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History of Cape Colony from 1806 to 1870

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   Cape Colony
   History
    Pre-1806
    1806–1870
    1870–1899
    1899–1910

   The history of Cape Colony from 1806 to 1870 spans the period of the
   history of Cape Colony during the Cape Frontier Wars, also called the
   Kaffir Wars, which lasted from 1811 to 1858. The wars were fought
   between the European colonists and the native Xhosa who rebelled
   against continuing European rule. The Cape Colony was the first
   European colony in South Africa, which was initially controlled by the
   Dutch but subsequently invaded and taken over by the British. After war
   broke out again, a British force was sent once more to the Cape. After
   a battle in January 1806 on the shores of Table Bay, the Dutch garrison
   of Cape Castle surrendered to the British under Sir David Baird, and in
   1814 the colony was ceded outright by the Netherlands to the British
   crown. At that time the colony extended to the mountains in front of
   the vast central plateau, then called "Bushmansland", and had an area
   of about 194,000 square kilometres and a population of some 60,000, of
   whom 27,000 were white, 17,000 free Khoikhoi (Hottentots), and the rest
   slaves. These slaves were mostly imported black people and Malays.

The First and Second Frontier Wars

   The first of several wars with the Xhosa had already been fought by the
   time that the Cape Colony had been ceded to the United Kingdom. The
   Xhosa that crossed the colonial frontier had been expelled from the
   district between the Sundays River and Great Fish River known as the
   Zuurveld, which became a neutral ground of sorts. For some time before
   1811, the Xhosa had taken possession of the neutral ground and attacked
   the colonists. In order to expel them from the Zuurveld, Colonel John
   Graham took the area with a mixed-race army in December of 1811, and
   finally the Xhosa were driven beyond the Fish River. On the site of
   Colonel Graham’s headquarters arose a town bearing his name: Graham's
   Town, subsequently becoming Grahamstown.

   A difficulty between the Cape Colony government and the Xhosa arose in
   1817, the immediate cause of which was an attempt by the colonial
   authorities to enforce the restitution of some stolen cattle. On 22
   April 1817, led by a prophet-chief named Makana, they attacked Graham’s
   Town, then held by a handful of white troops. Help arrived in time and
   the enemy were beaten back. It was then agreed that the land between
   the Fish and the Keiskamma rivers should be neutral territory.

The 1820 Settlers

   The war of 1817-19 led to the first wave of immigration of English
   settlers of any considerable scale, an event with far-reaching
   consequences. The then governor, Lord Charles Somerset, whose treaty
   arrangements with the Xhosa chiefs had proved untenable, desired to
   erect a barrier against the Xhosa by having white colonists settle in
   the border region. In 1820, upon the advice of Lord Somerset,
   parliament voted to spend £50,000 to promote migration to the Cape,
   prompting 4,000 British people to emigrate. These immigrants, who are
   now known as the 1820 Settlers, formed the Albany settlement, later
   Port Elizabeth, and made Grahamstown their headquarters. Intended
   primarily as a measure to secure the safety of the frontier, and
   regarded by the British government chiefly as a way of finding
   employment for a few thousand of the unemployed in Britain. Yet, the
   emigration scheme accomplished something with more far reaching
   implications than its authors had intended. The new settlers, drawn
   from every part of the British Isles and from almost every grade of
   society, retained strong loyalty to Britain. In the course of time,
   they formed a counterpoint to the Dutch colonists.

   The arrival of these immigrants also introduced the English language to
   the Cape. English language ordinances were issued for the first time in
   1825, and in 1827 its use was extended to the conduct of judicial
   proceedings. Dutch was not, however, ousted, and the colonists became
   largely bilingual.

Dutch hostility to British Rule

   Although the colony was prosperous, many Dutch farmers were as
   dissatisfied with British rule as they had been with that of the Dutch
   East India Company, though their grievances were not the same. In 1792
   Moravian missions had been established for the benefit of the Khoikhoi,
   and in 1799 the London Missionary Society began to try to convert both
   the Khoikhoi and the Xhosa. The championship of Khoikhoi grievances by
   the missionaries caused much dissatisfaction among the majority of the
   colonists, whose conservative views temporarily prevailed, for in 1812
   an ordinance was issued which gave magistrates the power to bind
   Khoikhoi children as apprentices under conditions little different from
   those of slavery. In the meantime, the movement for the abolition of
   slavery was gaining strength in England, and the missionaries appealed
   at length, from the colonists to Britain.

