European exploration of Africa 1840s, so that around the midpoint of the 19th century and the beginning of the colonial Scramble for Africa, the unexplored parts were now limited to what would turn out to be the Congo Basin and the African Great Lakes. This "Heart of Africa" remained one of the last remaining "blank spots" on world maps of the later 19th century (alongside the Arctic, Antarctic and the interior of the Amazon basin). It was left for 19th-century European explorers, including those searching for the famed sources of the Nile, notably John Hanning Speke, Sir Richard Burton, David Livingstone and Henry Morton
The Scramble for Africa (book) The Scramble for Africa (book) The Scramble for Africa: The White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912 is a comprehensive history of the colonisation of African territory by European powers between 1876 to 1912 known as the Scramble for Africa. The book was written by historian and arborist Thomas Pakenham and published by Random House in 1990. The book juxtaposes the motives of missionary David Livingstone, King Leopold II, and other leading figures in the southern African land-grab of the late 19th and early 20th century. Pakenham details the famous battles and short wars, such as