Matches in DBpedia 2014 for { ?s ?p Sierra Leone assumed its present large geographical size only in 1896. Prior to that, it was only a small colony encompassing roughly the 30-km-long peninsula on which Freetown is located. Initially, the British and Creoles (freed slaves and their descendents) of the Freetown colony had only a very limited involvement in the affairs of the African kingdoms around them; such as it was, it consisted mostly of trading and missionary activity. Over the course of the 19th century this involvement gradually increased. The colonial government was, in particular, interested in fostering trade as this provided it with its main source of revenue, in the form of customs duties and other taxes. This inevitably drew it into engagement with the African kingdoms, mainly by making treaties with the kingdoms or sending military expeditions against them.The treaties usually committed an African chief to protect merchants and maintain peaceful relations with his neighbours so that trade would not be disturbed; in return, the British would pay him a gift or annual stipend. The military expeditions were against chiefs who acted detrimentally to the colony's business interests by evicting traders, by restricting trade, or by warring with neighbours. After the Slave Trade Act 1807 abolition, the Government also began pressing the chiefs, by treaty or force, to refrain from slaving. Since the inter-chiefdom wars were mostly slave-procuring wars, or otherwise intimately connected with slave trading, suppression of the slave trade and promotion of the "legitimate" trade in other produce were closely related — a reduction in inter-chiefdom war being a key to both.To the commercial and anti slave-trade motives behind the British state's incursions into the Sierra Leone hinterland can be added two others: the personal ambition of military officers posted to Sierra Leone who needed battle victories to enhance their reputations; and British feelings of cultural superiority: it was assumed that Europeanising natives was a proper and upright activity.. }
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- British–Creole_intervention_in_the_Sierra_Leone_hinterland_in_the_19th_century abstract "Sierra Leone assumed its present large geographical size only in 1896. Prior to that, it was only a small colony encompassing roughly the 30-km-long peninsula on which Freetown is located. Initially, the British and Creoles (freed slaves and their descendents) of the Freetown colony had only a very limited involvement in the affairs of the African kingdoms around them; such as it was, it consisted mostly of trading and missionary activity. Over the course of the 19th century this involvement gradually increased. The colonial government was, in particular, interested in fostering trade as this provided it with its main source of revenue, in the form of customs duties and other taxes. This inevitably drew it into engagement with the African kingdoms, mainly by making treaties with the kingdoms or sending military expeditions against them.The treaties usually committed an African chief to protect merchants and maintain peaceful relations with his neighbours so that trade would not be disturbed; in return, the British would pay him a gift or annual stipend. The military expeditions were against chiefs who acted detrimentally to the colony's business interests by evicting traders, by restricting trade, or by warring with neighbours. After the Slave Trade Act 1807 abolition, the Government also began pressing the chiefs, by treaty or force, to refrain from slaving. Since the inter-chiefdom wars were mostly slave-procuring wars, or otherwise intimately connected with slave trading, suppression of the slave trade and promotion of the "legitimate" trade in other produce were closely related — a reduction in inter-chiefdom war being a key to both.To the commercial and anti slave-trade motives behind the British state's incursions into the Sierra Leone hinterland can be added two others: the personal ambition of military officers posted to Sierra Leone who needed battle victories to enhance their reputations; and British feelings of cultural superiority: it was assumed that Europeanising natives was a proper and upright activity.".