15 Key Moments in South African History
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15 Key Moments in South African History A Timeline of Events that Shaped South Africa David Gladson - Marketing Manager, Amor - A Publication of LOGO Timeline Table of Contents 1400’s Pre‐Recorded History 1955 Freedom Charter‐ Mandela 1836 The Great Trek Imprisoned 1 1899‐1902 5 Second 1990 Mandela 10 Boer War Released 1779 The First 1948 1976 of the Xhosa 7 Apartheid Soweto Wars Formalized Riots 14 3 9 12 2 8 15 13 1652 The 6 1910 Union of 1994 A New Arrival of the South Africa 11 South Africa Dutch 1985 Botha 4 1843‐1899 The Crosses the Chess Game of Rubicon Annexation 1961 South Africa 1806 Britain Withdrawals from Permanently the Commonwealth Occupies Cape Colony f t in 1400’s Pre-Recorded History Although our recorded history of South Africa begins with the arrival of the first European explorers, this is not the beginning of the story. There were three sophisticated people groups living in the area that is now South Africa who left a rich legacy of oral history that continues to influence modern South Africa. Praag.org The San people were a hunter-gather society that lived in the drier lands near the Khalahari desert and the higher areas of the mountains. The San people had rich oral, musical, and rock art traditions. The Khoikhoi people practiced a mix of herding and some farming. The Khoikhoi lived across the southern and western areas of modern South Africa, and were the first to encounter the Dutch colonists. The third people group were the Xhosa, a collection of Bantu speaking peoples who are the ancestors of the majority of modern day South Africans. The Xhosa inhabited the eastern side of modern day South Africa and practiced intensive agriculture. The Xhosa had been gradually expanding west and south for generations when the first European colonists arrived. The Arrival of the Dutch Suid‐Afrikaanse Geskiedenis in Beeld (1989) by Anthony Preston. Bion Books: Printed in South Africa The first Portuguese explorers arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 seeking a trade route to India. It wasn’t until 1652 that the Dutch built a permanent colony. The Dutch government originally authorized the construction of Cape Colony as a station where fleets traveling to and from their colonies in Indonesia could restock their provisions and shelter from the fierce winter storms. The mandate quickly changed as some of the company employees started farming the countryside; a small but steady stream of Dutch immigrants expanded the fledgling colony over the next 150 years. However, the colony remained small. In 1793 there were only 14,000 colonists, in comparison to 4 million residents in the newly formed United States of America. Despite their small numbers, the colonists had a major impact on the neighboring native populations. Many of the Dutch colonists struggled at farming, and took up a semi-nomadic lifestyle raising sheep and cattle over vast tracks of land. The Khoikhoi who lived in the adjacent territory tried to resist Dutch encroachments, but slowly succumbed to the continual pressure of the colonists’ advance to the north and east. Some fell to the new diseases which were introduced by the colonists, others died in frontier disputes which flared up periodically, and others were absorbed into the Dutch colony as laborers on the farm estates. Slavery was not practiced by any of the native people groups who lived in South Africa. The Dutch colony imported slaves during the first years of the colony to provide labor to build infrastructure and work farms. As more colonists came and started farms, more slaves were imported, many from India and East Asia. These slaves, as well as the remnants of the Khoikhoi peoples, formed the “colored” class of the highly stratified Dutch system. f t in The First of the Xhosa Wars By the late 1700’s the Dutch expansion eastward had brought them into contact with the territory of the Xhosa people. The Xhosa practiced intensive agriculture and were much more numerous than the Khoikhoi people the Dutch had fought up to this point, but the technological superiority of the Dutch weaponry was insurmountable. Over the next century a long series of wars, punctuated by peace treaties and broken treaties, slowly eroded the power of the Xhosa kingdoms. The pattern was similar to that in North America where the United States slowly expanded westward, except that in South Africa the white settlers were always the minority numerically. Zuluculture.co.za f t in Britain Permanently Occupies Cape Colony The European politics of the Napoleonic Wars would forever change the course of South African history in 1806, when Britain seized Cape Colony. Afraid that the Dutch colonies would fall into French hands, Britain sent in a military force and seized Cape Colony for themselves. In 1820, Britain began sending