South African Wars (1879-1915)
Ethnic, political and social tensions among European colonial powers, indigenous Africans, and English and Dutch settlers led to open conflict in a series of wars and revolts between 1879 and 1915 that would have lasting repercussions on the entire region of southern Africa. Pursuit of commercial empire as well as individual aspirations, especially after the discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886), were key factors driving these developments.
The various wars of this era are usually studied separately, as independent conflicts. They include the first and second Anglo-Boer War, the Anglo-Zulu War, the Basotho Gun War, the 9th Frontier War and others. However it is instructive also to see them as outbreaks in a far larger wave of change and conflict effecting the subcontinent - beginning with the "Confederation Wars" of the 1870s and 80s; escalating with the rise of Cecil Rhodes and the struggle for control of gold and diamond resources; and leading up to the Second Anglo-Boer War and the Union of South Africa in 1910.
As European powers – particularly Dutch Boers and the British – began to claim parts of southern Africa, it became apparent that expansion was an imperative in order to maintain their political positions. The relationships and boundaries among them became exceedingly more complex, affecting not only themselves, but the indigenous peoples and the land itself.
By 1880, there were four dominant European regions: the Cape Colony and Natal were to some degree under British control, and the Transvaal (South African Republic) and Orange Free State were independent republics controlled by the Boers. These colonies and their political leaders were the most important and influential of the time, and all were eventually dissolved into the singular Union of South Africa in May 1910.
The Cape Colony was founded by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. In 1795, it was taken over by the British, who were officially granted possession of the Cape by the Netherlands in 1815. At this time, the Cape Colony encompassed 100,000 square miles (260,000 km2) and was populated by about 26,720 people of European descent, a relative majority of whom were still of Dutch origin. The remainder were descended from German soldiers and sailors in the service of the Dutch East India Company's former administration, and a large number of French Huguenot refugees resettled there after fleeing religious persecution at home. Some of the existing colonists had become semi-nomadic pastoralists known as trekboers who frequently ventured beyond the Cape's frontier. This led to an expansion of the colony's borders and clashes with the Xhosa tribe over pastureland in the vicinity of the Great Fish River. Beginning in 1818, thousands of British immigrants were introduced by the colonial government to bolster the local European workforce and help populate the frontier as an additional defence against the Xhosa.
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