The Struggle for South Africa

1600s               Dutch colonists settle at the Cape

1806                 the British acquire the Cape of Good Hope

1820s               British settlers move into the Cape Colony

1835-37             the Great Trek:  the Boers move northward into the interior, where they establish two independent republics:  the Orange Free State and the Transvaal

1843                 the British take control of the Natal, to the east of the Cape Colony

1852                 the British recognize the independence of the Transvaal

1854                 the British recognize the independence of the Orange Free State

1869                 diamonds discovered at Kimberley in Grinqualand West, claimed by both Britain

                        and the Orange Free State

1872                 Britain extends responsible government to the Cape Colony

1877                 the British, under Disraeli, proclaim the annexation of the Transvaal due to the

                        Zulu threat

1879                 Zulu War:  victory of the British over the Zulus, who resent the influx of

                        Europeans into their traditional lands

1880s               Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) becomes the central figure in British imperialist

                        activity in South Africa

1880                 the Boers revolt against British control in December

1881                 First Boer War:  the Boers defeat a small British force at Majuba Hill in February;

Gladstone recognizes the virtual independence of the Transvaal under British suzerainty (an undefined degree of power)

1884                 at the Convention of London, the British abandon their claim to suzerainty

although they insist that the Transvaal's foreign affairs should remain subject to British control

1885                 discovery of gold at the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (Afrikaner 

territory in the Transvaal Republic);  to extract the gold requires a high level of initial investment, which the local population cannot meet (Boer farmers were poor, undercapitalized peasants); German and British investors and prospectors move in and tension mounts between the Boers and the uitlanders (foreigners), who are denied rights yet required to pay taxes and claim they are the victims of discrimination; the Boers impose tariffs on goods moving in and out of the rand and a tariff war ensues; Rhodes works towards a mutually beneficial customs union, which the Orange Free State and the Transvaal do not support; the

Transvaal becomes a prosperous state and starts (by the 1890s) buying modern

weapons, mainly from Germany

1888                 Rhodes buys a monopoly control of Kimberley

1889                 Orange Free State and the Transvaal sign a defensive alliance;

Rhodes founds the British South African Company, which establishes Southern and Northern Rhodesia; under Rhodes’ urging, the British also secure control of Bechuanaland and Nyasaland; Rhodes intends to encircle the Afrikaners, thereby drawing a line between the Afrikaners and their German allies in South West Africa

1893                 the British pre-emptively warn off both Germany and the Transvaal by

insisting that the whole of South Africa is a British sphere of influence

1895                 Joseph Chamberlain takes over as Secretary of State for the Colonies; he

                        pursues an expansionist foreign policy; meanwhile, uitlanders in the mine sites

are poorly treated and denied rights;  the British government uses this as a pretext for harassing the Transvaal government;  Rhodes' agent, Dr. Leander S. Jameson, leads an unsuccessful raid into the Transvaal to incite the uitlanders to revolt;  this convinces President Paul Kruger of the Transvaal, that Rhodes (prime minister of the Cape Colony since1890) seeks to take over the two Boer republics;  Rhodes' political career is ruined;  Kruger signs treaties with Germany and France

1896                 Emporer William II of Germany congratulates Kruger on successfully turning back the Jameson Raid, a move which the British greatly resent;  Rhodes resigns and Sir Alfred Milner (1854-1925), the British high commissioner of South Africa, begins a series of negotiations with Kruger over the grievances of uitlanders in the Transvaal, but the talks lead nowhere; Milner moves British

                        troops to the Transvaal borders

1899                 Kruger Telegram: in October, the Transvaal demands the removal of British troops from its frontier; when the British do not comply, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State invade Natal and Cape Colony;  from October to February (1900) the Boers successfully besiege the British at Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking with a series of lightning victories;  'the Black Week' (9-15 December) the British lose or surrender thousands of troops

1900                 after reinforcing their army in South Africa and tightening their blockade of the two Boer republics, the British take the offensive from February to September under the command of Lord Roberts (1832-1914) and Lord Kitchener (1850-1916); in March, Roberts seizes Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, and takes Pretoria, the Transvaal's capital, in May; Robert Baden-Powell's legendary defence of Mafeking is relieved on 17 May; guerilla war continues until 1902, even though the British proclaim the annexation of the republics; the British conduct systematic sweeps through Boer territory, burn 30,000 farms, and herd the population into concentration camps

1902                 Treaty of Vereeniging: in May, the British offer lenient peace terms to the Boers:  they can continue to use their language, they will have representative government, and will be given financial support for rehabilitation; more than 22,000 British deaths and 100,000 wounded; 5000 Boer combat deaths and 28,000 deaths as a result of disease in concentration camps

1906                 the Transvaal gains self-government under Louis Botha (1862-1919), a former Boer general

1908                 the Orange Free State gains self-government under Christian de Wet (1854-1922)

1910                 the British unite Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal, and the Orange Free State to form the Union of South Africa, a self-        governing dominion under the leadership of General Botha

1913                 Native Land Act denies Africans the right to own land in 87% of the Union's land; Africans are forced into the labor market, where all whites are classified as skilled