of 1895, the only Yao resistance was from small armed bands without fixed bases that were able to cross into Mozambique when challenged. Next, Johnston prepared to attack Mlozi bin Kazbadema, the leader of the so-called "north end Arabs", although most of those that contemporary Europeans in East Africa described as Arabs were either Muslim Swahili from

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1044-610: The African Rift Valley . The Phalombe Plain slopes gently towards Lake Chilwa to the northeast, and separates the highlands from the taller Mulanje Massif to the east. Streams originating in the highlands drain west, south, and southeast towards the Shire River, or northeast into the closed basin of Lake Chilwa. The highlands have a cooler climate and more rainfall than the surrounding lowlands, and are home to distinct forests, woodlands, and grasslands that make up

1131-614: The Barotse capital on the Zambezi. There he received assistance from the missionary François Coillard , enabling him to continue his journey along the Zambezi to the Victoria Falls . He then turned south and arrived at Pretoria in northern South Africa on 12 February 1879. Capelo and Ivens emerged at Dondo , on the Cuanza River in northern Angola. Serpa Pinto was the fourth explorer to cross Africa from west to east, and

1218-579: The Berlin Conference (1884) ended these discussions. In 1884, Serpa Pinto was appointed as Portuguese consul in Zanzibar, and given the mission of exploring and re-mapping the region between Lake Nyasa and the coast from the Zambezi to the Rovuma River and securing the allegiance of the chiefs in that area. In 1885, Serpa Pinto undertook an expedition in 1885 with Lieutenant Augusto Cardoso as his second-in-command. Serpa Pinto fell seriously ill and

1305-600: The British South Africa Company , which governed what is today Zambia under Royal Charter until 1924. In 1891, Johnston only controlled a fraction of the Shire Highlands, itself a small part of the whole protectorate, and initially had a force of only 70 Indian troops to impose British rule. These troops, later reinforced by Indian and African recruits, were used up to 1895 to fight several small wars against those unwilling to give up their independence. After this, until 1898, troops were used to assist

1392-520: The Ngoni people and the famines which they caused or as the result of slave raiding. There may well have been large areas in the Shire Highlands that had been virtually depopulated. Some of the shortfall in population may have been made good by the inward migration of families groups of so-called "Anguru", Lomwe speaking migrants from the parts of Mozambique east of the Shire Highlands estates, who became estate tenants. They began to arrive from 1899, and

1479-423: The Shire River . It is a major agricultural area and the most densely populated part of the country. The highlands cover an area of roughly 7250 square kilometers. the plateau varies in elevation from 600 to 1100 meters, with various hills and mountains rising higher. The highest peak is Zomba Mountain at 2087 meters. The highlands are bounded on the west and south by the valley of the Shire River , an extension of

1566-583: The South Malawi montane forest-grassland mosaic . The northernmost portion of the plateau includes a line of hills – Chinduzi, Mongolowe, Chaone, and Chikala – that extend 40 km east and west. The taller Zomba Plateau south of them. The northern hills are made up of syenite and nepheline syenite, and the Zomba plateau is made up of syenite and quartz syenite, which intruded into the much older Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks that compose much of

1653-657: The Yao chiefs southeast of Lake Malawi and in the Shire Highlands, and an expedition organised under Antonio Cardoso, a former governor of Quelimane , set off in November 1888 for the lake. Rather later, in early 1889, a second expedition led by Alexandre de Serpa Pinto moved up the Shire valley. Between them, these two expeditions made over twenty treaties with chiefs in what is now Malawi. Serpa Pinto met Johnston in August 1889 east of

1740-537: The 1921 census counted 108,204 "Anguru". Neither the 1901 nor the 1911 censuses recorded tribal affiliation, but the very substantial population increases in districts adjacent to Mozambique, especially Blantyre and Zomba districts, whose recorded populations more than doubled in this decade, suggest substantial immigration. In this period, relatively few Africans left the protectorate as migrant workers, but outward labour migration became more common later. British occupation did not significantly change African society within

1827-476: The 1930s. British Consuls for the Nyasa District ("to the territories of the kings and chiefs in the districts adjacent to Nyassa") The offer by the British South Africa Company to fund the administration of the newly-formed protectorate was part of an attempt by Cecil Rhodes to take over the administration of all the territory claimed by Britain north of the Zambezi. This was resisted, particularly by