   An incident, which occurred from 1815 to 1816, did much to make the
   Dutch frontiersmen permanently hostile to the British. A farmer named
   Bezuidenhout refused to obey a summons issued to him after a complaint
   from Khoikhoi was registered. He fired on the party sent to arrest him,
   and was killed by the return fire. This caused a miniature rebellion,
   and in its suppression five ringleaders were publicly hanged by the
   British at Slachters Nek where they had originally sworn to expel "the
   English tyrants." The resentment caused by the hanging of these men was
   deepened by the circumstances of the execution, for the scaffold on
   which the rebels simultaneously were hanged broke from their united
   weight and the men were hanged one by one afterwards. The deeply
   religious Dutch frontiersmen believed the collapsing scaffold to be an
   act of God. An ordinance passed in 1827 abolished the old Dutch "
   landdrost" and "heemraden" courts, instead substituting resident
   magistrates. The ordinance further stipulated that all legal
   proceedings be henceforth conducted in English.

   A subsequent ordinance in 1828 granted equal rights to the Khoikhoi and
   other free coloured people with white people as a result of the
   championing of the missionaries. Another ordinance in 1830 imposed
   heavy penalties for harsh treatment of slaves, and finally the
   emancipation of slaves was proclaimed in 1834. Each of these ordinances
   drew further ire from the farmers towards the government. Moreover, the
   inadequate compensation awarded to slave-owners, and the suspicions
   engendered by the method of payment, caused much resentment, and in
   1835 the trend where farmers trekked into unknown country in order to
   escape from a disliked government recommenced. Emigration beyond the
   colonial border had in fact been continuous for 150 years, but it now
   took on larger proportions.

The Third Cape Frontier War

   On the eastern border, further trouble arose between the government and
   the Xhosa, towards whom the policy of the Cape government was marked by
   much vacillation. On 11 December 1834, a commando party killed a chief
   of high rank, incensing the Xhosa: an army of 10,000 men, led by
   Macomo, a brother of the chief who had been killed, swept across the
   frontier, pillaged and burned the homesteads and killed all who
   resisted. Among the worst sufferers was a colony of freed Khoikhoi who,
   in 1829, had been settled in the Kat River valley by the British
   authorities. There were few available soldiers in the colony, but the
   governor, Sir Benjamin d'Urban acted quickly and all available forces
   were mustered under Colonel Sir Harry Smith, who reached Graham’s Town
   on 6 January 1835, six days after news of the uprising had reached Cape
   Town. The British fought the Xhosa for nine months until hostilities
   were ended on 17 September 1838 with the signing of a new peace treaty,
   by which all the country as far as the River Kei was acknowledged to be
   British, and its inhabitants declared British subjects. A site for the
   seat of government was selected and named King William’s Town.

The Great Trek

   Map of the route of the Great Trek
   Enlarge
   Map of the route of the Great Trek

   The British government did not approve of the actions of Sir Benjamin
   d'Urban, and the British Secretary for the Colonies, Lord Glenelg,
   declared in a letter to the King that "the great evil of the Cape
   Colony consists in its magnitude" and demanded that the boundary be
   moved back to the Fish River. He also eventually had d'Urban dismissed
   from office in 1837. "The Kaffirs," in Lord Glenelg's dispatch of 26
   December, "had an ample justification for war; they had to resent, and
   endeavoured justly, though impotently, to avenge a series of
   encroachments.” This attitude towards the Xhosa was one of the many
   reasons given by the Trek Boers for leaving the Cape Colony. The Great
   Trek, as it is called, lasted from 1836 to 1840. The trekkers,
   numbering around 7,000, founded communities with a republican form of
   government beyond the Orange and Vaal rivers, and in Natal, where they
   had been preceded, however, by British emigrants. From this time on
   Cape Colony ceased to be the only European community in South Africa,
   though it was the most predominant for many years.

   Considerable trouble was caused by the emigrant Boers on either side of
   the Orange River, where the Boers, the Basutos, other native tribes,
   Bushmen, and Griquas fought for superiority, while the Cape government
   endeavoured to protect the rights of the natives. On the advice of the
   missionaries, who exercised great influence on all non-Dutch people, a
   number of the native states were recognised and subsidised by the Cape
   government with the objective of creating peace on the northern
   frontier. The first "Treaty States" to be recognised was Griqualand
   West of the Griqua people. Subsequent states were recognised between
   1843 and 1844. While the northern frontier became more secure, the
   state of the eastern frontier was deplorable, with the government
   either unable or unwilling to protect farmers from the Xhosa.

