When did British Africa exist?

British Africa existed 1885–1960. On this map it is drawn 1885–1960.

How large was British Africa?

At its greatest extent drawn on this map, British Africa covered about 13 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Africa · Conquest and colonial rule

British Africa

Colonial possessions · 1885–1960

"British Africa" denotes the African territories of the British Empire, the largest empire in history. At its peak around 1920 the empire covered 35.5 million km² (24% of Earth's land) and ruled over 412 million people; its African holdings—spanning Egypt and Sudan in the north to the Cape in the south—reached roughly 12.5 million km², more than a third of the continent, making Britain the largest colonial power in Africa.

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Type: Colonial possessions
Existed: 1885–1960
Shown on the map: 1885–1960
Peak area: 12.5M km²
Region: Africa

Overview

History

Britain's African involvement began with West African slave-trade forts (James Island, Accra, Bunce Island) and the Royal African Company's slave monopoly from 1672; British ships carried about 3.5 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic before Parliament abolished the slave trade in 1807 and slavery itself in 1834. The Cape Colony was seized from the Dutch in 1806, and Sierra Leone became a colony for freed slaves in 1808. The great expansion came with the Scramble for Africa after 1884: protectorates and colonies were established across the Gold Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia in the west; Kenya, Uganda, Zanzibar (1890), and British Somaliland (1884) in the east; and Bechuanaland, the Rhodesias, and Nyasaland in the south-central interior. Egypt was occupied in 1882 after the Urabi revolt, and the Sudan was reconquered in 1896–98 (Omdurman) as the Anglo-Egyptian condominium. The Second Boer War (1899–1902) absorbed the Boer republics, leading to the Union of South Africa (1910), a self-governing dominion. Cecil Rhodes's "Cape to Cairo" vision was nearly realized after World War I, when Tanganyika and parts of Kamerun and Togoland became British mandates.

African colonies were governed through a mix of direct rule and "indirect rule" via local chiefs (systematized by Lugard in Nigeria), with white-settler colonies like Kenya and Southern Rhodesia developing entrenched settler minorities. Colonial economies extracted gold (South Africa, Gold Coast), cocoa, cotton, copper, and other raw materials, built railways and ports, and relied on taxation and coerced labor; Christian missions spread Western education and Christianity alongside indigenous and Muslim societies. African soldiers served in both world wars.

Decline and legacy

After 1945, decolonization swept the continent: Ghana (1957) led sub-Saharan independence, and Harold Macmillan's 1960 "Wind of Change" speech marked the flood—Nigeria, Somalia, Tanganyika, Uganda, Kenya, and others followed through the 1960s; Rhodesia's UDI (1965) delayed Zimbabwe's majority rule until 1980, and South Africa left the Commonwealth in 1961, ending apartheid only in 1994. Nearly all former British African territories joined the Commonwealth of Nations; the English language, common-law systems, and Westminster-derived institutions remain the empire's enduring African legacy, alongside contested borders and memories of colonial violence (e.g., the Mau Mau emergency).

Common questions

What was British Africa?: "British Africa" denotes the African territories of the British Empire, the largest empire in history. At its peak around 1920 the empire covered 35.5 million km² (24% of Earth's land) and ruled over 412 million people; its African holdings—spanning Egypt and Sudan in the north to the Cape in the south—reached roughly 12.5 million km², more than a third of the continent, making Britain the largest colonial power in Africa.
When did British Africa exist?: British Africa existed 1885–1960. On this map it is drawn 1885–1960.
How large was British Africa?: At its greatest extent drawn on this map, British Africa covered about 13 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Who ruled British Africa?: Britain's African involvement began with West African slave-trade forts (James Island, Accra, Bunce Island) and the Royal African Company's slave monopoly from 1672; British ships carried about 3.5 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic before Parliament abolished the slave trade in 1807 and slavery itself in 1834. The Cape Colony was seized from the Dutch in 1806, and Sierra Leone became a colony for freed slaves in 1808.
How did British Africa end?: After 1945, decolonization swept the continent: Ghana (1957) led sub-Saharan independence, and Harold Macmillan's 1960 "Wind of Change" speech marked the flood—Nigeria, Somalia, Tanganyika, Uganda, Kenya, and others followed through the 1960s; Rhodesia's UDI (1965) delayed Zimbabwe's majority rule until 1980, and South Africa left the Commonwealth in 1961, ending apartheid only in 1994.

Sources

Every source below was consulted while writing this entry.

Wikipedia — British Empire en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

This entry was written from the sources above and last updated 10 September 2026.

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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