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1914-723: The 19th century more British missions and plantations were established, expanding British influence in the highlands. In 1891 Harry Johnston was appointed Commissioner and Consul General to the British Central Africa Protectorate , the territories in the British sphere of influence north of the Zambezi River. Johnston set up a headquarters at Zomba , and between 1891 and 1895 subordinated the Yao chiefs to British rule, often by force. Johnston abolished

2001-612: The African Lakes Company was attempting to obtain the status of a Chartered company from the British government, but it had not managed to do so by 1886. In 1885-86 Alexandre de Serpa Pinto undertook a Portuguese expedition which reached the Shire Highlands, but it failed make any treaties of protection with the Yao chiefs in territories west of Lake Malawi. As late as 1888, the British Foreign Office declined to accept responsibility for protecting

2088-553: The African Lakes Company: the main consideration was that they had African experience. A few Collectors in strategically important locations had contingents of troops attached to their district, but most had no more than one or two assistants. By 1905 there were 12 Collectors and 26 Assistant Collectors The power of existing chiefs were minimised in favour of direct rule by the Residents, as Johnston did not consider

2175-517: The African population was estimated on the basis of hut tax records with a multiplier for the average inhabitants per hut. As no taxes were collected in some areas in the north of the protectorate in 1901, their inhabitants were estimated on the basis of occasional official visits. It is believed that much of the country was reasonably well populated in the mid-19th century, but by the 1880s large areas had become underpopulated through devastating raids by

2262-635: The Association is to develop cultural, social, scientific, technological and artistic activities in Cinfães, in Portugal, in the C.P.L.P. (Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries) and in all countries interested in the historical course, life and work General Alexandre Alberto da Rocha Serpa Pinto but also contribute to the enrichment, protection and conservation of General Alexandre Alberto da Rocha Serpa Pinto's estate, encourage teaching and research in

2349-645: The British Central Africa Protectorate. Although the Ruo River had been the provisional boundary between Portuguese and British spheres of influence since 1879, as part of the 1891 treaty and under strong British pressure, an area west of the Shire and south of its confluence with the Ruo which had been controlled by an Afro-Portuguese family, was allocated to Britain and now forms the Nsanje District . The treaty also granted Britain

2436-967: The British government sent Henry Hamilton Johnston as British consul to Mozambique and the Interior, with instructions to report on the extent of Portuguese rule in the Zambezi and Shire valleys and the vicinity, and to make conditional treaties with local rulers beyond Portuguese jurisdiction. These conditional treaties of friendship did not amount to the establishment of a British protectorate but prevented those rulers from accepting protection from another state. On his way to take up his appointment, Johnston spent six weeks in Lisbon in early 1889 attempting to negotiate an acceptable agreement on Portuguese and British spheres of influence in Central Africa. The draft agreement reached in March 1889 would have created

2523-514: The British, and he was also accused of harassing nearby missions which had told their members not to obey Gomani's instructions. Johnston's deputy Alfred Sharpe attacked and defeated Gomani's forces on 23 October 1896. Gomani was sentenced to death by a court martial and shot on 27 October. Within a year, 5,000 of his former subjects were working in the Blantyre area. As the northern Ngoni kingdom did not threaten European trading interests, as it

2610-560: The Colonial Office assumed this responsibility, he selected district officials with the title of Collectors of Revenue, Their official title later became Residents, and they were the predecessors of District Commissioners . Their main duties were to collect taxes, to ensure a supply of labour to European-owned estates and government projects and ensure government instructions and regulations were carried out. Johnston's Collectors included ex-soldiers, ex-missionaries and ex-employees of

2697-491: The Kololo chiefs, killing around 70 of his followers and, with two armed river boats, pushed up the Shire River through the area over which Buchanan had established a protectorate. After Serpa Pinto's departure owing to serious illness in November 1889, his second-in-command, João Coutinho, pushed on as far as Katunga, the nearest river port to Blantyre, and some Kololo chiefs fled to Blantyre for safety. Johnston's proclamation of

