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28-589: The Shropshire Hills are a dissected upland area and one of the natural regions of England. They lie wholly within the county of Shropshire and encompass several distinctive and well-known landmarks, such as the Long Mynd , Wenlock Edge , The Wrekin and the Clees . The Shropshire Hills lie south of the county town of Shrewsbury between the Welsh border and Much Wenlock , extending as far south as Ludlow . To

56-451: A concurrence of natural disasters. Accompanying a smallpox epidemic was a severe drought and an invasion of locusts which consumed vegetation over large tracts of land, whilst rinderpest had killed large numbers of cattle resulting in starvation within the community. The Maasai entered into treaties with British officials to surrender large amounts of land, which reduced manpower meant they were unable to defend against rival tribes. Of

84-530: A number of years. Similar disasters as afflicted the Maasai also caused havoc amongst these tribes and, between 1901 and 1902, a famine resulted in the Kikuyu losing between twenty and fifty percent of their population on their frontier with the Maasai. Many survivors sought refuge amongst relatives elsewhere in their domain, but by leaving their land it made the frontier appear disused to European officials. Before

112-613: Is the Central Highlands area, which covers most of the central-western parts of the state. Many of these areas are highly elevated alpine regions. The Ozarks cover nearly 120,000 square kilometres (46,000 sq mi), making it the most extensive highland region between the Appalachians and Rockies. This region contains some of the oldest rocks in North America. The spine of the mountains stretches across

140-527: The Aberdares , Elgeyo and the hills of Ukambani . The intervening areas consisted of extensive but sparsely inhabited plains, at over 5,000 feet, where rainfall was more uncertain and pastoralists instead relied on the grazing of animals. European settlement was predominately in these extensive plains, traditionally inhabited by the Maasai tribe. At the turn of the century, the Maasai had been decimated by

168-1037: The Anglosphere is the Scottish Highlands in northern Scotland , the mountainous region north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault . The Highland council area is a local government area in the Scottish Highlands and Britain's largest local government area. Other highland or upland areas reaching 400 m or higher in the United Kingdom include the Southern Uplands in Scotland, the Pennines , North York Moors , Dartmoor and Exmoor in England , and

196-700: The Cambrian Mountains in Wales . Many countries and regions also have areas referred to as highlands . These include parts of Afghanistan , Tibet , Ethiopia , Canada , Kenya , Eritrea , Yemen , Ghana , Nigeria , Papua New Guinea , Syria , Turkey and Cantabria . Similar terms used in other countries include high country , used in New Zealand , New South Wales , Victoria , Tasmania and Southern Queensland in Australia , and parts of

224-496: The Moon . White Highlands The White Highlands is an area in the central uplands of Kenya . It was traditionally the homeland of indigenous Central Kenyan communities up to the colonial period, when it became the centre of European settlement in colonial Kenya , and between 1902 and 1961 was officially reserved for the exclusive use of Europeans by the colonial government. The first European explorers and administrators used

252-607: The Uasin Gishu plateau in 1908. By 1914, there were around a thousand European settlers in the Highlands. In 1914, around twenty percent of the leases held in the region were held by 13 individuals or groups. The granting of leases to settlers for low prices resulted in rampant land speculation, to the extent that by 1930 approximately sixty five percent of land reserved for Europeans was not under any form of agriculturally productive activity. When European settlement began,

280-586: The Uganda Railway , noted of the Highlands: "Here we have a territory admirably suited for a white man's country, and I can say this, with no thought of injustice to any native race, for the country in question is either utterly uninhabited for miles and miles or at most its inhabitants are wandering hunters who have no settled home, or whose fixed habitation is the lands outside the healthy area." In 1902, Sir Charles Eliot , then British Commissioner of

308-655: The United States (notably Western North Carolina ), highveld , used in South Africa and Roof of the World , used for Tibet . The central Afghan highlands are in the center of Afghanistan , mostly located between 2,000 and 3,000 m above sea level. They have a very cold winter, and a short and cool summer. These highlands have mountain pastures during summer ( sardsīr ), watered by many small streams and rivers. There are also pastures available during winter in

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336-514: The natural environment . The NCA covers an area of 107,902 hectares (416.61 sq mi) and measure around 50 kilometres (31 mi) from west to east and north to south. The dominant pattern of the hills is a series of southwest to northeast ridges, scarps and valleys. They are characterized by steep, rounded 'whaleback' hills, often crowned with open moorland, with woodland dressing the steeper slopes. There are scattered farms in dales and sheltering in valleys; larger settlements being confined to

364-532: The 12,000 square miles of European settled land, 7,000 consisted of former Masai grazing grounds abandoned under agreements between 1904 and 1913, and large parts of remaining areas, such as the Uasin Gishu plateau, were uninhabited. British officials also alienated land from other tribes, whom the Maasai had pushed to woodlands on the fringes of the Highlands. These tribes practised shifting cultivation , resulting in large areas of land remaining abandoned for

392-464: The Highlands were primarily inhabited by nomadic pastoralists and this absence of settled agrarian communities allowed British officials to describe the region as uninhabited. At the time, the African population was distributed between cultivating tribes and pastoralist people. The cultivating tribes existed mainly in the high rainfall areas of Nyanza and the slopes at the foot of Mount Kenya such as

