Tools of Empire: Steamships, Quinine and the Maxim Gun

Technology helps explain why European conquest of Africa's interior came in the late 19th century rather than earlier. Malaria had made much of tropical Africa deadly for European newcomers, but in 1854 an expedition up the Niger led by William Baikie used regular doses of quinine and lost no men to fever. Shallow-draft steamboats could travel up rivers such as the Niger and Congo, while railways and the telegraph moved troops and orders quickly.

Breech-loading rifles and the Maxim machine gun, invented by Hiram Maxim in 1884, gave small colonial armies devastating firepower. The historian Daniel Headrick called these the 'tools of empire. ' Technology did not guarantee victory, however: African states also bought modern rifles, and Ethiopia defeated Italy in 1896. Technology lowered the cost of conquest, which made the decision to expand easier.