   Elsewhere, however, the colony was making progress. The change from
   slave to free labour proved to be advantageous to the farmers in the
   western provinces. An efficient education system, owing its inception
   to Sir John Herschel, an astronomer who lived in Cape Colony from 1834
   to 1838, was adopted. Road Boards were established and proved to be
   very effective in constructing new roads. A new stable industry,
   sheepraising, was added to the original set of wheatgrowing, cattle
   rearing, and wine making. By 1846 wool became the country's most
   valuable export. A legislative council was established in 1835, giving
   the colonists a share in the government.

The War of the Axe

   Another war with the Xhosa, known as the War of the Axe, broke out in
   1846, when a Khoikhoi escort that had been manacled to a Xhosa thief
   was murdered while transporting the man to Graham’s Town to be tried
   for stealing an axe. A party of Xhosa attacked and killed the escort.
   The surrender of the murderer was refused, and war was declared in
   March of 1846. The Ngqikas were the chief tribe engaged in the war,
   assisted by the Tambukies. The Xhosa were defeated on 7 June 1846 by
   General Somerset on the Gwangu, a few miles from Fort Peddie. However,
   the war continued until Sandili, the chief of the Ngqika, surrendered.
   Other chiefs gradually followed this action, and by the beginning of
   1848 the Xhosa had been completely subdued after twenty-one months of
   fighting.

Extension of British Sovereignty

   Sir Harry Smith
   Enlarge
   Sir Harry Smith

   In December of 1847, or what was to be the last month of the War of the
   Axe, Sir Harry Smith reached Cape Town by boat to become the new
   governor of the colony. He reversed Glenelg's policy soon after
   arrival. A proclamation he issued on 17 December, 1847, extended the
   borders of the colony northwards to the Orange river and eastward to
   the Keiskamma river, and at a meeting of the Xhosa chiefs on 23
   December, 1847, Sir Harry announced the annexation of the land between
   the Keiskamma and the Kei rivers to the British crown, thus
   re-absorbing the territory abandoned by Lord Glenelg. The land was not,
   however, incorporated into the Cape Colony, but instead made a crown
   dependency under the name of British Kaffraria. For a time the Xhosa
   accepted the new government in British Kaifaria since they were mainly
   left alone as the governor had other serious matters to contend with,
   including the assertion of British authority over the Boers beyond the
   Orange river, and the establishment of amicable relations with the
   Transvaal Boers.

The Convict Agitation and Granting of a Constitution

   A crisis arose in the colony over a proposal to make the Cape Colony a
   convict station. A circular written in 1848 by the third Earl Grey,
   then colonial secretary was sent to the governor of the Cape, as well
   as other colonial governors, asking them to ascertain the feelings of
   the colonists regarding the reception of a certain class of convicts.
   The Earl intended to send Irish peasants who had been driven to crime
   by the famine of 1845 to South Africa. Due to a misunderstanding, a
   boat named the Neptune was sent to the Cape Colony before the
   colonists' opinion had been received. The boat had 289 convicts on
   board, among whom was the famous Irish rebel John Mitchel, and his
   colleagues. When the news that this vessel was on her way reached the
   Cape, people became violently excited and established an anti-convict
   association whose members bound themselves to cease from all
   interaction of any kind with persons in any way associated "with the
   landing, supplying or employing convicts". Sir Harry Smith, confronted
   with violent public agitation, agreed not to allow the convicts to land
   when the Neptune arrived in Simon's Bay on 19 September 1849, but to
   keep them on board the ship until he received orders to send them
   elsewhere. When the home government became aware of the state of
   affairs, orders were sent directing the Neptune to proceed to Tasmania,
   and it did so after staying in Simon’s Bay for five months. The
   agitation did not fade away without further achievements, as it led to
   another movement that intended to obtain a free, representative
   government for the colony. The British government granted this
   concession, which had been previously promised by Lord Grey, and a
   constitution was established in 1854 of almost unprecedented
   liberality.

The Eighth Frontier War of 1850–1853

   The anti-convict move had scarcely ended when the colony was once again
   involved in a war. The Xhosa bitterly resented their loss of
   independence, and had secretly prepared to renew their struggle ever
   since the last war. Sir Harry Smith, informed of the increasingly
   threatening attitude of the natives, went to the border region and
   summoned Sandili and the other chiefs for a meeting. Sandili refused
   obedience, after which the governor declared him deposed from his
   chieftanship at an assembly of other chiefs in October of 1850, and
   appointed an English magistrate named Mr Brownlee to be temporary chief
   of the Ngqika tribe. It seems that the governor believed that he would
   be able to prevent a war and that Sandili could be arrested without
   armed resistance. Colonel George Mackinnon, who had been sent out with
   a small army with the goal of securing the chief, was attacked on 24
   December, 1850, in a narrow gorge by a large number of Xhosa, and
   compelled to retreat after some loss of men. This small battle prompted
   a general rising among the whole Ngqika tribe. Settlers in military
   villages that had been established along the border, were caught in a
   surprise attack after they had gathered to celebrate Christmas day.
   Many of them were killed, and their houses set on fire.

