大象传媒

Boers resting during a trek
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The Dutch who ceded the Cape to the British at the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) never got on with their landlords, particularly when the British extended their slave-owning ban to the colony.

Furthermore, the Dutch wanted more land - an Afrikaner farmer estimated that to make a profitable business out of cattle ranching he would need about 6,000 acres.

Furthermore, the Afrikaners felt threatened by the Xhosa tribes on the other side of the Fish River and, with the slave ban it was clear why they decided to look for new lands north of the Orange River.

So started the Great Trek [De Groot Trek]. But the trek could never resolve the differences between British and Boer. The conflict between them took three quarters of a century to come to a terrible and inevitable conflict.

Immediately in mid-century both British and Dutch saw a threat from the conflict among the Africans. It had started when the Zulus, under their celebrated chief, Shaka, were seemingly at war with the rest of black Africa. Consequently many of the other tribes were escaping westward into the Cape. Consequently, the Afrikaners met few tribes all the while they stuck to the northern route. However, the land they reached was mainly poor. So, many then moved towards the east and the coastal regions.

It was here that the Boers came up against the Zulus. Afrikaners and Zulus skirmishes and battles were uncompromising affairs. The British were wrong-footed. They thought that once the Afrikaners had gone north then they were no more than another tribe easily controlled by their surrounding geography.

However, if the trekkers were settling along the coast, then that was an entirely different matter. The British regarded control of the coast as essential to their wider strategic plan. First the ports had commercial values and, if British interests in the African interior were threatened, then Britain had to control the entry points to get in their troops. In 1844 the British annexed Natal, the province that controls the coastline. Once more Afrikaners moved on and in 1852 the Boer South African Republic, the Transvaal, demanded some form of independence.

Sir Benjamin D'Urban 1777-1849

D'Urban was a major general and colonial administrator born in Halesworth who in 1793, joined the army as a cornet, fought with distinction in the Peninsular War and famously never asked for leave. 1819, he was made Governor of Antigua and in 1831 the first Governor of British Guiana. In 1834, his appointment as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Cape Colony was coincidental with the Great Trek and the Cape Frontier War (1834-35) with the Xhosa. He took Natal for the empire but because he upset some locals, fell foul of the Colonial Secretary Lord Glenelg who dismissed him. In 1847 D'Urban commanded the army in Canada and died two years later in Montreal.

Durban which used to be Port Natal was re-named in 1835 after the then Cape Colony Governor, Sir Benjamin D'Urban.

Events of this episode took place in Southern Africa region. We're interested to hear your comments on the influence of Empire on this region:

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Advice for prospective settlers to the Cape Colony

Excerpt from The Cape Colony - A Handbook for Intending Settlers, 1868

"It is not by any means our desire to induce everyone to go to the Cape, without reference to his qualifications or regard for his prospects on arriving there. Thus, as relates to the large class of mechanics and workmen in general, we would not advise any precipitate determination to leave their homes in order to emigrate to South Africa. If they have the means of decently supporting themselves and their families in England, they ought not, without very serious reflection, to abandon their native shores for those of the Cape, or any other country. It certainly would not be wise to do so from any vague notion of bettering their fortunes and in the expectation of a sudden change in their pecuniary position. The high rates of wages ruling in some locations may be accepted as the expectation, but are not generally obtainable; and the increased cost of living as refers to some articles of necessity should be taken into account. But to the artisan or mechanic who goes out with a resolve to fight his way upward and to seize upon and avail himself of every opportunity, the Cape undoubtedly offers a field in which everything may be hoped from steadfast labour, when accompanied with economy and intelligence."

A Zulu description of British military tactics

"The whites did not seize the enemy as we do, by the body, but they thundered from afar. The fire of their artillery is to men what the conflagrations of August are to dry pasturing. Whither can one flee from the lightning of their musket? Where can a man conceal himself from the thunder vomited forth?"