The development of steam-powered ships greatly assisted European powers that sought to extend their empires in Africa and Asia. Europeans had enjoyed a virtual monopoly on sea travel since the first imperial expansion began in the 1500s, but this only extended to the coasts. European ships were too awkward to travel inland via the river systems in their empires. Therefore, even great seafaring nations like the Portuguese were often limited to coastal colonial possessions in Africa. American historian Jared Diamond famously coined the phrase “Guns, Germs, and Steel” to explain why European civilizations conquered the Amerindian peoples in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Steel steamships (and other technologies) helped European empires expand inland in Africa and Asia; and once quinine had been discovered, exploration of the former continent was made much easier. Nonetheless, it cannot be forgotten that much of this exploration was done at the point of a gun; and once Europeans had staked their claims to territory, their advanced weaponry helped to secure the land for decades to come.
Explanation:
Improvements in steam power in the early nineteenth century enabled such river
travel, helping Europeans travel inland to expand their empires. Smaller, more powerful
engines allowed smaller boats to travel against the current with more success. Soon,
European empires – chiefly the British – launched steamships in the direction of Asia.
The British East India Company, for instance, used steam ships in their war against the
Kingdom of Burma in 1824, which was fought chiefly along the rivers.
The chief improvement in weaponry that affected European imperial ventures
was the refinement of the gun. Guns were not new to Africans, as they had been used
in North Africa since the sixteenth century. In Algeria, for instance, the people often
made their own guns, while the rich traders on the sub-Saharan coast bought cheap –
but easily repaired – European weapons. Yet, as Europeans moved further inland in
Africa, they encountered fewer people with guns. Their opponents were more likely to
carry swords and shields and charge out from castles than to employ guns and
ammunition. Even so, around the turn of the nineteenth century, most European
soldiers still fought with a musket, which was notoriously inaccurate and took a long
time to reload. It was often more effective to use the musket as a pike than as a gun.
This handicap was overcome through several new technologies developed over the
course of the nineteenth century.