420-471: The Protectorate, encouraged settlement of the Highlands for farming. Commissioner Eliot, a leading critic of building the railway, believed the only way to recoup the money spent on its construction was by opening up the Highlands for farming. In his view, only European settlers and agriculture could develop the region and generate the necessary funds to support the colonial administration. Eliot's view

448-611: The Stretton Valley and A49 corridor. Roughly a half of the NCA lies within the Shropshire Hills AONB . In addition, the region contains two Special Areas of Conservation (The Stiperstones & The Hollies SAC; Downton Gorge SAC) and a national nature reserve (The Stiperstones NNR) as well as 73 Sites of Special Scientific Interest , the latter totalling 4,893 hectares (12,090 acres). Its major watercourses are

476-490: The cool climate and absence of populations over large swathes of the Highlands, made it a uniquely attractive area for European settlement in sub-tropical Africa. In 1893, the explorer Frederick Lugard , whilst lobbying for a railway in East Africa, noted that European settlement in the region was not feasible until the cooler Highlands were made accessible. This view was echoed by Sir Harry Johnston who, on completion of

504-653: The endemic vertebrates are restricted to this ecoregion. The highlands of Iceland cover about 40% of the country and are mostly inhospitable to humans. They are generally considered to be any land above 500 m. The mountainous natural region of the Thai highlands is found in Northern Thailand. The Cameron Highlands is a highland area and hill station in Northern Malaysia. Shillong in India in

532-519: The famine, the Kikuyu had been buying up parcels of land in the frontier for individual holdings. As had happened in colonies in North America, when British officials later began paying the Kikuyu for that land, they were acquiring the land freehold under colonial law. However, the Kikuyu were allowed to believe the British were only renting the land until the Kikuyu wished to reclaim it in future, because

560-605: The island of New Guinea, forming the densely populated highlands of Papua New Guinea , and the Highland Papua , Indonesia . The Central Highlands of Sri Lanka are rain forests, where the elevation reaches 2,500 m (8,200 ft) above sea level. The Sri Lanka montane rain forests represent the montane and submontane moist forests above 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in the central highlands and in the Knuckles mountain range . Half of Sri Lanka's endemic flowering plants and 51 percent of

588-575: The neighboring warm lowlands ( garmsīr ), which makes the region ideal for seasonal transhumance . The highlands in Australia are often above the elevation of 500 m. These areas often receive snowfall in winter. Most of the highlands lead up to large alpine or sub-alpine mountainous regions such as the Australian Alps , Snowy Mountains , Great Dividing Range , Northern Tablelands and Blue Mountains . The most mountainous region of Tasmania

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616-720: The north they are bounded by the Shropshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire Plain, to the east by the Severn Valley and Mid Severn Sandstone Plateau , to the southeast by Knighton and the Teme Valley and to the southwest by the Clun and North West Herefordshire Hills. The Shropshire Hills are listed as Natural Area No. 42 and also as National Character Area 65 by Natural England , the UK Government's advisor on

644-589: The rivers Corve , Onny , Severn and Teme and the Ledwyche and Rea brooks. The average elevation is 84 metres (276 ft); the highest point is Brown Clee Hill at 540 metres (1,770 ft). Significant summits in the Shropshire Hills include: 52°31′19″N 2°43′08″W  /  52.522°N 2.719°W  / 52.522; -2.719 Highland Probably the best-known area officially or unofficially referred to as highlands in

672-535: The state of Meghalaya is a hill station that is surrounded by highlands. Officers of the British Raj referred to Shillong as "The Scotland of the East". Highland continents —or terrae —are areas of topographically unstable terrain , with high peaks and valleys. They resemble highlands on Earth , but the term is applied to much larger areas on other planets. They can be found on Mercury , Venus , Mars , and

700-538: The term Highlands to refer to the region no less than 5,000 feet (1,524 m) above sea level, which was best suited climatically for the Europeans to reside. During the process of settlement, the term came to be used for the areas not already settled by local African tribes. As The Crown Lands Ordinance of 1902 permitted land grants only to Europeans, the Highlands came to mean only the lands Europeans could own and manage. To many early explorers and administrators,

728-690: The transaction had not followed native customs. This difference in cultural understandings of land tenure was a contributing factor in the Mau Mau Rebellion . The reservation of the White Highlands for Europeans by administrative practice was ended by the Land Control Regulations in 1961. Initially the region was not clearly defined, instead lying between two points on the railway track, namely Kiu and Fort Ternan , and later from Sultan Hamud to Kibigori . It

756-578: Was not until 1939 that the boundaries were defined in the 7th Schedule to The Crown Lands Ordinance under authority of the Kenya (Highlands) Order in Council , 1939 . The Order also established a Highlands Board with a majority elected by the Legislative Council to advise and make recommendations on the disposal of land in the region. Today, the region is at the heart of Kenya's economy. It

784-461: Was supported by pioneer settlers such as The 3rd Baron Delamere and Ewart Grogan, who believed that they had a civilising mission to transform the entire country into a modern industrialised "White Man's Country". By 1903 there were about 100 European settlers in the Highlands. A large proportion of the settlers hailed from South Africa including 280 Boers from the Transvaal who settled in

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