XIVᵉ siècle – XIXᵉ siècle
Great Lakes region, northwestern Lake Victoria
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Buganda was one of the principal kingdoms of the Great Lakes region and became increasingly centralized and expansive during the nineteenth century. Its rulers maintained long reigns, strengthened court administration, limited opposition from princes and factions, and extended authority through conquest and tribute collection. Buganda’s campaigns reached Busoga and other productive areas, drawing food, labour, cattle, manufactures, and trade resources toward the royal court.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
Buganda entered the nineteenth century as one of the major states of the Great Lakes region. Its political order centred on the kabaka, a dynastic court, appointed officials, princes, and networks of service and clientage. Compared with the rapid turnover of rulers in the eighteenth century, the nineteenth century brought an era of longer reigns that allowed the kingdom to consolidate authority and organize its resources more durably.
Kamanya ruled for roughly thirty to thirty-five years, Suna for twenty years, and Mutesa for twenty-eight years. These extended reigns gave the court time to restrain rival princes and factions, routinize the distribution of offices and rewards, and expand the kingdom’s resources. The transformation from an eighteenth-century “era of princes” to an “era of long reigns” was presented as a central sign of Buganda’s political development.
Buganda’s power depended on the aggregation of production, labour, and trade goods. A form of governmental farm supplied the courts of chiefs and the kabaka’s palace, while tribute from places such as central Busoga brought in large quantities of dried bananas. Military expeditions also collected cattle, people, ironware, bark-cloth, and other goods, sometimes remaining in a region long enough to disrupt its productive organization.
Expansion generated resistance. Northern and eastern Busoga resisted Buganda’s military expeditions, and resistance was also witnessed in the Buvuma Islands during H. M. Stanley’s visit in 1875. Buganda responded by acquiring firearms, intervening in local conflicts, installing dependent princes, increasing the scale of expeditions, and moving farther from older productive zones when extraction undermined them.
XIVᵉ siècle – XIXᵉ siècle
Great Lakes region, northwestern Lake Victoria
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Buganda was one of the principal kingdoms of the Great Lakes region and became increasingly centralized and expansive during the nineteenth century. Its rulers maintained long reigns, strengthened court administration, limited opposition from princes and factions, and extended authority through conquest and tribute collection. Buganda’s campaigns reached Busoga and other productive areas, drawing food, labour, cattle, manufactures, and trade resources toward the royal court.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
Buganda entered the nineteenth century as one of the major states of the Great Lakes region. Its political order centred on the kabaka, a dynastic court, appointed officials, princes, and networks of service and clientage. Compared with the rapid turnover of rulers in the eighteenth century, the nineteenth century brought an era of longer reigns that allowed the kingdom to consolidate authority and organize its resources more durably.
Kamanya ruled for roughly thirty to thirty-five years, Suna for twenty years, and Mutesa for twenty-eight years. These extended reigns gave the court time to restrain rival princes and factions, routinize the distribution of offices and rewards, and expand the kingdom’s resources. The transformation from an eighteenth-century “era of princes” to an “era of long reigns” was presented as a central sign of Buganda’s political development.
Buganda’s power depended on the aggregation of production, labour, and trade goods. A form of governmental farm supplied the courts of chiefs and the kabaka’s palace, while tribute from places such as central Busoga brought in large quantities of dried bananas. Military expeditions also collected cattle, people, ironware, bark-cloth, and other goods, sometimes remaining in a region long enough to disrupt its productive organization.
Expansion generated resistance. Northern and eastern Busoga resisted Buganda’s military expeditions, and resistance was also witnessed in the Buvuma Islands during H. M. Stanley’s visit in 1875. Buganda responded by acquiring firearms, intervening in local conflicts, installing dependent princes, increasing the scale of expeditions, and moving farther from older productive zones when extraction undermined them.