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2784-584: The Nyasaland Protectorate from 1907), with Francis Barrow Pearce as acting Commissioner from 1 April 1907 to 30 September 1907 and William Henry Manning as acting Commissioner from 1 October 1907 to 1 May 1908. Although the first Consul appointed in 1883 had used Blantyre as his base, the second moved to Zomba because it was closer to the slave route running from Lake Malawi to the coast. Johnston also preferred Zomba because of its relative isolation, healthiness and superb scenery, and it became

2871-430: The Portuguese government instructed its representatives in Portuguese East Africa to attempt to make treaties of protection with the Yao chiefs southeast of Lake Malawi and in the Shire Highlands and an expedition organised under Antonio Cardoso, a former governor of Quelimane , set off in November 1888 for the lake. Rather later, a second expedition led by Serpa Pinto, who had been appointed governor of Mozambique, moved up

2958-406: The Ruo River and west of Lake Malawi. The Portuguese government accepted under duress and ordered their troops in the Shire valley to withdraw to the south bank of the Ruo. This order was received by the commander at Katunga on 8 March 1890 and all Portuguese forces had evacuated Katunga and Chiromo by 12 March. An 1891 Anglo-Portuguese treaty fixed the southern borders of what had been renamed

3045-584: The Ruo River, when Johnston advised him not to cross the river into the Shire Highlands. Previously, Serpa Pinto had acted with caution, but in September, following minor clashes between Serpa Pinto's advancing force and Kololo who had been left behind by Livingstone at the end of his Zambezi expedition in 1864 and had formed minor chieftainships, he crossed the Ruo to Chiromo , now in Malawi. In response to this incursion, Johnston's deputy John Buchanan declared

3132-657: The Scottish missionaries and, in February 1891, Salisbury agreed to a compromise under which what later became Northern Rhodesia would be under company administration and what later became Nyasaland would be administered by the Foreign Office. However Henry Hamilton Johnston would be both the Administrator of the British South Africa Company's territory and Commissioner and Consul-General of

3219-425: The Shire Highlands and, as early as August 1891, Johnston used his small force against three minor chiefs before attacking the most important Yao chief, who was based on the eastern shore of Lake Nyasa. After initial success, Johnston's forces were ambushed and forced to retreat and, during 1892, undertook no further action against the several Yao chief that rejected British control. However, in 1893, Cecil Rhodes made

3306-459: The Shire valley. Between them, these two expedition made over 20 treaties with chiefs in what is now Malawi. Serpa Pinto met Johnston in August 1889 east of the Ruo, when Johnston advised him not to cross the river into the Shire Highlands. Although Serpa Pinto had previously acted with caution, he crossed the Ruo to Chiromo , now in Malawi in September 1889. Following minor clashes with Serpa Pinto's force, Johnston's deputy, John Buchanan, declared

3393-686: The Zambezi and its delta to reach the small, poorly equipped coastal port of Chinde in Mozambique. Low water levels in Lake Nyasa reduced the Shire River's flow from 1896 to 1934, so the main river port was moved, first to Chiromo , further from the main settlements below a steep escarpment and from 1908 to Port Herald (now Nsanje ). As early as 1895, Johnston suggested a line from the protectorate's main commercial town, Blantyre, to Quelimane in Mozambique . However, most of its proposed route

3480-664: The Zambezi-Lower Shire river system, and they were later introduced on the Upper Shire and Lake Malawi. The Upper and Lower Shire were separated by about 100 kilometres (60 mi) of the Middle Shire, where rapids and shallows made navigation impractical, and both the Upper and Lower Shire were often too shallow for larger vessels, particularly in the dry season. In addition, the main areas of economic activity in

3567-612: The area in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1878 The African Lakes Company Limited, predecessor to the African Lakes Corporation Limited, was established in Glasgow by a group of local businessmen with links to the Presbyterian missions. Their aim was to set up a trade and transport concern that would work in close cooperation with the missions to combat the slave trade by introducing legitimate trade, to make

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3654-400: The areas of Natural Sciences, Anthropology, History and Sociology and to promote culture, defense and conservation of the historical, artistic and cultural heritage of Cinfães, Portugal and C.P.L.P.. It have also an educational function by bringing into being a library, conference facilities and exhibition locale. Furthermore, the Association promote the study the life and work of Serpa Pinto and

