During the imperialism in South Africa there were many frontier wars. A frontier war is a conflict between whites moving further east, out of the Cape, and Africans/black farmers moving in the opposite direction. There were nine Cape Frontier Wars, increasing in level of severity: 1779-81, 1793, 1799-1802, 1811-12, 1818-19, 1834-35, 1846-47, 1850-53, and 1877-78. British policy became one of containing the Xhosa, and by the end of the series of wars, the Xhosa had lost much of its prime pastoral land. The 7th and 8th frontier wars resulted in Xhosa cattle killing of 1856-57.
The Xhosa cattle killing:
The Xhosa despaired. Within seventy years they had fought eight major frontier wars, due to that they had lost much of their land, their herds of cattle had been killed and their crops burned. In desperation, they have turned to their ancestors. In March 1856, Mhlakaza, a senior Xhosa councilor, was told by his niece that she had seen ghostly people and cattle. It is said that Mhlakaza went to investigate this vision of sort and he did meet the ghosts (so he said so). The ghosts apparently said
“Kill all your cattle, destroy your grain and sow no seeds. If you do this, the Russians (at that time Britain and Russia were on opposite sides in the Crimean War) will come and drive the english into the sea and the Xhosa will have all the cattle, grain, clothes, guns and ammunition they could possible want.”
Chief Sarhili believed Mhlakaza and ordered the cattle to be killed and the crops destroyed. As many as 20 000 Xhosa may have died of starvation and thousands more fled into Cape Colony in search of work and food. After 1857, the Xhosa could do little to resist the whites. The British took full control of the land to the west of the Kei and, in one last frontier war, the Ninth, 1877-78, pushed the boundary of Cape Colony still further east, linking up their second South African coastal colony, Natal.
The grow of British power in Africa:
During the 19th century gold became more important to the trade of the world because the industrial countries increasingly used paper money and needed to hold enough gold to support the paper currency in circulation. Rich diamond fields were found in South Africa in 1867 and less than twenty years later, in 1886, the worlds richest gold fields. The British had a lot of mines under control by 1899 but gold diggers flooded into the Transvaal and around 30 000 of them being British.
“The Boer leader, Paul Kruger, insisted that the settlers were not given full rights. In 1895, one of Rhodes closest friends, Dr Leander Starr Jameson, launched a raid on the Transvaal supported by Rhodes money. The aim of the raid was to seiz the important city of Johannesburg for the British South Africa Company, but it was a failure and Rhodes had to resign as the prime minister of Cape Colony. One result of the raid was that Boers in Transvaal were convinced that the British wanted to take over their country.”
Extract from: Colonisation and Conflict 1750-1990 by Martin Collier
The tension between the British and the Boers was huge and this led to the point that Boers invaded Cape Colony in October 1899. This was the start oof the Boer war which lasted until British victory in 1902. The Boer war was to cost nearly 10 000 lives.
Changes:
From 1867 on when the rich mines were discovered, enormous changes have occurred.
The world’s businessmen, especially from Britain, Western Europe and USA, started to spend huge money to have the diamond and gold mines opened. They believed this ‘investment’ would make them large profits year after year, once the mines were working. Africa had not attracted this much investment before since her main exports of wool, wine and ostrich feathers did not bring large investments.
The mines grew fast and as they did so other economic activities began to develop in the country. Railways were built to link the mines to the ports. Many farmers enjoyed a growing demand for their crops and animals. Villages grew into towns. New mining cities like Kimberley and Johannesburg grew out of nothing.
The mines also changed the lives of millions of blacks. The whites provided the money and the technical skills to open the mines. They kept the ownership and the skilled, good-paid jobs to themselves. The blacks did the unskilled, and not well-paid jobs and were strictly controlled by the ‘compound and migrant labor’. The big diamond companies began building compounds for their black workers in 1880s. The first ones were cold and overcrowded and led to sicknesses such as pneumonia.
Britain decided that these riches should be hers and fought both, the blacks and the Boers to make sure that they were under control of the British Empire. This led into the Boer war 1899-1902.
