South Africa

Question 1

British background in S Africa?

Answer 1

• Took over Cape in 1806; seen as important for interior penetration of Africa
• Was the primary staging post for troops for India; guarded by 4200 troops

Question 2

Who were the Boers?

Answer 2

White settlers form Dutch and French ancestry who had colonised SA in 1652
Believed they had a divine right to be there

Question 3

Why did Boers dislike British?

Answer 3

-Br wanted to extend legs rights to blacks and mixed race…Boers found this liberalism incomprehensible (they supported slavery; missionaries had been horrified by Boer barbarism)

Question 4

What was the Great Trek?

Answer 4

1832- Boers withdrew from he South African hinterland and founded Transvaal and Orange Free State
The British accepted this- they wanted local stability
Britain recognised the independence of the Boer republics in 1854, with the provision that the Boers would acknowledge Br sovereignty that put them as part of Br’s informal empire

Question 5

Who were the Xhosa?

Answer 5

• Black race
• Br originally wanted to extend rights to them (unlike Boers)
• Attitudes towards the Xhosaa hardened; they were offered an ultimatum to either accept British rule or face exile

Question 6

Britain v Xhosa?

Answer 6

1878
Britain beat them through scorched earth policy and annexed Xhosa land to Cape
It was a racist war- British commander had called Xhosa warrior a ‘greasy savage’

Question 7

Was Cape Colony initially beneficial?

Answer 7

Not really- in 1855, SA imported only 922k worth of Br goods

Question 8

When did Cape Colony become economically important?

Answer 8

-Diamonds discovered in the Griqualand- Br imports 1871 = 2m vs 1890= 7.7m

Question 9

Why was the discovery of diamonds so significant for Br relations with the blacks?

Answer 9

Britain required an unskilled workforce after the diamond discovery and could only find this in the black population, who they believed needed to be pacified
This need for pacification grew in 1870s as the Zulus began buying guns with the wages they had earned on the diamond fields

Question 10

What did Lord Carnavon want? What did this require?

Answer 10

In 1874 he expressed plans for a South African Federation, which could only be achieved with a passive Zulu population

Question 11

First Zulu War? Why? What happened

Answer 11

• Relations in the Transvaal became very fragile: Zulus were threatening the Boers in 1877 and so the Britain came to Boers’ help and took control of the Transvaal
• Led to a war where the Brits defeated the Zulus violently: 500 Zulus killed in 24 hrs at Rorkes’ Drift

Question 12

What happened after the war?

Answer 12

• Britain initially refused to restore Boer independence in Transvaal, but were defeated at Majuba Hill in 1881 after Paul Kruger attacked
• Gladstone agreed to restored independence following negotiations in Pretoria (1881) and LDN (1884) but Br retained sovereignty and control over foreign policy

Question 13

Britain’s influence in the Transvaal after the war?

Answer 13

Maintained economic influence
Discovery of gold in 1886 on the Witswatersrand
These mines provided 25% of world supply of gold
Ten years later the Transvaal gov became the richest in Africa
NONETHELESS, 2/3 of these mines were owned by Br stockholders
Br investment in the Transvaal totalled 350m

Question 14

Br presence in the Transvaal summary?

Answer 14

-Annexed the Boer land on false pretences, held on to it illegally, witnessed great economic prosperity but refused to share the gains with those who had the greatest claims to it

Question 15

Who was Rhodes?

Answer 15

-Multi millionarie businessman through diamond mines

Question 16

What had Rhodes done in S Africa?

Answer 16

• Annexed Bechaunaland in 1884
• Launched de Beers company in 1888 with the backing of Rothschild
• Had the biggest shares in the Transvaal mines (capital investment of 200k)
• Formed Rhodesia by leading 1.2k Br men into Rhodesia to quiet the Ndebele tribe..Br protectorate formed in 1891 to prevent Portuguese acquisition
• PM of Cape Colony 1890-6

Question 17

Evidence of Rhodes’ racism?

Answer 17

Believed Anglo-Saxon men needed to civilise the world
Used British South Africa Company to suppress Shona and Ndebele (nearly half of the settlers died)
In 1903 made law in S Rhodesia that. black would be killed if they raped a white woman but not if they raped a black woman
-Wanted an Empire from Cape to Cairo
Introduced the Glen Grey Act in 1894 in Cape Colony (which he was the PM of) which forced blacks from land (a precursor for Lands Act of 1913)

Question 18

What/when was the Jameson raid?

Answer 18

1895
Britain had hoped that a Uitlander rebellion int he Transvaal would happens that Britain could then invade, justified by them protecting their own people
But the rebellion never happened yet Jameson (with support of Rhodes) rode to Transvaal on 29 Dec 1895, and embarrassingly surrendered very quickly when he got there

Question 19

Who were the Uitlanders?

Answer 19

British workers in Transvaal mines

Question 20

Result of the Jameson raid?