3741-400: The best arable land in the Shire Highlands, which was the most densely populated part of the country. In the first years of the protectorate, very little of the alienated land was planted. Settlers wanted labour and encouraged existing Africans to stay on the undeveloped land, and new workers (often migrants from Mozambique) to move onto it, and grow their own crops. From the late 1890s, when

3828-483: The chiefs should play any part in the administration of the protectorate. The exception was the Northern Ngoni Kingdom, which retained a significant degree of autonomy. In practice, however, the relatively few district officers required the cooperation of local chiefs it administer their districts and allowed chiefs to continue in their traditional roles. One of the major legal problems facing Johnston

3915-450: The colonial state for customary use by the native people. Public lands and trust lands were later opened up to leaseholds of up to 99 years, effectively privatizing some of them. The Shire Highlands Railway Company built a railway across the highlands between 1903 and 1907, from Blantyre in the highlands to the river port of Chiromo , on the Shire River where it meets the Ruo . The railway

4002-602: The decline of coffee prompted planters to turn to tobacco in the Shire Highlands and cotton in the Shire Valley. Tea was also first planted commercially in 1905 in the Shire Highlands, but significant development of tobacco and tea growing only took place after the opening of the Shire Highlands Railway in 1908. Before the railway opened, water was the most efficient means of transport. From the time of Livingstone's 1859 expedition, small steamers navigated

4089-401: The early protectorate were in the Shire Highlands, mainly near Blantyre, which was 40 km (25 mi) from Chikwawa , a small Shire River port. Transport of goods to river ports was by inefficient and costly head porterage, as the Shire valley was unsuitable for draught animals. Shallow draught steamers carrying 100 tons or less had to negotiate Lower Shire marshes and low-water hazards in

4176-605: The east coast of Africa or Nyamwezi people , who imitated Arab dress and customs but were rarely Muslims. Mlozi had defeated two attempts which the African Lakes Company Limited in the Karonga War had made between 1887 and 1889, with some unofficial British government support, to dislodge him and his followers and end the slave trade. Johnston had signed a truce with him in October 1889 and left him in peace until late 1895, despite Mlozi often breaking

4263-412: The estates started to produce coffee, the owners began to charge these tenants a rent, usually satisfied by two months’ labour a year, of which one month was to meet the worker's tax obligation; however, some owners demanded longer periods of labour. In order to raise revenue, and also to increase the supply of labour, a Hut tax was imposed from 1895 in the Shire Highlands. This was gradually extended to

4350-769: The family grave of António Gomes dos Santos and Francisco de Souza Santos Moreira and their families in the Cemitério dos Prazeres in Lisbon. Recognition and honours for his services were not wanting. In Portugal, he was made comendador of the orders of knighthood: Ordem da Torre e Espada, the Ordem Sao Bento de Aviz, and the Ordem de Sao Tiago da Espada; in France the Cross of the Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur

4437-443: The first few years of the protectorate, ivory and rubber collected from indigenous vines were the principal elements of a tiny export trade. The first estate crop was coffee, grown commercially in quantity from around 1895, but competition from Brazil, which had flooded the world markets with coffee by 1905, and droughts led to its decline in favour of tobacco and cotton. Both these crops had previously been grown in small quantities, but

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4524-568: The first to lay down a reasonably accurate route between Bié (in present-day Angola ) and Lealui. In 1881 the Royal Geographical Society awarded him their Founder's Medal , "for his journey across Africa ... during which he explored five hundred miles of new country". In 1881 Serpa Pinto published his 2-volume Como eu atravessei a África , translated by Alfred Elwes and published in English as How I crossed Africa . In

4611-441: The governor's residence and administrative capital throughout the colonial period although Blantyre remained the commercial centre. In 1896, Johnston set up a small government Secretariat in Zomba which, with the addition of a few technical advisers appointed soon after, formed the nucleus of his central administration. In 1892, Johnston received powers to set up courts and divide the protectorate into districts and, until 1904 when

4698-533: The highlands in the 1930s, first around Thyolo where the climate and soils were most favorable. Tea is still economically important in the highlands. Other important crops include tung oil , tobacco, peanuts (groundnuts), and maize (corn). 15°38′48″S 35°07′32″E  /  15.6468°S 35.1256°E  / -15.6468; 35.1256 Alexandre de Serpa Pinto Alexandre Alberto da Rocha de Serpa Pinto, Viscount of Serpa Pinto (aka Serpa Pinto ; 20 April 1846 – 28 December 1900)

