Correct option is B. 1880s
In Africa, in the 1890s, a fast-spreading disease of cattle plague or rinderpest had a terrifying impact on peoples livelihoods and the local economy. This is a good example of the widespread European imperial impact on colonised societies. It shows how in this era of conquest even a disease affecting cattle reshaped the lives and fortunes of thousands of people and their relations with the rest of the world.
Historically, Africa had abundant land and a relatively small population. For centuries, land and livestock sustained African livelihoods and people rarely worked for a wage. In late nineteenth-century Africa there were few consumer goods that wages could buy. If you had been an African possessing land and livestock and there was plenty of both you too would have seen little reason to work for a wage.
Rinderpest arrived in Africa in the late 1880s. It was carried by infected cattle imported from British Asia to feed the Italian soldiers invading Eritrea in East Africa. Entering Africa in the east, rinderpest moved west like forest fire, reaching Africas Atlantic coast in 1892.It reached the Cape (Africas southernmost tip) five years later. Along the way rinderpest killed 90 per cent of the cattle. The loss of cattle destroyed African livelihoods. Planters, mine owners and colonial governments now successfully monopolised what scarce cattle resources remained, to strengthen their power and to force Africans into the labour market. Control over the scarce resource of cattle enabled European colonisers to conquer and subdue Africa.