Answer 20

Rhodes seen as a liability; he resigned as president of Cape Colony and was sent to Rhodesia

Question 21

Who was to blame for the Boer War?

Answer 21

Milner
Chamberlain
Kruger
Capitalists
Investment

Question 22

Why was Chamberlain to blame for the Boer War?

Answer 22

Had appointed Milner as High Commissioner
Allowed the Jameson Raid
Believed that the war was necessary for sustainable relations in Africa in the future

Question 23

Why was Milner to blame for the Boer War?

Answer 23

Stirred up anti-Boer feeling in the British press which made negotiations difficult
Encouraged finances not to accept Transvaal loans
Rejected Kruger’s proposal to give Uitlander the vote if they stayed for another 7 years
Pressed for more troops to be sent in in the summer of 1899

Question 24

Why was Kruger to blame for the Boer War?

Answer 24

• Denied rights to Uitlanders but taxed them heavily inc a 5 shilling tax on dynamite while handing over a monopoly of dynamite production to a non-British branch of Nobel company
• These high taxes went to Afrikaner projects
• Caused tensions by buying guns of French and Germans: by 1899 Boers had 73 heavy guns and 25k troops
• Ordered the removal of British troops in Oct 1899 while knowing that the British would not accept this (only did it in response to Chamberlain’s order for full rights to Uitlanders)
• Broke down talks with Milner in May 1899 in Bloemfontein
• In 1894 he had proposed building a railway through British East Africa to avoid British tariffs (deliberately provocative)

Question 25

Why were capitalists to blame for the Boer War?

Answer 25

The Mine owners were to blame
Uitlanders were resentful of Kruger’s taxation, which pushed Britain to start the war BUT mine owners weren’t that fussed with political agendas; they pushed for far more limited reforms in the Transvaal

Question 26

Why was investment to blame for the Boer War?

Answer 26

Over half of 74m invested in gold mining was from the British (they, therefore, would have gone to war to secure physical control of gold mines because they had low gold reserves)
BUT the war cost 200m for British and SA’s exports were only worth 15m a year- not really worth it? Also no records of British angst re low gold reserves

Question 27

When was the Boer War

Answer 27

11 October 1899 – 31 May 1902

Question 28

Effects of Boer War?

Answer 28

Cost 250m

22k British men died

Question 29

Concentration camp stats?

Answer 29

107k Boer civilians entrapped

Conditions were dire - 28k died of disease (24k of whom were children)

Question 30

Br tactics during Boer War?

Answer 30

Concentration camps
Boer farms were destroyed
Disaffected areas were covered in barbed wire

Question 31

How did Boer War damage Union Gov?

Answer 31

In 1904, Milner agreed to import Chinese labourers to wrk in the SA gold mines; this confirmed that the war was for gold and not for the rights of Uitlanders
This was exploited in media, leading to criticism of Milner- the issue of Chinese slavery contributed to the victory of the liberals in 1906
Led to growth in anti imperialism (high imperialism became associated with barbarism)

Question 32

Legacy of the Boer War for SA politics?

Answer 32

Ended with the 1902 Treaty of Vereeniging which made Boer republic Br colony with promise of self-government; 3m was given to the Boers for reparations
1906- the liberals restored self government and free elections for whites in the defeated states; Transvaal was restored limited self government
1907- racist party, Volk Party, won a sweeping victory
1910- Union of SA- Boers dominated the union; racist state where Britain had no control

Question 33

Was British rule disastrous for the natives of SA? NO?

Answer 33

Black natives (Xhosa)- Br supported initially and took a different stance to the racist boers
Britain did originally give Boers independence after the Great Trek

Question 34

Was British rule disastrous for the natives of SA? YES?

Answer 34

• Xhosa: offered them ultimatum to accept Br rule or be exiled. Br scorched earth policy drove them out and annexed their land
• Zulus: they needed to be suppressed for Carnavon’s Federation and for the work in the Griqualand. Britain got th war they wanted over Zulu attack on Transvaal…they were crushed at Rorke’s Drift
• Boers: Britain refused to let Transvaal go. Still retained control after going it independence; unfairly Br gained economically from it

Question 35

Military alliances with powers during 1900s

Answer 35

Anglo-Japan (02)
Anglo-France (04)
Anglo-Russia (07)

Question 36

Change to colony status?

Answer 36

Australia, Canada and N Zealand all objected to the term ‘colonies’
Change in 1907 to dominions; all independent except in name and they could outvote Britain on matter relating to constitutional relationship

Question 37

Particularly bad re discovery of diamonds in the Griqualand?

Answer 37

Following the discovery, due to the influx of whites, 2k Griquas were forced to trek East c.71-73.
They formed Griqualand East which was then annexed by the British in 1874

Question 38

What/when was Glen Grey Act?

Answer 38

1894
Established individual rather than communal land ownership
Created a labour tax to force the Xhosa men into employment on commercial farms or industry