4785-417: The highlands. The central portion includes numerous hills and mountains, including Chiradzulu (1774 m), Ndirande (1613 m), Soche (1533 m), and Michiru (1474 m). Thyolo Mountain lies at the southern end of the highlands. Yao are the predominant people of the northern highlands, and Chewa people in the center and south. The Lomwe people also live in the highlands. Blantyre is the largest city in

4872-624: The highlands. Zomba is the second-largest, and served as the capital of Nyasaland and independent Malawi until 1975. Thyolo is a center of tea production. Archeological evidence shows the highlands have been populated for thousands of years. In the middle of the 19th century, Yao people migrated eastwards from the northern Mozambican coast, and established chiefdoms in the highlands – Malemia ( Domasi ), Mlumbe (Zomba), Kawinga (Chikala), Mpama ( Chiradzulu ), and Kapeni and Somba (in Blantyre District). The Yao chiefs were involved in

4959-496: The legal fiction that each chief's people had tacitly accepted he could assume such a right. As a result, Johnston accepted the validity of those claims where the signatory was the chief of the tribe occupying the land, provided that the terms of the contract were not inconsistent with British sovereignty . Where claims were accepted, Johnston issued Certificates of Claim (in effect the grant of freehold, or fee simple , title). Out of 61 claims made, only two were rejected outright and

5046-480: The locally recruited police force to suppress the slave trade. The three main groups resisting British occupation were Yao chiefs in the south of the protectorate and Swahili groups around the centre and north of Lake Nyasa, both involved in the slave trade, and Ngoni people who had formed two aggressively expansionists kingdoms in the west and north. The Yao chiefdoms were closest to the European settlements in

5133-544: The lower Zambezi . Also in 1869, Pinto went to eastern Africa on an exploration of the Zambezi River . Eight years later he led an expedition from Benguela , Portuguese Angola , into the basins of the Congo and Zambezi rivers. The town of Menongue was named Serpa Pinto , after him, up to 1975. In 1877, he and Lieutenant Commander Capelo and Lieutenant Ivens , both of the Portuguese navy, were sent to explore

5220-406: The main sorting office until after the railway was opened, when Limbe became the postal hub. A telegraph connection from Blantyre to Cape Town via Umtali was established in April 1898. 13°30′S 34°00′E  /  13.500°S 34.000°E  / -13.500; 34.000 Shire Highlands The Shire Highlands are a plateau in southern Malawi , located east of

5307-414: The original dwelling and out-houses still stand, but in a neglected state. He was also portrayed in the 100 Angolan escudo banknote issued in 1956. In Cinfães was founded the Associação Cultural Serpa Pinto (ACSP), in 2007 published in Diário da República, 2ª. série – Nº. 38 – 22 de Fevereiro de 2008, page 7339. The address is Lugar de Vila Viçosa, Cx Postal 327 4690-906 Cinfães, Portugal. The idea of

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5394-425: The port of Quelimane. Salisbury was also influenced by the offer by the British South Africa Company to fund the administration of the protectorate, which convinced him to bow to popular pressure. There followed an Anglo-Portuguese Crisis in which a British refusal of arbitration was followed by the 1890 British Ultimatum of 11 January 1890. This demanded that the Portuguese give up all claims to territories beyond

5481-459: The proposed railway, and granted the company 146,300 hectares (361,600 acres) of land adjacent to the railway route. Because of delays over raising the funds needed for construction, and disputes over its route, it was not until early 1903 that construction began. The line was opened from Blantyre to Chiromo in 1907. Modern communications began to be established in 1891, with the opening of the territory's first post office at Chiromo. This remained

5568-417: The protectorate until the First World War , with most people continuing to live under the social and political systems that existed before 1891. No attempt was made to remove or limit the powers of the Yao, Ngoni or Makololo chiefs (who had first entered the area in the 19th century) over the original inhabitants they had displaced, subjugated or assimilated, although the Swahili slave traders had been killed in

