Contacts with the Outside World: Trade and Christian Missionaries

Syllabus tag: KCSE | History and Government | Form 1 | Topic 8 Contacts: Trade and Missionaries

Lesson objectives

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

• Describe local, regional and long distance trade in East Africa.
• Explain the organisation and effects of the long distance and international trade.
• Explain the causes, course and abolition of the slave trade.
• Describe the coming of Christian missionaries and assess their impact.

Summary

East Africa's trade grew from local barter through regional exchange to long distance trade between the coast and the interior, and to international trade across the Indian Ocean. It carried ivory, slaves and gold outward and cloth, beads and guns inward. The slave trade was abolished in stages during the nineteenth century, and Christian missionaries arrived from the 1840s.