Imperial British East Africa Company

Kenya, 1888–1895. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) was a commercial association founded to develop African trade in the areas controlled by the British Empire. The company was incorporated in London on 18 April 1888 and granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria on 6 September 1888. The IBEAC oversaw an area of about 246,800 square miles (639,000 km2) along the eastern coast of Africa (from modern-day Somalia to modern-day Kenya). In 1893 the IBEAC transferred its administration rights of the territory to the British Government.

Seat of power: Mombasa

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

• Mombasa and its harbour were central to its operations, with an administrative office about 50 miles (80 km) south in Shimoni.
• The main role of the IBEAC was to begin facilitating the construction of a railway connecting the east coast region of Mombasa to Lake Victoria.
• The company employed James Macdonald assisted by John Wallace Pringle, both officers in the Royal Engineers, to undertake the survey in 1891–1892.

Picture

Fort Jesus is a fort on Mombasa Island, built between 1593 and 1596 by order of King Felipe II of Spain to guard the Old Port of Mombasa.

Image: Maingi030, CC BY-SA 4.0, file

Sources

• Imperial British East Africa Company (Wikipedia)
• Imperial British East Africa Company (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.