5655-623: The protectorate, and would receive a payment of £10,000 a year from Rhodes towards the expenses of administering both territories. This arrangement lapsed in 1900, when North-Eastern Rhodesia was formed as a separate protectorate with its own Administrator Harry Johnston, who became Sir Henry at the end of his term, was Commissioner and Consul-General from 1 February 1891 to 16 April 1896. Alfred Sharpe, Sir Alfred from 1903, who had been Johnston's deputy from 1891, took over as Commissioner and Consul-General in 1896, serving until 1 April 1910 (first as Commissioner and Consul-General and then as Governor of

5742-445: The protectorate, most of its people were subsistence farmers growing maize , millet and other food crops for their own consumption. As the protectorate had no economic mineral resources, its colonial economy had to be based on agriculture, but before 1907 this had hardly started to develop. In pre-colonial times trade was limited to the export of ivory and forest products such as natural rubber in exchange for cloth and metals and, for

5829-456: The region in the 1880s but was weakened by internal disputes and a civil war. Initially, Gomani, the victor in the civil war that ended in 1891, was on good terms with British officials and missionaries, but he became concerned at the number of his young men going to work on European-owned estates in the Shire Highlands and by Johnston's forceful reaction to Yao resistance. In November 1895, he forbade his subjects either to pay taxes to, or work for,

5916-428: The rest of the protectorate, becoming universal in 1906. It was nominally three shillings a year, but could be satisfied by one month's labour a year spent on a settler estate or working for the government. The name of the protectorate was changed to the Nyasaland Protectorate on 6 July 1907. There was only one, rather limited, official census in this period, in 1901, which returned a population of 736,724. However,

6003-472: The rudimentary British settlements in the Shire Highlands, despite unsubstantiated claims by the African Lakes Company of Portuguese interference with their trading activities. However, it also declined to negotiate with the Portuguese government on their claim that the Shire Highlands should be considered part of Portuguese East Africa , as it was not regarded by the Foreign Office as under effective Portuguese occupation. In order to prevent Portuguese occupation,

6090-403: The same year French and German translations were also published. In 1879 the Portuguese government formally claimed the area south and east of the Ruo River (which currently forms the southeastern border of Malawi ), and in 1882 occupied the lower Shire River valley as far as the Ruo. The Portuguese then attempted to negotiate British acceptance of their territorial claims, but the convening of

6177-477: The slave trade, and allowed British missionaries and settlers to lay claim to large tracts of the highlands. By 1894, Johnston had granted 'certificates of claim' to a handful of British settlers, missionaries, and private companies, granting them freehold property rights to 3776 km , or over half the total area of the highlands. In addition to private lands, Johnston established public or crown lands that included forest reserves, and African trust lands, held by

6264-533: The southern African interior. All three had African experience and seemed to be the right age and temperament for the work. They left Benguela in November. Soon after their departure, however, they parted company at Bié , Capello and Ivens turning northward whilst Serpa Pinto continued eastward, gradually shifting his course to the south. He crossed the Cuando (Kwando) river in June 1878 and in August reached Lealui ,

6351-617: The terms of that truce. Johnston first secured the neutrality of the Swahili ruler of Nkhotakota by paying him a subsidy and, in November 1895, he embarked a force of over 400 Sikh and African riflemen with artillery and machine guns on steamers at Fort Johnston and set out for Karonga. Without any prior warning, Johnston assaulted two of Mlozi's smaller stockades on 2 December and, on the same day, surrounded Mlozi's large, double-fenced fortified town, bombarding it for two days and finally assaulting it on 4 December, facing stiff resistance. Mlozi

6438-597: The total land area of the Protectorate. This included 1,093,614 hectares (2,702,379 acres) in the North Nyasa District that the British South Africa Company had acquired for its mineral potential and which was never turned into plantation estates. Except for this large grant in the Northern Region, much of the remaining land, some 351,000 hectares (867,000 acres) of estates, included much of

6525-525: The trade of ivory and slaves, centered on the Mozambican port of Quelimane . With encouragement and assistance from David Livingstone during his second Zambesi expedition , in 1861 Bishop Charles Mackenzie of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa set up a missionary station at Magomero , near Zomba in the highlands. After Mackenzie died in 1863, the mission was withdrawn. Later in

6612-476: The warfare of the 1890s or had left. One area in which early efforts to change the system manifestly failed was that of domestic slavery. Although slave-trading had been eliminated, and Johnston issued instructions that domestic slaves were to be emancipated, this particular form of slavery endured, particularly in the Central Region, well into the first quarter of the 20th century Throughout the period of

