Show the pattern of the colonial infrastructure and explain why the transport systems ran perpendicular from the interior to the coast.

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     Photo credit to original owner

After the African continent had been totally colonized by European powers, They established various socio-economic infrastructures like industries, mines, roads, railways, ports and habours as well as  telegraphs.

Distribution pattern of colonial transport infrastructures;

When you are asked to show 'pattern', you are supposed to show where specifically these infrastructures were built and its direction. 

The colonial housing, water service, hospitals, schools and electricity infrastructures were built/constructed near the Plantations to the mines and Urban centres to facilitate smooth production and comfortable accomodation for officials and labourers.

The colonial transport and communication such as roads, railways and telegraphs started from the coast (ports/harbours) and directed towards the plantations and mining centres in the interior parts. 
Roads, railways and telegraphs ran from the coast(harbours/ports) to the interior/ mainland and passed through the plantation (cash crops) to the labour reserve zones.

In Tanganyika the northern railway ran from Tanga(harbour) to Moshi and Arusha(plantation areas) while the central line started at Dar-es-salaam (harbour) to Morogoro(plantation area), Dodoma, Tabora and Kigoma(labour reserve zones).

After showing the distribution pattern, you go for the second part or the maibody which asks 'why did the colonial transport and communication infrastructure run from the coast to imterior'. Here, you are supposed to explain the functions/the use of those roads, railways and telegraphs as explained below;

1. To transport raw matetials from the interior parts, where mines and plantations were found, to the coastal harbours ready to be shiped to Europe to feed their industries. Raw materials like cotton, tobbacco, sisal, coffee, gold, diamond and copper were highly needed by hungry industries in Europe due to massive industrialization.

2. To transport the imported manufactured goods like clothes, glassware, untensils, alcohol and ornaments from the coastal harbours to the interior parts in order to sell them profitably to the African cheap labourers in their plantations and mines.

3. To transport colonial officials and troops to collect tax, supervise production and suppress uprising in the production areas. Workers unions, demonstrations and boycots were to be stoped immediately henceforth transport system was put in place to suppress them on time.

4. To transport migrant labourers from the labour reserve zones like Kigoma, Rukwa and Dodoma to prodution places like Morogoro, Tanga and Kilimanjaro. The colonialists preffered this kind of labourforce because of the long distance between their homes and plantation which made them unable to go back home hence ensuring constant labour supply and market.

5.The telegraphs enabled easy flow of information from the top administration (In the principle towns like Dar es salaam) to the supervisors of production (In the plantations like Kilimanjaro and Tanga), to make sure that the instructions from top authority are put in effect.

6. Roads and railways opened up the interior of Africa and exposed it to the colonial exploitation. The African resources in the interior, like minerals and animals were known through these routes and later taken away.

The colonial infrastructures were set to ensure maximum explotation in the colonies for the benefits of the colonizers in one hand, but benefited Africans on the other hand, because these infrastructures were used for nationalism and decolonization of the continent, and some railways are in use to date.

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