David Livingstone Discovers Victoria Falls

David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary and explorer, devoted much of his life to traversing the interior of southern and central Africa, seeking to open the continent to commerce and Christianity and to expose the inland slave trade. Setting out from the south, he undertook extensive journeys along the Zambezi River and its tributaries.

In November 1855, while travelling along the Zambezi, Livingstone became the first European to view the great waterfall that the local Kololo people called Mosi-oa-Tunya, meaning the smoke that thunders. He named it Victoria Falls in honour of Queen Victoria.

Livingstone's reports and writings made him famous in Britain and stimulated European interest in the African interior. He continued his explorations in the search for the source of the Nile until his death in 1873 in present-day Zambia. His example inspired later expeditions and missionaries, and, more ambiguously, helped pave the way for the European partition of the region.