Livingstone, David

Livingstone, David
(1813–1873)
   Scottish explorer, missionary, and philanthropist, David Livingstone was born in Blantyre Works, Lanarkshire. Of humble origins, he was nonetheless able to save sufficient money to attend medical school in Glasgow and win a degree in 1840. In 1841, the London Missionary Society assigned Livingstone to Bechuanaland, although he had sought instead to be sent to China, where he set to work converting the indigenous population to Christianity, treating disease and combating the local slave trade.
   In 1852, Livingstone organized an expedition across the Kalahari Desert to Lake Ngami and in 1851 explored the Zambezi River. In 1852, he began the explorations of Central Africa that ultimately won him a national and international reputation -the capstone of which was the discovery and naming of Victoria Falls - as a great geographer. Livingstone was appointed British consul for eastern Africa, a position through which he continued his explorations, discovering Lake Nyasa in 1859, and became an ever more determined enemy of slavery and slave trading. In 1865, he became British consul to Central Africa and embarked on his last, greatest, and fatal expedition, the central goal of which was to understand the watershed of Central Africa and to locate the sources of the Congo and Nile Rivers. The Nile, he thought, could be the artery for bringing Christian civilization from the Mediterranean to the heart of the continent. He disappeared for many years until he was at last found at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika by the American explorer Henry Stanley. Livingstone carried on his explorations against the gathering predation of disease until he succumbed in April 1873, having opened vast new territory to British influence - not least of all by force of his personal humanity.
   See also <>; <>.
   FURTHER READING:
    Huxley, Elspeth. Livingstone and the African Journeys. New York: Saturday Review Press, 1974.
   CARL CAVANAGH HODGE

Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800–1914. 2014.

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  • Livingstone, David — (1813–73)    Missionary.    Livingstone was born in Blantyre, Scotland. He worked long hours in a factory as a child and he was largely selfeducated. After a conversion experience at the age of seventeen, he studied theology and medicine in… …   Who’s Who in Christianity

  • Livingstone, David — ► (1813 73) Explorador y misionero escocés. En Londres ingresó en la Sociedad de Misioneros y fue enviado a África. Descubrió el lago Ngami y reconoció el desierto de Kalahari y el río Zambeze, donde descubrió las cataratas Victoria. En 1868, se… …   Enciclopedia Universal

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  • Livingstone,David — Liv·ing·stone (lĭvʹĭng stən), David. 1813 1873. Scottish missionary and African explorer. He discovered the Zambezi River (1851) and Victoria Falls (1855). Henry M. Stanley found him in Tanzania (1871), and together they attempted to find the… …   Universalium

  • LIVINGSTONE, DAVID —    African traveller and missionary, born in Blantyre, Lanarkshire; began life as a mill worker, studied medicine and theology at Glasgow, and was sent out to Africa by the London Missionary Society in 1840, landed at Port Natal, and addressed… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • LIVINGSTONE, David — (1813 1873)    MISSIONARY, explorer and opponent of the slave trade. In 1838, he joined the London Missionary Society and became passionately interested in Africa. Reports of his explorations and experiences aroused wide interest in England. His… …   Concise dictionary of Religion

  • Livingstone — Livingstone, David …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • David Livingstone — (* 19. März 1813 in Blantyre bei Glasgow; † 1. Mai 1873 in Chitambo am Bangweulusee) war ein schottischer Missionar und ein Afrikaforscher des 19. Jahrhunderts …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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