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MA Semester IV- History of South Africa 1850-1950 (HISKM 16) Dr MA Semester IV- History of South Africa 1850-1950 (HISKM 16) Dr. Mukesh Kumar UNIT-I Early European presence in the cape 1650-1800- The first Europeans to enter Southern Africa were the Portuguese, who from the 15th century edged their way around the African coast in the hope of outflanking Islam, finding a sea route to the riches of India, and discovering additional sources of food. They reached the Kongo Kingdom in northwestern Angola in 1482–83; early in 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of the continent; and just over a decade later Vasco da Gama sailed along the east coast of Africa before striking out to India. Although the voyages were initially unpromising, they marked the beginning of the integration of the subcontinent into the new world economy and the dominance of Europeans over the indigenous inhabitants. The Portuguese in west-central Africa Portuguese influence in west-central Africa radiated over a far wider area and was much more dramatic and destructive than on the east coast. Initially the Portuguese crown and Jesuit missionaries forged peaceful links with the kingdom of the Kongo, converting its king to Christianity. Almost immediately, however, slave traders followed in the wake of priests and teachers, and west- central Africa became tied to the demands of the Sao Tome sugar planters and the transatlantic slave trade. Until 1560 the Kongo kings had an effective monopoly in west-central Africa over trade with metropolitan Portugal, which showed relatively little interest in its African possessions. By the 1520s, however, Afro-Portuguese traders and landowners from Sao Tomé were intervening in the affairs of the Ndongo kingdom to the south, supporting the ruler, or ngola, in his military campaigns and taking his war captives and surplus dependents as slaves. By the mid 16th century Ndongo, with Portuguese assistance, had become a major kingdom extending over a wide area between the Dande, Lukala, and Kwanza rivers. By the last third of the 16th century, the Portuguese attitude toward Africa had changed; rumours of fabulous gold and silver to be found in the interior led in 1569 to the dispatch in the east of Francisco Barreto to discover the sources of gold in the Mutapa kingdom and to the appointment in 1575 of Paulo Dias de Novais to search for what turned out to be mythical silver mines in the west. Dias established himself as captain-general, or governor, in Luanda, with jurisdiction over an undefined area between the Dande and Kwanza rivers. A few years after his arrival a century of almost constant warfare was initiated. The wars soon resolved themselves into slave-raiding campaigns, as Europeans demanded labour rather than tropical products in exchange for their merchandise, and African societies rapidly exhausted local supplies of war captives and criminals. Chiefs exchanged slaves for European firearms and luxury goods and secured further dependents with cheaply produced textiles and Brazilian alcohol. Impelled by the increased demand for slaves for the sugar plantations of São Tomé and later Brazil, and relying on African mercenaries and allies, the military governors of Luanda launched armed incursions against the people of the interior. States rose and fell as African rulers were ineluctably drawn into the slave trade and were as often destroyed by it. The Imbangala New warlords emerged at the head of bands of starving refugees, who from the late 16th until the 18th century swarmed down from the hills, fought one another, and devastated the settled kingdoms. By the end of the 16th century well- organized military bands of marauders, known as the Imbangala , began to appear along the coast south of Luanda. In their eagerness to swell slave numbers, Portuguese governors allied with these war bands, and together they dealt the final blow to the Ndongo kingdom about 1622. By that time the Imbangala had retreated to the middle Kwango, where they founded the kingdom of Kasanje . Over the next two centuries this kingdom replaced Ndongo as the chief slave-trading entrepôt between the coast and the east, where the highly centralized and militarist Lunda kingdoms became increasingly important in supplying slaves by the 18th century. The Portuguese in southeastern Africa Initially the southeastern coast was of far less concern to the Portuguese than west-central Africa. Within a few years of their arrival, however, they had seized its wealthy but divided cities and had established themselves at Moçambique and Sofala, which soon became key ports of call for ships on the way to India. The Portuguese conquests led to the economic and cultural decline of the east coast cities. Yet the newcomers soon discovered that they