Abstract
AT the anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Monday, the medals and other honours already announced in NATURE were awarded. Dr. Radde, of Tiflis, appeared in person to receive his medal, which he acknowledged briefly and appreciatively. The address of the President, General Strachey, was of more than usual interest. After referring to the geographical events of the year, he took up the subject of Central Africa, its future exploration, and its subjection to the commercial and civilizing influence of Europe. General Strachey reviewed the results of European contact with the various other parts of the world, savage and semi-civilized. “There is no room to doubt,” he said, “that the occupation of the earth by man in the many various modes presented to us has been determined mainly by the physical conditions of the surface, the distribution of land and sea, and the nature of the climate, operating in conjunction with the particular inherited capacities of the several branches of the human race, which have themselves been largely determined by these same physical conditions. The diffusion of races, and their more or less permanent occupation of various parts of the earth, have necessarily been regulated by their relative powers of adapting themselves to, and taking advantage of, the facilities for existence offered by the regions they occupied, and of resisting adverse pressure of all sorts brought to bear upon them from without. Among the best safeguards against that form of pressure which consists of the intrusion of other races, have ever been isolation by the ocean, or by high mountains, great land distances, forests and deserts; aid hence it has been that the interiors of the great continents have for the most part been last explored, and their inhabitants least disturbed. As the first of these defences was weakened by the development of the art of navigation, the progressive races of Europe hegan to seek for fresh scope for their activities in many distant regions, thus for the first time rendered accessible to them. From very small beginnings within the Mediterranean, which for several centuries gained strength only by slow degrees at length burst forth some 400 years ago the stream of conquest and commercial adventure which has in our time been carried across every part of the ocean; and has beaten on all its shores, throwing open an infinitude of lines of attack for the inroads of European progress upon regions previously resting in various conditions of relatively primitive stagnation.” “General Strachey then, in a highly suggestive manner, reviewed the methods and results of European conquest or European civilization in North, Central, and South America, Australasia, India, China, North Africa and South Africa, and, coming finally to Central Africa, he pointed out that the conditions there were peculiar and required peculiar treatment. “The vast area of tropical Africa,” he said, “its climate, often so hostile to Europeans, and the numbers and character of the population, combined with the peculiar difficulties attending all transport in the interior, have retarded the progress of geographical discovery, and obstructed that intercommunication between neighbouring districts which supplies the natural machinery by which the progress of the less advanced races is carried forward. It is impossible to suppose that the impression to be made on these cauntries by the mare handful of men of northern race who are now scattered along its coasts or at a few points in its interior, can be anything but extremely slow, and it is hardly less certain that under the wholly different conditions that Central Africa presents from those of any other country hitherto brought within the operation of the process of civilization, the form which that process will take, and its results, will be very different from anything that past experience can suggest. The possibility of any colonization by direct immigration on such a scale as to produce effects in any way analogous to those obtained in North America or Australia is obviously excluded; the condition of the people over the greater part of the continent renders it equally impossible to look forward to a time when systems of administration at all approaching that of India could be established; and amalgamation between European settlers and the indigenous races appears no less out of the question. The operation of bringing a population such as that of Central Africa under the restraints of civilizition will necessarily be a long and no doubt in some respects a painful one, for assuredly the conflict with slavery, cannibalism, and massacre cannot be carried to a successful issue by gentle means alone. The dangers that attend precipitation, with consequent reaction, have been already exemplified too plainly, and by the sacrifice of too many noble lives; and in circumstances such as those that here have to be dealt with, toleration of unavoidable evil at the outset may well afford the best and most certain means of introducing permanent improvement. Nor can I see any reason to question the conclusion that the best method of entering on this gigantic task is that which the general sense of Europe has practically resolved to adopt—namely, to form commercial associations intrusted with the exercise of reasonable administrative authority within the several areas assigned to them, hoping that thus the African population may by degrees be taught that the path to social and material comfort and well-being lies through well ordered industry and peaceful occupations; in imparting which lessons the earnest co-opcation of the many purely philanthropic missions already established among these people may be most confidently counted on.”
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Geographical Notes. Nature 40, 110 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/040110a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/040110a0