| In 1795 the British occupied the Cape as a | | | | politics. The result was that frontier warfare |
| strategic base against the French, controlling the | | | | became endemic through much of the 19th |
| sea route to the East.After a brief reversion to | | | | century, during which Xhosa war leaders such as |
| the Dutch in the course of the Napoleonic wars, it | | | | Chief Maqoma became heroic figures to their |
| was retaken in 1806 and kept by Britain in the | | | | people.By the mid-1800s, British settlers of similar |
| post-war settlement of territorial claims. The | | | | persuasion were to be found in Natal. They too |
| closed and regulated economic system of the | | | | called for imperial expansion in support of their |
| Dutch period was swept away as the Cape | | | | land claims and trading enterprises.Meanwhile large |
| Colony was integrated into the dynamic | | | | numbers of the original colonists, the Boers, were |
| international trading empire of industrializing | | | | greatly extending white settlement beyond the |
| Britain.A crucial new element was evangelicalism, | | | | Cape's borders to the north in the movement |
| brought to the Cape by Protestant missionaries. | | | | that became known as the Great Trek in the |
| The evangelicals believed in the liberating effect of | | | | mid-1830s. Alienated by British liberalism, and with |
| 'free' labor and in the 'civilizing mission' of British | | | | their economic enterprise usurped by British |
| imperialism. They were convinced that indigenous | | | | settlers, several thousand Boers from the interior |
| peoples could be fully assimilated into European | | | | districts, accompanied by a number of Khoisan |
| Christian culture, once the shackles of oppression | | | | servants, began a series of migrations |
| had been removed.The most important | | | | northwards. They moved to the Highveld and |
| representative of the mission movement in South | | | | Natal, skirting the great concentrations of black |
| Africa was Dr. John Philip, who arrived as | | | | farmers on the way by taking advantage of the |
| superintendent of the London Missionary Society | | | | areas disrupted during the mfecane.When the |
| in 1819. His campaign on behalf of the oppressed | | | | British, who were concerned about controlling the |
| Khoisan coincided with a high point in official | | | | traffic through Port Natal (Durban), annexed the |
| sympathy for philanthropic concerns.One result | | | | territory of Natal in 1843, those emigrant Boers |
| was Ordinance 50 of 1828, which guaranteed | | | | who had hoped to settle there returned inland.The |
| equal civil rights for 'people of co lour' within the | | | | Voortrekkers (as they were later called) |
| colony and freed them from legal discrimination.At | | | | coalesced in two land-locked republics, the South |
| the same time, a powerful anti-slavery | | | | African Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free |
| movement in Britain promoted a series of | | | | State. There, the principles of racially exclusive |
| ameliorative measures, imposed on the colonies in | | | | citizenship were absolute, despite the trekkers' |
| the 1820s, and the proclamation of emancipation, | | | | reliance on black labor. With limited coercive |
| which came into force in 1834. The slaves were | | | | power, the Boer communities had to establish |
| subjected to a four-year period of 'apprenticeship' | | | | relations and develop alliances with some black |
| with their former owners on the grounds that | | | | chiefdoms, neutralizing those who obstructed their |
| they must be prepared for freedom, which came | | | | intrusion or who posed a threat to their |
| on 1 December 1838.Although slavery had | | | | security.Only after the mineral discoveries of the |
| become less profitable because of a depression in | | | | late 1800s did the balance of power swing |
| the wine industry, Cape slave-owners rallied to | | | | decisively towards the colonists. The Boer |
| oppose emancipation.The compensation money, | | | | republics then took on the trappings of real |
| which the British treasury paid out to sweeten | | | | statehood and imposed their authority within the |
| the pill, injected unprecedented liquidity into the | | | | territorial borders that they had notionally claimed |
| stagnant local economy.This brought a spurt of | | | | for themselves.The Colony of Natal, situated to |
| company formation, such as banks and insurance | | | | the south of the mighty Zulu State, developed |
| companies, as well as a surge of investment in | | | | along very different lines from the original colony |
| land and wool sheep in the drier regions of the | | | | of settlement, the Cape.The size of the black |
| colony in the late 1830s. Wool became a staple | | | | population left no room for the assimilationist |
| export on which the Cape economy depended | | | | vision of race domination embraced in the Cape. |
| for its further development in the middle decades | | | | Chiefdoms consisting mainly of refugee groups in |
| of the century.For the ex-slaves, as for the | | | | the aftermath of the mfecane were persuaded |
| Khoisan servants, the reality of freedom was | | | | to accept colonial protection in return for reserved |
| very different from the promise. As the | | | | land and the freedom to govern themselves in |
| wage-based economy developed, they remained | | | | accordance with their own customs. These |
| a dispossessed and exploited element in the | | | | chiefdoms were established in the heart of an |
| population, with little opportunity to escape their | | | | expanding colonial territory.Natal developed a |
| servile lot.Increasingly, they were lumped together | | | | system of political and legal dualism, whereby |
| as the coloured people, a group which included the | | | | chiefly rule was entrenched and customary law |
| descendants of unions between indigenous and | | | | was codified. Although exemptions from |
| European peoples, and a substantial Muslim | | | | customary law could be granted to the educated |
| minority who became known as the 'Cape Malays' | | | | products of the missions, in practice they were |
| (misleadingly, as they mostly came from the | | | | rare. Urban residence was strictly controlled and |
| Indonesian archipelago).The coloured people were | | | | political rights outside the reserves were |
| discriminated against on account of their | | | | effectively limited to whites. Natal's system is |
| working-class status as well as their racial identity. | | | | widely regarded as having provided a model for |
| Among the poor, especially in and around Cape | | | | the segregationism of the 20th century.Natal's |
| Town, there continued to be a great deal of racial | | | | economy was boosted by the development of |
| mixing and intermarriage throughout the 1800s.In | | | | sugar plantations in the subtropical coastal |
| 1820, several thousand British settlers, who were | | | | lowlands. Indian-indentured laborers were imported |
| swept up by a scheme to relieve Britain of its | | | | from 1860 to work the plantations, and many |
| unemployed, were placed in the eastern Cape | | | | Indian traders and market gardeners |
| frontier zone as a buffer against the Xhosa | | | | followed.These Indians, who were segregated and |
| chiefdoms.The vision of a dense settlement of | | | | discriminated against from the start, became a |
| small farmers was, however, ill-conceived and | | | | further important element in South Africa's |
| many of the settlers became artisans and | | | | population. It was in South Africa that Mohandas |
| traders. The more successful became an | | | | Gandhi refined from the mid-1890s the techniques |
| entrepreneurial class of merchants, large-scale | | | | of passive resistance, which he later effectively |
| sheep farmers and speculators with an insatiable | | | | practised in India. Although Indians gradually |
| demand for land.Some became fierce | | | | moved into the Transvaal and elsewhere, they |
| warmongers, who pressed for the military | | | | remain concentrated mainly in Natal.In 1853, the |
| dispossession of the chiefdoms. They coveted | | | | Cape Colony was granted a representative |
| Xhosa land and welcomed the prospect of war | | | | legislature in keeping with British policy, followed in |
| involving large-scale military expenditure by the | | | | 1872 by self-government. The franchise was |
| imperial authorities.The Xhosa engaged in raiding as | | | | formally non-racial but also based on income and |
| a means of asserting their prior claims to the land. | | | | property qualifications. |
| Racial paranoia became integral to white frontier | | | | |