Britain’s Somali interest was solely the meat supply for Aden

Evidence

Britain’s interest in the Somali area stemmed from her possession of Aden which had been acquired by force in 1839 as a station on the short route to India. With its poverty in local resources, the Aden garrison was almost entirely dependent upon northern Somaliland for supplies of meat. There was also a considerable Somali community at Aden, many of whom found employment with the new rulers there. The Aden authorities and the Bombay government were thus directly concerned that orderly conditions should prevail on the Somali coast, and more especially that the feeder caravan routes from the interior, and the ports of Berbera and Zeila, should function freely. But although travellers like Burton and local officials at Aden might advocate a definite British occupation of the Somali coast, their plans fell on deaf ears in Westminster. The British government was only interested in Somaliland’s meat supply as a necessary ancillary to the garrisoning of Aden. Only if this were seriously threatened would any occupation of the Somali coast be justified. This attitude on the part of Whitehall towards the Somali coast, given different emphasis by different administrations in England, was still the guiding policy when events had driven Britain to establish a Somaliland Protectorate in 1887. This evaluation is also reflected in the character of the Anglo-Somali treaties of protection. It figures strongly in the negotiation of the 1897 treaty with Ethiopia, and it later bred a tradition of parsimony and neglect which dominated British action in her Somali Protectorate throughout most of its life. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 140 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

When Britain, not without reluctance, assumed Egypt’s place on the northern Somali coast, there was no intention of extending her dominion into the interior and hinterland. Britain’s interest was strictly limited to seeing that no hostile power held the shore opposite Aden and to ensuring that the Aden garrison’s meat supplies from the Somali coast were unhampered. The long-drawn out, costly, and unrewarding operations against the Dervishes, which were not by-products of any attempt to carry the British flag inland, caused the British government to assume greater responsibilities in Somaliland than had ever been foreseen and which were out of all proportion to Britain’s very secondary interest in this area. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 249 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Britain valued the Somaliland Protectorate mainly for Aden’s meat supply; Britain’s Somaliland involvement was purely a meat-provisioning auxiliary to Aden’s garrison — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 140; Britain’s Somaliland commitments ballooned far beyond its minimal original aims — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 249

Related

• Britain’s Somaliland involvement was purely a meat-provisioning auxiliary to Aden’s garrison (similarity 0.98)
• Britain valued the Somaliland Protectorate mainly for Aden’s meat supply (similarity 0.95)
• Britain’s Somaliland commitments ballooned far beyond its minimal original aims (similarity 0.90)
• Britain’s Somaliland empire grew as an unintended consequence of the Dervish war (similarity 0.88)
• Britain in 1897 nearly abandoned its Somaliland protectorate (similarity 0.86)
• British imperial strategy traded Somali protectorate treaties for trade access to Aden (similarity 0.84)
• Britain nearly abandoned its Somaliland Protectorate over cost concerns. (similarity 0.84)
• Britain relinquished the Protectorate almost unconditionally (similarity 0.83)
• British goodwill cheaply surrendered its Somaliland Protectorate in 1960. (similarity 0.81)
• Nominal Abyssinian pressure made Britain deem its Somali territory overextended. (similarity 0.79)
• Britain ceded 67,000 square miles of the Haud to Ethiopia in 1897 (similarity 0.79)
• The Dervish war left British Somaliland undeveloped and bitterly mistrustful (similarity 0.79)
• Britain obtained Ethiopian recognition of the Protectorate while ceding no Somali territory to Ethiopia (similarity 0.79)
• British miscalculation ignored population drift that pushed protected Somali into Ethiopia’s sphere (similarity 0.78)
• Frontier demarcation with Ethiopia first revealed Britain’s withdrawal of protection (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Britain’s Somaliland involvement was purely a meat-provisioning auxiliary to Aden’s garrison #corroborates (0.95) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 140
• Britain’s Somaliland commitments ballooned far beyond its minimal original aims #complicates (0.60) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 249