Empire - The Mission
After
the recent successes in evangelizing and modernizing Africa without any major
problem, the Clapham Sect asked the Parliament to allow missionaries into India.
This permission was granted in 1813, and many British were sent to convert the Muslims
and Hindus. At first, a culture shock occurred in Inida when the missionaries
discovered some of their cruel and inhumane traditions like killing baby girls
and burning widows alive to honor their death husbands. The British put a lot
of effort trying to abolish these activities.
The
people in India were really united with their religions; it’s a mayor part of
their lifestyle and will never convert to another culture. The British noticed
this and decided to make a more delicate approach: they created an army of
sepoys (Muslims, Hindus, etc.).
This
was going well, it was a good plan to get familiarized with the Indians, for
them to get used to the British, until rumors appeared of pork and beef used in
the sepoys’ rifles. This created controversy between the Indians and formed a
mutiny that killed most of the missionaries and British in the region. The
British decided to go back for vengeance, and brutally executed many more Indians.
David
Livingstone thought this mutiny was caused because of the slow and weak efforts
of evangelization. He decided to continue with his own project of Christianity,
commerce and civilization, but failed in the commerce aspect when he discovered
that the Zambezi River wasn’t suitable for commerce as it was not navigable
when encountering some rapids, and it is inhabitable because of malaria
mosquitoes.
When
he disappeared and was presumed death, he seemed to fail completely in his
project, as the slave trade was ongoing. It was finally eradicated in 1873,
when the British made a pact with the Africans begging to abolish it.
Later,
the American journalist Henry Morton Stanley went on a 6 month journey to find
Livingstone. He did eventually, and told him about the long-term positive
effects he caused. He might not had established a commerce route, but did
convert and civilize the Africans. His legacy left many churches and cathedrals
built in the region; but how did the African Christianization went so smoothly
compared to the Indian? This is because the Americans decided to colonize
Africa and continue with Livingstone’s legacy, but not with his kind and slow
methods, but with brute force and conquest. This made Africa the Christian country
it is today.
