1903 office (1 risultati)

Very good. Mounted on linen. Folds into original slipcase. Size 21 x 29 Inches. This is a 1903 British Ordnance Survey / War Office folding map of Boran, today the northeastern portion of Kenya bordering Ethiopia and Somalia. It was made during the 'Scramble for Africa,' when European colonial powers rushed to occupy and claim territory. However, the harsh climate and resistance of local pastoralists to outside rule meant the region long remained a distant frontier to imperial powers. A Closer Look Depicting a large portion of what is now northeastern Kenya, the depicted area stretches along the eastern shore of Lake Turkana (here Lake Rudolf) and the northernmost reaches of the Kenyan Rift Valleys, roughly up to the modern borders between Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Lake Turkana was likely part of the Upper Nile system at one point historically but has been severed from it by changes in the landscape due to volcanic eruptions (animal species found along the Nile, such as the Nile crocodile, are abundant around Lake Turkana). Lake Suguta (here as Sugota) is a mostly dried up saline, alkaline lake, of which the remnant part is called Lake Logipi. The landscape is defined by mountains (with elevation provided here in feet) and sporadic water sources (marked by small circles with a 'W' next to them), essential for anyone attempting to survive in this environment. Fascinating detail is provided on the terrain and groups inhabiting or moving through different areas. The map and margins include some handwritten annotations, most notably the inclusion of 'Laikipia Post' towards bottom-left. A Frontier between Empires At the time of this map's production, Ethiopia (Abyssinia) maintained its independence and unity as a kingdom, though central authority was heavily contested by local rulers. Southern Somalia was ruled by the Sultanate of the Geledi, which had become an Italian protectorate the year before this map's publication and was later incorporated into Italian Somaliland (El Wak, towards bottom-right, today straddles the border between Kenya and Somalia). A region known for its unforgiving climate of active volcanoes, arid shrubland, and intense heat, several pastoralist groups (generally speakers of Nilotic or Cushitic languages) lived here, grazing flocks on the shrubland (the English name used here refers to the pastoralist Borana people). In the years before this map was made, pastoralist groups suffered tremendously due to epidemics. First, their cattle were decimated by bovine diseases that killed off the vast majority, then the herders experienced drought, famine, and smallpox, killing a large proportion of the Maasai population, for instance. A remote region even at the outset of the 19th century for the British colonials, traveling here was very dangerous. Both the climate and resistance by pastoralists to outside interference (at this time, Maasai were being displaced further to the south to create large estates for white settlers from South Africa) created a hostile environment. A note below the legend explains that none of the lands included on the map had been surveyed. Occasional expeditions by Europeans and Americans traversed these lands, most notably the one led by American physician Arthur Donaldson Smith in 1894 - 1895. Smith published an account of the trip in 1897 titled Through Unknown African Countries: the First Expedition from Somaliland to Lake Rudolf . The British only established a loose administration for the territory shown here in the 1910s and much of this region is now protected national parkland, though the pastoralists, who have consistently resisted government efforts at sedentarization, maintain grazing rights. British East Africa The British presence in East Africa came first in the form of missionaries, from the 1840s, and then commercial ventures in the 1880s. In that critical decade for African history, both the British and Germans set their eyes on the Sultanate of Zanzibar and the inte.