1835-1872 History of Southern Africa Union of South Africa
1910-1918






Regular Stamps issued for the Cape of Good Hope



The Cape of Good Hope, 1880-1910



Cape Foreign Policy In 1867, diamonds were discovered in an area called Griqualand West; the area soon attracrated miners and fortune hunters. Claimed by the Boers, it was declared a British protectorate in 1871 and annexed by the Cape Colony in 1880. In 1877-1881, Cape troops occupied the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (Transvaal). The undertaking ended in disaster : the Boers revolted, easily defeated the Cape troops, and reestablished their independence, Britain was not committed to dispatch troops; the Cape administration had to accept the defeat.
The Cape Colony annexed Southern Bechuanaland in 1895.
The discovery of gold at Witwatersrand outside Johannesburg in the Transvaal, another boomtown, attracted British attention. Businessman, politician and colonial adventurer Cecil Rhodes, founder of De Beers and Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, proclaimed the strategic aim of placing an area along the route Cape to Cairo under British control. After acquiring territory in Bechuanaland, Mashonaland, Matabeleland, Barotseland and Nyasaland, mostly as colonies for his British South Africa Company and failing to find a gold mine compatible to the Witwatersrand, he provoked the Boer War (1899-1902).
After temporarily humiliating British forces and offering stiff resistance, the Boers were forced to surrender, the Boer republics turned into British colonies. In 1910, the Cape Colony, together with Natal, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, formed the Union of South Africa, which was given the status of a Dominion.

Economy The diamond and gold rush resulted in the emergence of a modern mining industry and the rapid expansion of the raiload network. Ostrich farming expanded; South Africa attracted immigrants at an unprecedented scale. The (Second) Boer War of 1899-1902 resulted in a crisis of the Transvaal mining industry, which affected the Cape as is was met with an increase in taxation. The immigration of Chinese labourers was banned (1905).

The Cape Dutch In 1881 the Afrikander Bond was established, with chapters in the Orange Free State, Transvaal and in the Cape Colony. In 1882 the Boers were granted the right to speak (Cape) Dutch in the Legislative Assembly. Fears of a rising of the Cape Dutch - after the war of 1877-1881 - did not materialize.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		History of the Cape Colony from 1870 to 1899, from 1899 to 1910, from Wikipedia
Cape Province, History of, from Infoplease
A Brief History of Cape Town, from Cape Town 2004
Links on South African History, from Looksmart
La Guerre de Boers, from De Colonie a Pays., Guide de Recherche sur l'Histoire Militaire de Canada, in French, from Canadian National Library, bibliography
DOCUMENTS Civic Arms, from International Civic Arms
From British Military Medals : Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal 1880-1897, Wueen's South Africa Medal, 1899-1901, King's South Africa Medal, 1901-1902, Defence of Kimberley Star, 1899-1900
News from Cape Colony, in "The Great Round World and What is Going on in it", Vol.1 No.51, October 1897, posted by Gutenberg Library Online
REFERENCE Robert Ross, A Concise History of South Africa, Cambridge Concise Histories, 1999, 219 pp.
Christopher Saunders and Iain R. Smith, Southern Africa 1795-1910, pp.597-623 in : Andrew Porter (ed.), The Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol.III : The Nineteenth Century, Oxford : UP 1999, KMLA Lib.Sign. 909.0971241 O98o v.3
Article : Cape Colony, in : Statesman's Year Book 1878 pp.624-631, 1895 pp.168-177, 1898 pp.168-177, 1901 pp.183-193, 1905 pp.195-206 [G]
Article : Cape Colony, in : International Year Book 1898 pp.160-163, 1899 pp.159-162, 1900 pp.171-175 [G]
Article : Cape Colony, in : New International Year Book 1907 pp.143-145, 1908 pp.132-134, 1909 pp.136-137, 1910 pp.136-137 [G]
Article : Cape Colony, in : Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events 1886 pp.133-136, 1894 pp.100-102 [G]
A.G. Hales, Campaign Pictures of the War in South Africa (1899-1900) (1901), posted online by Gutenberg Library Online
Catherine Radziwill, Cecil Rhodes, Man and Empire-Maker (1918), posted online by Gutenberg Library Online
H.H.S. Pearce, Four Months Besieged, The Story of Ladysmith (1900), posted by Gutenberg Library Online
Handbook of the Boer War (1910), posted online by Gutenberg Library Online
VIDEOS Rhodes, 1997, cc



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on October 19th 2007

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