South Africa

The Cape Town region of South Africa was originally settled by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century, and by the time the colony fell into British hands, around 1800, much of the population had been established in the area for over 150 years. The Native Dutch, also called Boers, or Afrikaners, were fiercely independent slave-owners, and they resented the British interference. When the British government decided to abolish slavery in all of its colonies, many of the Boers decided to pack up their belongings and move out of the sphere of British influence. They first settled in Natal, on the east side of the peninsula, but as Britain had already started to form settlements in the area, they moved across the Vaal river, into a desolate wilderness, inhabited by Zulu tribes. After using their usual methods of slaughter, enslavement, and diplomacy to bring the native tribes to bay, the Boers settled and formed two republics in the region, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal Republic.

Meanwhile, Cape Town, Natal, and several other towns in the south grew under Britain’s protection. In 1867 however, diamonds were found in a remote area of Kimberly, claimed by both Britain and the Transvaal. The commerce and industry minded English were in a far better position to exploit the discoveries, and so took over government of the area. Within ten years of the discovery of South African Diamonds, Cecil Rhodes, a young man from a middle-class farming family in England, had built a diamond-mining empire that gained greater and greater control of the market until he had a multi-million dollar cartel at his disposal. In spite of his personal riches, Rhodes led a relatively austere life, and threw his entire energies and much of his wealth into the project of unifying the various colonies of South Africa under a single government, within the British commonwealth. With this goal in mind, he negotiated with the native tribes, and helped to lay claim to the regions north of the Transvaal, including modern Botswana, Zambia, and Zambezi. He did much else to the lay the groundwork for unification, but was hotly resisted by the Boers, who hated British rule, and loved their independence.

The population of the Zulu nation increased quickly under British protection, and soon there was conflict with the Boers and other British colonies. The British regiment that was sent to put down Cetewayo, the Zulu king of the time, was caught off guard and slaughtered in one of the worst massacres in British history. It took the British nearly a year to regroup, but they eventually destroyed the Zulu capital, and sent the king into exile. No sooner had the British prevailed against the Zulu’s, and annexed the Boer republic, but the first Boer War broke out and went very badly for the British. The current Prime minister, William Gladstone, was glad to make peace with the Boers and granted them their independence, much to the dismay of Rhodes and other die-hard imperialists, who believed that South Africa could only thrive under a unified government.

Yet the situation would get uglier still. In 1885, an enormous vein of gold was discovered in the Transvaal. The Boers themselves were agricultural and only wanted to be left alone, but could do nothing to prevent the enormous influx of foreigners into their territory. They did however, tax the miners, but did not allow the outlanders to have a say in government. Since many of the outlanders were British, this was an excuse to attempt to annex the area into British territory, and an unofficial "revolution" was staged which ended in disaster. By 1899 the pressure was at an intolerable level, and the Boer’s laid siege to three British cities. This was the start of the very costly and difficult second Boer War. It lasted until 1902, but ultimately, the far stronger British defeated the republic and forced the Boers to submit to British government. It took ten more years to integrate the colonies, but neither the imperialist Cecil Rhodes nor his Boer nemesis Paul Kruger lived to see the birth of the South African Nation.