   Other setbacks followed in quick succession. The greater part of the
   Xhosa police deserted, many of them leaving with their arms. Emboldened
   by their initial success, the Xhosa surrounded and attacked Fort Cox
   with immense force, where the governor was stationed with a small
   number of soldiers. More than one unsuccessful attempt was made to kill
   Sir Harry, and he needed to find a way to escape. At the head of 150
   mounted riflemen, accompanied by Colonel Mackinnon, he galloped out of
   the fort, and rode to King William’s Town through heavy enemy fire — a
   distance of 12 miles (19 km).

   Meanwhile a new enemy appeared. Some 900 of the Kat river Khoikhoi, who
   had in former wars been firm allies of the British, joined their former
   enemies: the Xhosa. They were not without justification. They
   complained that while serving as soldiers in former wars — the Cape
   Mounted Rifles consisted largely of Khoikhois — they had not received
   the same treatment as others serving in defence of the colony, that
   they got no compensation for the losses they had sustained, and that
   they were in various ways made to feel they were a wronged and injured
   race. A secret alliance was formed with the Xhosa to take up arms in
   order to remove the Europeans and establish a Khoikhoi republic. Within
   a fortnight of the attack on Colonel Mackinnon the Kat river Khoikhoi
   were also in arms. Their revolt was followed by that of the Khoikhoi at
   other missionary stations; and some of the Khoikhoi of the Cape Mounted
   Rifles followed their example, including some of the very men who had
   escorted the governor from Fort Cox. But many of the Khoikhoi remained
   loyal and the Fingo likewise sided with the British.

   After the confusion caused by the surprise attack had subsided, Sir
   Harry Smith and his force turned the tide of war against the Xhosa. The
   Amatola Mountains were stormed, and Sarhili, the highest ranking chief,
   who had been secretly assisting the Ngqika all along, was severely
   punished. In April 1852 Sir Harry Smith was recalled by Earl Grey, who
   accused him — unjustly, in the opinion of the duke of Wellington — of a
   want of energy and judgement in conducting the war, and he was
   succeeded by Lieutenant-General Cathcart. Sarhili was again attacked
   and reduced to submission. The Amatolas were finally cleared of Xhosa,
   and small forts were erected to prevent their reoccupation.

   The British commanders were hampered throughout by their insufficient
   equipment, and it was not until March 1853 that the largest of the
   Frontier wars was brought to an end after the loss several hundred
   British soldiers. Shortly afterwards, British Kaffraria was made a
   crown colony. The Khoikhoi settlement at Kat River remained, but the
   Khoikhoi power within the colony was crushed.

The Great amaXhosa Famine

   The Xhosa tribes gave the colony few problems after the war. This was
   due, in large measure, to an extraordinary delusion which arose among
   the Xhosa in 1856, and led in 1857 to the death of some 50,000 people.
   This incident is one of the most remarkable instances of misplaced
   faith recorded in history. The Xhosa had not accepted their defeat in
   1853 as decisive and were preparing to renew their struggle with the
   Europeans.

   In 1854, a disease spread through the cattle of the Xhosa. It was
   believed to have spread from cattle owned by the Settlers. Widespread
   cattle deaths resulted, and the Xhosa believed that the deaths were
   caused by ubuthi, or witchcraft. In May 1856, a girl named Nongqawuse
   went to fetch water from a pool near the mouth of the Gxarha River.
   When she returned, she told her uncle Mhlakaza that she had met three
   spirits at the pool, and that they had told her that all cattle should
   be slaughtered, and their crops destroyed. On the day following the
   destruction, the dead Xhosa would return and help expel the whites. The
   ancestors would bring cattle with them to replace those that had been
   killed. Mhlakaza believed the prophecy, and repeated it to the chief
   Sarhili.

   Sarhili ordered the commands of the spirits to be obeyed. At first, the
   Xhosa were ordered to destroy their fat cattle. Nongqawuse, standing in
   the river where the spirits had first appeared, heard unearthly noises,
   interpreted by her father as orders to kill more and more cattle. At
   length the spirits commanded that not an animal of all their herds was
   to remain alive, and every grain of corn was to be destroyed. If that
   were done, on a given date, myriads of cattle more beautiful than those
   destroyed would issue from the earth, while great fields of corn, ripe
   and ready for harvest, would instantly appear. The dead would rise,
   trouble and sickness vanish, and youth and beauty come to all alike.
   Unbelievers and the hated white man would on that day perish.

