Jianchuan Chi

Jianchuan Chi

May 05, 2026

British East Africa Company, Chartered company, William Mackinnon, Sultanate of Zanzibar.

Founded in 1888, the British East Africa Company was one of the four major chartered companies through which Britain extended its colonial rule in Africa during the late 19th century. However, existing scholarship—both domestic and international—has thus far failed to develop a systematic and unified framework for understanding the complex motivations behind its establishment. This paper argues that its origins can be traced to four overlapping historical processes: the historical inertia of British informal control over the Sultanate of Zanzibar and the East African coast, the need to defend critical imperial trade routes through the Suez Canal and Indian Ocean, the intense competitive pressures generated by the great powers’ scramble for Africa, and the personal initiative of influential figures such as William Mackinnon, who bridged the worlds of politics and business. Together, these forces precipitated the unexpected resurgence of the chartered company as a viable colonial tool. The company’s creation thus emerged from the intricate interplay between imperial state interests and private capital accumulation, embodying the distinctive patterns of colonial expansion in the era of monopoly capitalism.

© 2026, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

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