settlers to the Cape. This did not sit well with the Dutch colonists, who considered the British to be invaders who had interfered in their affairs. The Dutch began to refer to themselves as “Afrikaners” to distinguish themselves from the recently arrived British “Settlers”. In turn, the British settlers derisively referred to the Dutch colonists as “Boers”. Legacy.history.co.uk f t in The Great Trek In 1833, the British government outlawed slavery throughout its empire, including the colonies. This had a major impact on the Afrikaner economy, particularly the farm estates. In 1836, several thousand Afrikaners set out on the “Great Trek”, seeking to found a new independent colony outside the British sphere of influence. In the eyes of the Afrikaners themselves, they were fleeing oppression and seeking freedom to live out their culture. This brought them into conflict with the surrounding Xhosa kingdoms, as well as Zulu kingdoms expanding from the north. Risingsouthernstar‐africa.de.tl f t in The Chess Game of Annexation History.howstuffworks.com The competing British and Afrikaner interests touched off a series of land grabs across modern day South Africa. Britain feared that the Afrikaners would align themselves with Germany or one of the other European powers. In 1843 Britain annexed the newly formed Afrikaner state of Natal. Over the following decades Britain continued to annex territory to prevent the two remaining Afrikaner states of Transvaal and Orange River State from gaining access to their own seaport. The discovery of diamonds, and later gold, within the Afrikaner territories was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the natural resources provided the states with the money to develop railroads and purchase weaponry. On the other hand, the two remaining Afrikaner states were not populous enough to exploit these resources on their own. An influx of British settlers to run the mining operations created further tensions between the two groups of colonists. The British made a botched attempt to annex the Transvaal in 1881 (known as the First Boer War), but were soundly defeated. The native populations did not fare well during the constant warfare and political maneuvering. Both the British and the Afrikaners exploited political differences between native groups, using them as pawns in their various wars. The last Xhosa kingdoms were defeated in 1870; after initial humiliating defeats, the British destroyed the Zulu armies in 1880. Further gold discoveries in the Transvaal in the 1880s, and rising tensions between the two groups of colonists set the stage for the coming storm. f t in The Second Boer War Outmaneuvered by the British, and essentially surrounded, the Transvaal and Orange River state declared war on Britain in 1899. The Afrikaans forces won a string of initial victories, stunning Britain, but the final outcome of the war was inevitable. Britain brought in reinforcements from around their global empire, eventually fielding 10 times as many soldiers as the two Boer republics could muster. The Boers were unable to bring in any additional weaponry, and after the fall of their two capitals, resorted to guerilla warfare. British troops, unable to match the speed and maneuverability of the Boer guerillas, used a scorched earth policy to force the two states to surrender. The British burned down 30,000 homesteads, poisoned wells, and sowed fields with salt to make them unable to produce crops. Civilians were rounded up and placed in concentration camps, where 28,000 Afrikaner civilians died of disease and starvation, mostly children. More than 100,000 native Africans were also placed in concentration camps, of whom another 20,000 died. By 1902 the last of the Boer forces surrendered. The British High Commissioner was determined to transform South Africa into a loyal British colony by swamping the region with new British immigrants and uniting the four states of Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange River State into one country. Only half of his plan came to fruition. f t in The Union of South Africa The flood of new immigrants which the British high commissioner envisioned to help him transform the culture of South Africa did not materialize. Despite some immigration, only Natal state had more whites of British descent than Afrikaans. The economic policies of the British administration alienated many of the British colonists, causing them to vote with the Boer parties on unification. In 1910, with the Act of Union, the British government effectively handed control of the now unified state to the same leaders they had just defeated in the Boer war. The modern state of South Africa was born. These decisions about the future of the nation were made without the input or consent of the majority of South Africa’s people. Each of the 4 states had different laws regarding who was allowed to vote.