   The people heard and obeyed. Sarhili is believed by many people to have
   been the instigator of the prophecies. Certainly some of the principal
   chiefs believed that they were acting simply in preparation for a last
   struggle with the Europeans, their plan being to throw the whole Xhosa
   nation fully armed and famished upon the colony. Belief in the prophecy
   was bolstered by the death of Lieutenant-General Cathcart in the
   Crimean War in 1854. His death was interpreted as being due to
   intervention by the ancestors.

   There were those who neither believed the predictions nor looked for
   success in war, but destroyed their last particle of food in
   unquestioning obedience to their chief’s command. Either in faith that
   reached the sublime, or in obedience equally great, vast numbers of the
   people acted. Great kraals were also prepared for the promised cattle,
   and huge skin sacks to hold the milk that was soon to be more plentiful
   than water. At length the day dawned which, according to the
   prophecies, was to usher in the terrestrial paradise. The sun rose and
   sank, but the expected miracle did not come to pass. The chiefs who had
   planned to hurl the famished warrior upon the colony had committed an
   incredible blunder in neglecting to call the nation together under
   pretext of witnessing the resurrection. They realised their error too
   late, and attempted to fix the situation by changing the resurrection
   to another day, but blank despair had taken the place of hope and
   faith, and it was only as starving supplicants that the Xhosa sought
   the British.

   According to the War of the Axe, the colonists did what they could to
   save life, but thousands perished miserably. In their extreme famine
   many of the Xhosa turned to cannibalism, and one instance of parents
   eating their own child is authenticated. Among the survivors was the
   girl Nongqawuse, however her father perished. A vivid narrative of the
   whole incident is found in G. M. Theal’s History and Geography of South
   Africa (3rd edition, London, 1878). The depopulated country was
   afterwards peopled by European settlers, among whom were members of the
   German legion which had served with the British army in the Crimea, and
   some, 2000 industrious North German emigrants, who proved a valuable
   acquisition to the colony.

Sir George Grey’s Governorship

   Sir George Grey
   Enlarge
   Sir George Grey

   Sir George Grey became governor of the Cape Colony in 1854, and the
   development of the colony owes much to his administration. In his
   opinion, policy imposed upon the colony by the home government's policy
   of not governing beyond the Orange River was mistaken, and in 1858 he
   proposed a scheme for a confederation that would include all of South
   Africa, however it was rejected by Britain. Sir George kept open a
   British road through Bechuanaland to the far interior, gaining the
   support of the missionaries Moffat and David Livingstone. Sir George
   also attempted for the first time, missionary effort apart, to educate
   the Xhosa and to firmly establish British authority among them, which
   the self-destruction of the Xhosa rendered easy. Beyond the Kei River,
   the natives were left to their own devices.

   Sir George Grey left the Cape in 1861. During his governorship the
   resources of the colony had increased with the opening of the copper
   mines in Little Namaqualand, the mohair wool industry had been
   established and Natal made a separate colony. The opening, in November
   1863, of the railway from Cape Town to Wellington, and the construction
   in 1860 of the great breakwater in Table Bay, long needed on that
   perilous coast, marked the beginning in the colony of public works on a
   large scale. They were the more-or-less direct result of the granting
   to the colony of a large share in its own government.

   The province of British Kaffraria was incorporated into the colony in
   1865, under the title of the Electoral Divisions of King William’s Town
   and East London. The transfer was marked by the removal of the
   prohibition of the sale of alcoholic beverages to the natives, and the
   free trade in intoxicants which followed had most deplorable results
   among the Xhosa tribes. A severe drought, affecting almost the entire
   colony for several years, caused great economic depression, and many
   farmers suffered severely. It was at this period in 1869 that
   ostrich-farming was successfully established as a separate industry.

   Whether by or against the wish of the home government, the limits of
   British authority continued to extend. The Basotho, who dwelt in the
   upper valleys of the Orange River, had subsisted under a
   semi-protectorate of the British government from 1843 to 1854; but
   having been left to their own resources on the abandonment of the
   Orange sovereignty, they fell into a long exhaustive warfare with the
   Boers of the Orange Free State. On the urgent petition of their chief
   Moshesh, they were proclaimed British subjects in 1868, and their
   territory became part of the Cape Colony in 1871 (see Basutoland). In
   the same year, the southeastern part of Bechuanaland was annexed to
   Britain under the title of Griqualand West. This annexation was a
   consequence of the discovery there of rich diamond mines, an event
   which was destined to have far-reaching results.
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