Another big change was the arrival of white missionaries from Europe. The arrival of white missionaries changed the culture in South Africa into Christianity or better said that they spread Christianity across South Africa. Some of these missionaries also believed in the new ideas of freedom, equality and justice. They have spread these ideas in the Cape Colony. One of the missionaries that made a big change was Dr J.T. van der Kemp. He believed that all people are equal in the sight of god and taught that slavery was wrong. He opposed the way the British forced the Khoisan 1(Khoisan is the name for two major of ). into military service and road-mending. He then criticized them for their frequent cruel treatment of their Khoisan labourers. He also accused local officials of failing to protect the Khoisan. He and other missionaries wrote to the British government in the Cape to complain about the bad treatment of the Khoisan. As a result, in 1812 the Cape government sent judges to check these complaints and found many trekboers guilty of cruelty. The whites were really shocked that their government could support the Khoisan against them and called the judges’ visit the Black Crcuit’. The whites’ attitude towards the blacks has changed to better due to this. 1 = From Wikipedia.org
Since missionaries came to South Africa the way of teaching and education has changed as well, new ideas and new beliefs were thought. The European culture was being thought as well.
Another change that occurred when the British colonized South Africa was that slavery was abolished in 1807. The Slave trade was abolished aswell.
There was very bad change that occurred to South Africa. When the British colonized South Africa, it served as a refreshment base for ships that were traveling to the Indies. Many of the people that were on the boats carried different diseases from their voyages and from Europe into Africa. Slowly, the sickness and diseases spread across the Africans and there were some disease epidemics. The British have changed the health to worse.
When the British colonized South Africa they took the land from the Africans. that The British Government started taxing the workers in Africa so that they could work.
The British government, acting largely at the behest of the missionaries and their supporters in Britain in the 1820s, abolished the Hottentot Code. Ordinance 50 of 1828 stated that no Khoikhoi or free black had to carry a pass or could be forced to enter a labor contract. Source from: http://countrystudies.us/south-africa/11.htm
In this source it shows that black men and Khoikhoi had to carry a pass around in order to leave work. If he didn’t have the pass, he could be forced to do labor. It also shows that the government was supporting the missionaries.
During the imperialism in south Africa, there had been a huge change in Technology. While the Africans were using darts, spears, bow and arrows etc. as a weapon, the British were using guns, cannons and handguns, while the Afrikans have been living in huts from wood, the British were living in houses from bricks. The British have brought new technology to South Africa. The British have also brought new types of medicine from Europe to South Africa.
Conclusion:
I think that imperialism had a good affect on the country itself. Imperialism helped the country develop into a more modern country. It has brought new education, new culture and new technology have been brought to South Africa which helped it develop. It had some negative impacts on the Africans and blacks as well. The black people had no rights and didn’t have the high-paid jobs. I think the main trigger for the development of South Africa, the main boost, was the discovery of gold and diamond mines. Since the British discovered gold and diamond mines in the country, it made the country richer because investors from around the world were buying the mines. Thanks to the mines, the British built railways throughout South Africa. This has developed new ways of transport. The negative impact on the country was the Boer war and the frontier wars. It has destroyed many crops and many Africans were killed. Many children and women were left without homes. There was also a famine caused due to the Frontier Wars during the Xhosa cattle killing, which led to a lot of people dying. To conclude this, I think that the British had a negative impact in the beginning of the colonization since they brought new diseases to South Africa and also that they have triggered wars with the native people but after the wars, the country started developing in economy, technology, government, society etc. The imperialism had also a great affect on the country and on the people because thanks to the imperialism, slavery was abolished. I think the imperialism in South Africa acknowledged the idea of white mans burden.
I think if we were looking from the point of view from the Africans, we would probably get different views because the British were treating them badly and making them work for low wages.
Bibliography:
Internet/web:
Accessed: 1 March 2008
Published: May 1998
Use: I used it to find out more about Industrialization and Imperialism, 1870-1910
Accessed: 3 March 2008
Published: Unknown
Source: U.S. Library of Congress
Use: I used it to see what changes there were in Government in South Africa during imperialism.
Accessed: 9 March 2008
Published: May 2002
Last Updated: 3rd December 2007
Use: I used it to look up how Imperialism started in South Africa.
Accessed: 9 March 2008
Published: March 2007
Last updated: Never
Use: I used it to get some more information about imperialism in South Africa.
Accessed: 3 March, 8 March and 9 March
Use: Look up definitions on words and research about different cultures in Africa
Books:
A History of South Africa
By: Martin Roberts
First Published: 1990 in USA by Longman INC., New York
Colonisation and conflict
By: Martin Collier and Bill Marriott
First Published: 2002
