With Buganda secured by Lugard and the Germans no longer contending for control, the British begin to enlarge their claim to the "headwaters of the Nile," as they call the land north of Lake Victoria.

Allying with the Protestant Baganda chiefs, the British set about conquering the rest of the country, aided by Nubian mercenary troops who had formerly served the khedive of Egypt.

Bunyoro has been spared the religious civil wars of Buganda and is firmly united by its king, Kabarega, who has several regiments of troops armed with guns.

After five years of bloody conflict, the British occupy Bunyoro and conquer Acholi and the northern region, and the rough outlines of the Uganda Protectorate come into being.

Other African polities, such as the Ankole kingdom to the southwest, sign treaties with the British, as do the chiefdoms of Busoga, but the kinship-based peoples of eastern and northeastern Uganda have to be overcome by military force.