The Savage Wars: British Campaigns in Africa, 1870-1920

by Lawrence James

With the exception of the Boer War of 1899-1902, the campaigns of the British conquest of Africa are little known today. Lawrence James's vivid study of the period 1870-1920 sees the expansion of the empire as a triumph of technology combined with ideological fervor whipped up in the public by politicians. But it was not an easy triumph, and the book gives due account to dissention at home and the degree of military opposition encountered along 'the far flung battle line'. The Savage Wars also shows how Africa was conquered and at what cost, through the experiences of those men who fought to push forward the frontiers of the new empire.

Drawing on many previously unpublished official and private records, the author describes in fascinating detail the excitement of battle and the humdrum life of the campaigning soldier. Highly illustrated with contemporary photographs, The Savage Wars examines every aspect of fifty years of imperial conquest and is a valuable contribution to an important historical and political debate.

Genres: History, Africa, British Literature, Military Fiction

297 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Edwin James Lawrence, most commonly known as Lawrence James, is an English historian and writer.

James graduated with a BA in English & History from the University of York in 1966, and subsequently undertook a research degree at Merton College, Oxford. Following a career as a teacher, James became a full-time writer in 1985.

James has written several works of popular history about the British Empire, and has contributed pieces for Daily Mail, The Times and the Literary Review.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the 1870s until the early 1920s, the British empire waged a series of small wars throughout Africa. Though each was the product of local circumstances and determined by particular factors that differed as a result, they were united by the common goal of Britain’s expansion of their presence on the continent. By their end the Union Jack flew over nearly two million square miles of African territory, stretching from Egypt in the north to Cape Horn in the south, and from its possessions in west Africa to British Somaliland in the east. Conquering these territories came at a cost in blood, one that Lawrence James recounts in his book. In it he describes the span of these wars, from the campaigns against the Zulus in the 1870s to the hunt for Mohammad Abdallah Hassan in Somalia after the First World War. It’s one that not only recounts the events of these various campaigns, but describes as well the lives of the men who participated in them.

James divides his book into the three parts. In the first and longest of these, he provides a summary of these wars, from their causes to their conclusions. These pages offer a standard military history of events, one recounted from the British perspective. While he makes an effort to incorporate that of the Africans into his narrative, he is constrained somewhat by the limits of his sources. Because of this, his book is very much a British-centric account, and some biases filter through because of this. The second part of the book doubles down on this by describing the experience of battle for British soldiers. Making good use of his sources, he provides a strong sense of what the experience of combat was like for the average soldier, as well as what they thought of their opponents.

This serves as an effective bridge to the final section of James’s book, which describes the lives of the British soldiers on campaign, and how those campaigns were conducted. This is by far the best section of the book, as he does a fine job of relating what the everyday experiences were for the men. While they served in a variety of locations over nearly a half century, the challenges they faced were often the same: a harsh environment, limited supplies, and much hard marching against elusive foes. James notes as well the contrast in suffering among the ranks, as he recounts they myriad ways in which the officers mitigated their suffering through the modern luxuries they brought with them, which contributed to the attitude many of them took of campaigning as little more than an extended hunting party.

These chapters make James’s book well worth reading. While narrower in scope than other surveys of Britain’s imperial conflicts, its well-illustrated mix of military and social history provide added depth to one aspect of how the British built their empire in Africa. More could have been done to balance out this coverage by incorporating the Africans’ perspective on these invasions and conquests, yet even in this respect James’s book is an improvement on predecessors such as Byron Farwell’s Queen Victoria's Little Wars. As a starting point for Britain’s wars during the “scramble for Africa,” a reader could do worse.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m currently on a temporary trial of the Kindle Unlimited service, and this is one of the books available. It was first published in 1985.

The book is divided into 3 parts, with the first being a narrative of the wars in the British fought in different regions of Africa. We start with southern Africa, where control over the Cape of Good Hope was important for a maritime power such as Great Britain. There’s a description of the wars against the Zulu and Matabele kingdoms, and of course the British Empire’s conflicts with the Boer republics. The book examines the reasons as to why the Empire sought to expand beyond the Cape Colony.

If there was one part of Africa more important to Britain than the Cape, it was Egypt and the Suez Canal, the shortest sea route to India. Again, control of Egypt drew the British into a war against the Mahdist regime in neighbouring Sudan, which had previously been an Egyptian province. The book then moves on to describe the conflicts involved in creating the British colonies in parts of West Africa and East Africa.

One striking feature of British imperialism was the major role taken by the private sector. Large parts of Africa were initially occupied by trading companies who were expected to cover their military and administrative costs from their profits. Zimbabwe and Zambia were basically created by Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company. Most of what is now Nigeria came under the control of the Royal Niger Company, funded by the lucrative palm oil trade, whilst on the other side of the continent were the Imperial British East Africa Company and the African Lakes Company, though these last two struggled due to lack of commercial opportunities. This pattern of private sector influence was of course replicated in other parts of the Empire.

The book’s second part looks at the nature of colonial warfare in Africa. Both the Zulu Kingdom and the Mahdist state could put large armies into the field. The British forces were much smaller but of course they could bring overwhelming firepower to bear. Many African societies had firearms but they were generally single shot muskets. It’s not quoted in the book, but the issue was neatly summed up in a ditty by the writer Hilaire Belloc:

Whatever happens
We have got
The Maxim gun
And they have not

In the initial phase of conquest, African generals made the mistake of sending massed warriors to attack the British across open ground, and in most cases they did not get within 200 yards of the British lines. Later, African leaders changed to guerrilla type tactics, that were much more effective. Interestingly the author suggests that during the Boer war the situation was reversed. It was British generals who sent their troops on frontal attacks against a hail of bullets from Afrikaners who had taken up strong defensive positions, and it was the British who had to adapt.

Part 3 looks at daily life for the troops sent to Africa, and the differences between officers and men.

I would say that this is a competent and workmanlike history, and a very readable one. Arguably though the subject is covered more comprehensively in other books on the subject, and in some aspects scholarship has moved on since the mid-1980s.