The Karonga War was minor in terms of combatants and casualties compared to the First or Second Matabele War in Southern Rhodesia but it had major significance for the history of Malawi, particularly the north of the country, because it forced a change in British government policy. This had originally been to ensure that no other power controlled the area west and south of Lake Malawi, but without Britain assuming any sovereignty over that area. It changed to one where Britain felt it necessary to proclaim a protectorate. Like the roughly contemporaneous Abushiri revolt in German East Africa, the war represented the end of the political influence of Swahili traders acknowledging the Sultan of Zanzibar's authority in East and Central Africa, and the end of attempts of Chartered companies to assume or retain control in place of their home governments.