were unable to control the vast area they had conquered. They faced resistance from coastal communities throughout the 16th century, and the profits they expected from the gold trade failed to materialize. In an attempt to control the trade and to discover the precious minerals for themselves, the Portuguese, following in the tracks of Muslim traders from the coast, expanded into the Zambezi valley about 1530. UNIT-II British Colonial Expansion 1806-1879 The history of the Cape Colony from 1806 to 1870 spans the period of the history of the Cape Colony during the Cape Frontier Wars, which lasted from 1779 to 1879. The wars were fought between the European colonists and the native who, having acquired firearms, rebelled against continuing European rule. The Cape Colony was the first European colony in South Africa, which was initially controlled by the Dutch but subsequently invaded and taken over by the British. After war broke out again, a British force was sent once more to the Cape. After a battle in January 1806 on the shores of Table Bay, the Dutch garrison of Cape Castle surrendered to the British under Sir David Baird, and in 1814, the colony was ceded outright by the Netherlands to the British crown. At that time, the colony extended to the mountains in front of the vast Central plateau, then called "Bushmansland", and had an area of about 194,000 square kilometres and a population of some 60,000, of whom 27,000 were white, 17,000 free Khoikhoi, and the rest slaves. These slaves were mostly people brought in from other parts of Africa and Malays. First and second frontier wars - The first of several wars with the Xhosa had already been fought by the time that the Cape Colony had been ceded to the United Kingdom. The Xhosa that crossed the colonial frontier had been expelled from the district between the Sundays River and Great Fish River known as the Zuurveld, which became a neutral ground of sorts. For some time before 1811, the Xhosa had taken possession of the neutral ground and attacked the colonists. In order to expel them from the Zuurveld, Colonel John Graham took the area with a mixed-race army in December 1811, and eventually the Xhosa were forced to fall back beyond the Fish River. On the site of Colonel Graham’s headquarters arose a town bearing his name: Graham's Town, subsequently becoming Grahamstown. A difficulty between the Cape Colony government and the Xhosa arose in 1817, the immediate cause of which was an attempt by the colonial authorities to enforce the restitution of some stolen cattle. On 22 April 1817, led by a prophet- chief named Makana, they attacked Graham’s Town, then held by a handful of white troops. Upon the arrival of reinforcements, the Xhosa troops retreated. It was then agreed that the land between the Fish and the Keiskamma rivers should be neutral territory. Formation of Natal, Transvaal - The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa, as one of its provinces. It is now the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. It was originally only about half the size of the present province, with the north-eastern boundaries being formed by the Tugela and Buffalo rivers beyond which lay the independent Kingdom of Zululand. Fierce conflict with the Zulu population led to the evacuation of Durban, and eventually, the Boers accepted British annexation in 1844 under military pressure. A British governor was appointed to the region and many settlers emigrated from Europe and the Cape Colony. The British established a sugar cane industry in the 1860s. Farm owners had a difficult time attracting Zulu labourers to work on their plantations, so the British brought thousands of indentured labourers from India. As a result of the importation of Indian labourers, Durban became the home to the largest concentration of Indians outside India British Settlement In 1823 Francis Farewell, formerly a lieutenant in the British navy, with other merchants of Cape Town, formed a company to trade with the natives of the south-east coast. In the brig "Salisbury", commanded by James S. King, who had been a midshipman in the navy, Farewell visited Port Natal, St Lucia and Delagoa Bays. The voyage was not successful as a trading venture, but Farewell was so impressed with the possibilities of Natal both for trade and colonization that he resolved to establish himself at the port. He went on with ten companions, among them Henry Francis Fynn. All the rest save Farewell and Fynn speedily returned to the Cape, but the two who remained were joined by three sailors, John Cane, Henry Ogle and Thomas Holstead. Farewell, Fynn and the others went to the royal kraal of Shaka, and, having cured him of a wound and made him various presents, obtained a document, dated 7 August 1824, ceding to "F.
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