History

Prehistory

Earlier in prehistoric times, fossils were found in Kenya from primates that roamed around 20 million years ago. The residents indicated in the area of ​​Lake Turkana that hominids like Homo habilis (1.8 and 2.5 million years ago) and Homo erectus (1.9 million to 350,000 years ago) are possible direct ancestors of the modern Homo sapiens and lived in Kenya during the Ice Age.

Sultan's, Swahili and Islam

In the 1st century AD, many cities such as Mombasa started trading with the Arabs. Thus growth grew in states with many Swahili's, a group of Muslim Arabs. This is how the spread of Islam in Kenya started and of course for Swahili this is a big step. Arabs began to influence the Swahili, languages, culture, etc. People believed that the Swahili city states were founded by Arab and Persian traders, but now they have discovered that they were created by the great development of those years.

Over a short period of time, the sultanate spread to the coast of Kenya where the Swahili city states are, including Kenya itself. The founder of the sultanate was Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi, a Persian sultan. He wanted to introduce mosques and copper coins. The Swahili have turned Mombasa into a major important port city for trade with Arabia and Persia and also India.

British Empire

In 1887, the Imperial British East Africa Company (the East African British colony), 200 kilometers off the coast of Kenya, was then owned by a Sultanate. They also got that, 200, 16 kilometers landward land. The government of the United Kingdom was given control and responsibility for that area due to financial problems. The United Kingdom has thus split with the United Kingdom and British East Africa. In 1902 the territories of the British were extended to the border with Uganda, and in 1920 British-East Africa was a crown colony without the coast. The population did not agree with the plans of the British. Many Brits went to live in the area that obtained British East Africa. The British also arranged for the train to enter Kenya. The first railway in Kenya was built in 1895. The track ran from Mombasa to Kisumu. Kisumu is the third largest city in Kenya, and lies to the east. The British governor had more and more railways built, from Nairobi to Thika and from Konza to Magadi. Because they are not enough men to build railways, they have just brought 30,000 workers from the British Indies to Kenya. A majority of these 30,000 continued to live there.

The new white settlers also wanted more power. But the governor still had the most power over the area. The settlers wanted Kenya to turn into a crown colony so that they could gain more power. That also happened in 1920. The parliament gained more power as a result, but it only consisted of white people. Black people were not allowed in because of skin color, and that is racism. In 1944 black people were allowed to go to parliament again.

Independence

The Mau Mau uprising began from 1952 to 1956. Mau Mau is a guerrilla movement. These were against the occupation of the British colonies. The British have already killed 400 supporters of the movement. The nationalists increasingly called for elections and said: "a man a voice". European and Asian residents of Kenya who only have a few percent of the population did not want elections. An agreement was nevertheless concluded in 1960 and elections were held. In the run-up to the elections, the Kenyan African National Union (KANU) was formed under the leadership of James S. Gichuru and union leader Tom Mboya. A split within the party led to the formation of the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) led by R. Ngala and M. Muliro. KANU eventually won, so the nationalists. Under the leadership of KANU, successful students were able to go to the US to study at the university. Because there was none at the time in Kenya. But John F. Kennedy wanted to finance so that Kenya could eventually have a university. Someone who also participated in the project was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai, also from Kenya. In May 1964 elections were again held, which also won the KANU and won the government. Kenya became independent from the United Kingdom on December 12, 1963. Kenya became a republic in 1964. Kenyatta became prime minister, but in 1964 the first president of the Republic of Kenya. Most (white) settlers left the country and were bought out by the British. An Indian majority of 120,000 of 176,000 men also left the country, most of whom had a British passport.