Imperialism in Sierra Lione

The Industrial Revolution brought an immense amount of beneficial goods especially in Britain. It started in 1750 and brought goods such as new textiles and even different sources of energy including coal which could power factories and trains. Factory owners would make a huge profit as a result. In the making of this immense amount money, something about it has to be unethical. They would endorse child labor and have very little pay. The children that worked had a very short life span. John Fielden, a former factory worker once stated, Only a few of them are alive now; but many of those have died off before they attained the age of fifty, having the appearance of much older, (Fielden 1). England was prospering, but was cruel on the children making it happen.

Now in Sierra Leone, Africa, there was no advanced technology as there was in Britain. It was inhabited by simple native African people. The only connection they had to the outside was trade. A group of European traders landed in a place where present-day Freetown is located. Freetown was established in 1787. It is located near the Sierra Leone coast.The Africans welcomed these Europeans for the goods that they brought to trade for ivory and yes, slaves. Now the reason Freetown came to be was because it was the place where slaves, mostly from England, made a settlement. England found out about it, colonized it, and made it a slave trade base.

Besides the slavery aspect, the British brought some positive things to Sierra Leone. Great Britain educated the Sierra Leoneans and Sierra became the educational center of British West Africa. The British were making colossal profit with the slave trade until the British Parliament made slave trade illegal in 1807. After that Sierra turned from a slave base to one of Great Britain's largest naval bases in the South Atlantic. At the base, the British would free slaves and move them to the base where they could be safe. According to a report from Britannica, Between 1807 and 1864, when the last slave ship case was adjudicated in the Freetown courts, the British navy brought in more than 50,000 recaptives, also known as liberated Africans, (Fyfe 1).

That is a major accomplishment for the British, and the Africans. England after all, wasn't so bad. Many countries didn't agree with Britain it was costing them. At Freetown, the British educated and taught the freed Africans about christianity. They even made universities and and schools for kids. Some of them would grow to become lawyers and doctors! After the Berlin Conference took place in 1884, now European countries were taking over Africa. England took about 32 percent of Africa.

During that period, Great Britain took over Sierra Leone and officially made it a state in 1896 making it a protectorate. Because they declared this, the administration for it has to be paid so a hut tax was formed. Many people were upset, like tribe leaders and chiefs so some of them tried to revolt in 1989. It didn't even last that whole year.

After Britain's protectorate over Sierra Leone, they were lacking more interest than ever. Trying to expand education and innovation started to decline. Some chiefs would go back to having a small amount of power but under British supervision. Some of these chiefs got delusional and thought they could govern themselves one day. As always, the British shut them down and they would be the primary government.

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