6699-543: Was a Portuguese explorer of southern Africa and a colonial administrator. Serpa Pinto was born at the Quinta das Poldras (Tendais) in Cinfães , a Portuguese village on the river Douro . He joined Colégio Militar at age 10. There he became the first student Battalion Commander in 1864, when he joined the Portuguese army and was sent to Portuguese Mozambique . In 1869 he took part in suppressing tribes in revolt around

6786-405: Was captured, given a cursory trial and hanged on 5 December: between 200 and 300 of his fighters were killed, many while attempting to surrender, as well as several hundred non-combatants, who were killed in the bombardment. The other Swahili stockades did not resist and were destroyed after their surrender. The Maseko Ngoni kingdom in the west of the protectorate had been the most powerful state in

6873-420: Was carried to the coast, where he eventually recovered. Cardoso his twenty-five-year-old lieutenant, continued the exploration, visiting Lake Nyasa and the Shire Highlands , but failed to make any treaties of protection with the Yao chiefs in territories west of the lake Malawi. Britain declined to accept the Portuguese claim that the Shire Highlands should be considered part of Portuguese East Africa , as it

6960-823: Was conferred on him; in Brazil he was made knight of the Ordem da Rosa; and in Turkey he was honoured with the Great Cross of the Order of the Medejidie. He received honorary membership and awards from various scientific societies, including membership of the French Académie des Sciences' Astronomy division, and the "Founders' Medal" of the Royal Geographical Society of London. On 24 January 1899 he

7047-424: Was far from European-owned estates, and as the Scottish mission at Livingstonia was influential within the kingdom, Johnston did not use force against it. It accepted British rule in 1904 on condition of retaining its own traditions. Its king was recognised as a paramount chief, the only one in the protectorate at that time, and received a government salary, whereas Gomani's son only received comparable recognition in

7134-477: Was honoured by King Carlos I (1863–1908) with the noble title of Viscount. To honour and remember him, streets and squares in many Portuguese towns and cities were named after him, for example the Rua Serpa Pinto in Lisbon, Porto, Tomar, Évora, Braganca, Torres Vedras, Rio Maior and Cinfães, to mention only a few. In Angola, the town of Serpa Pinto (now Menongue), main seat of the province Cuando-Cubango,

7221-558: Was in Portuguese territory and Quelimane was only suitable for small ships. Also in 1895, Eugene Sharrer proposed building a railway from Blantyre to Chiromo, and he formed the Shire Highlands Railway Company Limited in December 1895 to achieve this. Although Johnston urged the Foreign Office to finance this railway, it declined to do so, but in 1901 it agreed in principle to the company building

7308-464: Was later extended north from Blantyre to Salima in central Malawi, south from Chiromo to Port Herald (present day Nsanje ) in 1908, and from Port Herald to the Mozambican river port of Chindio on the Zambezi River in 1914. From the late 19th century, tobacco, cotton, and coffee were grown for export. Coffee growing declined in importance by 1900, displaced by drought and competition with Brazilian coffee growers. Tea plantations were established in

7395-540: Was named after him. His name was even given to two ships, and as trade name for products like cigars and biscuits. During the 125th commemoration of the founding of the Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, two stamps were issued with a portrait of Serpa Pinto in a prominent place, while a portrait of him also appears on a banknote from Angola. In Cinfães the Serpa Pinto Museum was opened on 20 April 2000, housing

7482-448: Was not under their effective occupation. In order to prevent Portuguese occupation, the British government sent Henry Hamilton Johnston as British consul to Mozambique and the Interior, with instructions to report on the extent of Portuguese rule in the Zambezi and Shire valleys and the vicinity, and to make conditional treaties with local rulers beyond Portuguese jurisdiction, to prevent them accepting protection from Portugal. In 1888,

7569-466: Was that of land claims. For up to 25 years before the protectorate was formed, a number of European traders, missionaries and others had claimed to have acquired often large areas of land through contracts signed with local chiefs, usually for derisory payment. Although Johnston had a duty to look into the validity of these land deals, and although he accepted that the land belonged to its tribes and that their chiefs had no right to alienate it, he put forward

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