South Africa: Colonial expansion and British consolidation

Résumé du document

History of South Africa's colonization is undoubtedly one of the most complex, partly due to the fact that several colonizing nations and several native tribes were in interaction. What kind of evolutions knew South Africa from the second part of the 17th century to the end of the 19th century that led it to the Anglo-Boer Wars? The written history of South Africa begins with the accounts of European navigators passing South Africa on the East Indies trade routes. In the 15th and 16th centuries, a number of small fishing settlements were made along the coast by Portuguese sailors (Bartolomeo Dias, February 3, 1488). On April 6, 1652, a victualling station was established at the Cape of Good Hope by Jan van Riebeeck on behalf of the Dutch East India Company (in the Dutch of the day: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC), one of the major European trading houses sailing the spice route to the East. In fact, the VOC had no intent of colonizing the area, but only wanted to establish a secure base camp where passing ships could shelter, and where hungry sailors could stock up on fresh supplies of meat, fruit, and vegetables.

Extraits

[...] These slaves often married Dutch settlers, and their descendants became known as the Cape Malays. With this additional labour, the areas occupied by the VOC expanded further to the north and east, with inevitable clashes with the Khoikhoi and the Xhosa. The newcomers drove the beleaguered Khoikhoi from their traditional lands, decimated them with introduced diseases, and destroyed them with superior weapons when they fought back, which they did in a number of major wars and with guerrilla resistance movements which continued into the 19th century. [...]

[...] After their victory, which resulted from the possession of superior weapons, Boer's hopes for establishing a “Natal republic” remained short-lived. The British annexed the area in 1843, and founded their new Natal colony at present-day Durban. The British began to establish large sugar-plantations in Natal, but found few inhabitants of the neighbouring Zulu areas willing to provide labour. The British were confronted to a significant resistance with the Zulus, a nation with well-established traditions of waging war, who inflicted one of the most humiliating defeats on the British army, at the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879 when it killed over 1400 British soldiers. [...]

[...] To draw a conclusion, even though the supremacy of Great Britain over South Africa seems to be total, the rivalry with the Boers remains latent. So, what form will have the resulting war between the British and the Boers? Bibliography Charles Villa-Vicencio, Christianity and the Colonisation of South Africa, David Phillips Publishers Christopher Saunders, Nicholas Southey, A Dictionary of South African History, David Phillips Publishers. [...]

[...] South Africa: Colonial expansion and British consolidation History of South Africa's colonization is undoubtedly one of the most complex, partly due to the fact that several colonizing nations and several native tribes were in interaction. What kind of evolutions knew South Africa from the second part of the 17th century to the end of the 19th century, that led it to the Anglo-Boer Wars? 1652 1805: The Dutch supremacy 31 The Arrival of the Dutch The written history of South Africa begins with the accounts of European navigators passing South Africa on the East Indies trade routes. [...]

[...] But surprisingly, this Kingdom didn't come into collision with British authorities. In fact, the Zulus met the Boers before. Indeed, the Boers had became increasingly dissatisfied with British rule in the Cape Colony. Beginning in 1835, several groups of Boers, together with large numbers of Khoikhoi and black servants, decided to trek off into the interior in search of greater independence (so-called Great Trek). North and east of the Orange River (which formed the Cape Colony's frontier) these Boers or Voortrekkers ("Pioneers") found vast tracts of apparently uninhabited grazing lands. [...]