Catherine II

Before the age of European imperialism in Africa, the interior of the continent was all but unknown to European civilization. Prior to the colonial interests of the major European nations, the age of exploration in Africa opened up many parts of the continent's interior. Numerous expeditions, notably those of Dr. David Livingstone, Sir Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke, Heinrich Barth, de Brazza, and Sir Henry Stanley, facilitated the rapid colonization of Africa by making known …

…interior of Africa by their countrymen. Even Dr. David Livingstone told his assistants in the Zambezi expedition to remember that they went among the river's tribes "as members of a superior race and servants of a Government that desires to elevate the more degraded portions of the human family."[Christopher Hibbert, pg. 426] They opened Africa to European civilization, creating a new source of conflict that would contribute to the conflict that was World War One.