The not so smooth sailing of South Africa’s history
will win in this bloody game?
South African history has been dominated by the communication and conflict of several diverse ethnic groups. The aboriginal Khoikhoi people have lived in the region for millennia. Most of the population, however, trace their history to immigration since. Indigenous Africans in South Africa are descendants of immigrants from further north in Africa who first entered what are now the confines of the country roughly one thousand seven hundred years ago. White South Africans are descendants of later European settlers, mainly from the Netherlands and Britain. The Coloureds are descended at least in part from all of these groups, as well as from slaves from Madagascar, East Africa and the then East Indies, and there are many South Africans of Indian and Chinese origin, descendants of labourers who arrived in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Following a brief period of Portuguese dominance in the area, South Africa went through two major periods of colonization. The first was that of the Dutch Cape Colony,established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. This was followed by the British Cape Colony, first occupied from the Dutch in 1795, then returned at the Peace of Amiens (1802), and then re-occupied by the British in 1806, after the Battle of Blaauwberg. The VOC,one of the major European trading houses sailing the spice route to the East, had no intention of colonizing the area, instead wanting only to establish a secure base camp where passing ships could shelter, and where hungry sailors could stock up on fresh supplies of meat, fruit, and vegetables. To this end, a small VOC expedition under the command of Jan van Riebeeck reached Table Bay on 6 April 1652. While the new settlement traded out of necessity with the neighbouring Khoikhoi, it was not a friendly relationship.
Khoikhoi-Dutch Wars
The arrival of the permanent settlements of the Dutch VOC at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 brought them face to face with the local people, such as the Khoikhoi (called Hottentots by the Dutch), the Khoisan, Bushmen and some Bantu peoples of South Africa. While the Dutch traded with the Khoikhoi, nevertheless serious disputes broke out over land ownership and livestock. This resulted in attacks and counter-attacks by both sides which were known as the Khoikhoi-Dutch Wars. The First Khoikhoi-Dutch War took place in 1659, the second in 1673 and the third in 1674–1677.
Battle of Muizenberg
The Battle of Muizenberg was a small but significant battle for the future destiny of South Africa which took place at Muizenberg (near Cape Town), South Africa in 1795; it led to the capture of the Cape Colony by the United Kingdom. The British assumed control of the Cape of Good Hope for the next seven years. The Cape was returned to the restored Dutch government (known as the Batavian Government) in 1804. In 1806 the British returned and after again defeating the Dutch at the Battle of Blaauwberg, stayed in control for more than 100 years.
Xhosa wars
The Xhosa Wars (also known as the Kaffir Wars or Cape Frontier Wars) were a series of nine wars between parts of the Xhosa people, and European settlers with their Xhosa allies, from 1779 and 1879 in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. The wars were responsible for the Xhosa people’s loss of most of their land, and the incorporation of its people into European-controlled territories.
The Zulu Civil War or Ndwandwe Zulu War of 1817–1819 was a war fought between the expanding Zulu kingdom and the Ndwandwe tribe in South Africa. Shaka revolutionized traditional ways of fighting by introducing the assegai, a spear with a short shaft and broad blade, used as a closequarters stabbing weapon. (Under Shaka’s rule, losing an assegai was punishable by death. So it was never thrown like a javelin.) In the Battle of Gqokli Hill in 1819, his troops and tactics prevailed
over the superior numbers of the Ndwandwe people, who failed to destroy the Zulu in their first encounter. The Ndwandwe and the Zulus met again in combat at the Battle of Mhlatuze River in 1820. Most of the Ndwandwe abandoned their lands and migrated north and eastward. This was the start of the Mfecane, a catastrophic, bloody migration of many different tribes in the area, initially escaping the Zulus, but themselves causing their own havoc after adopting Zulu tactics in war.
Mfecane
M f e c a n e ( Zu l u ) , a l s o k n ow n as the Difaqane or Lifaqane (Sesotho), is an African expression which means something like “the crushing” or “scattering”. It describes a period of widespread chaos and disturbance in southern Africa during the period between 1815 and about 1835. The Mfecane resulted from the rise to power of Shaka, the Zulu king and military
leader who conquered the Nguni people and tribes between the Tugela and Pongola rivers in the beginning of the 19th century, and created a militaristic kingdom in the region. The Mfecane also led to the formation and consolidation of other groups such as the Matabele, the Mfengu and the Makololo and the creation of states such as the modern Lesotho.
Battles between Voortrekkers and Zulus
The Battle of Italeni in early 1838, between the Voortrekkers and the Zulus during the period of the Great Trek, resulted in the Zulu armies repulsing the Voortrekkers. On 9 April, near the Babanango Mountain Range a large Zulu impi (army) appeared, consisting of approximately 8,000 warriors. Boer general Piet Uys formed a raiding party of fifteen volunteers (including his son, Dirkie Uys.) During subsequent fighting Uys, his son, the Malan brothers as well as five of the volunteers were killed, and the Voortrekkers were forced to retreat.
The Battle of Blood River was fought on 16 December 1838 on the banks of the Blood River. In the aftermath of the Weenen massacre, a group of about 470 Voortrekkers, led by Andries Pretorius, defended a laager (circle of ox wagons) against Zulu impis, ruled by King Dingane and led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi, numbering between 10 and 20 thousand. The Zulus repeatedly and unsuccessfully attacked the laager, until Pretorius ordered a group of horse riders to leave the encampment and engage the Zulus.
The Anglo-Zulu War
The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between Britain and the Zulus, and signalled the end of the Zulus as an independent nation. It had complex beginnings, some bad decisions and bloody battles that played out a common story of colonialism. At the Battle of Isandlwana, a Zulu army wiped out a British force on 22 January 1879. 1,400 British soldiers were totally overwhelmed and killed. This battle is considered to be one of the greatest disasters in British colonial history. However, Isandlwana was not ultimately a decisive victory for the Zulus, as King Cetshwayo feared, it forced the policy makers in London to rally to the support of the pro-war contingent in the Natal government and commit whatever resources were needed to defeat the Zulu. At Rorke’s Drift (22 January – 23 January 1879) 139 British soldiers successfully defended their garrison against an intense assault by four to five thousand Zulu warriors. In spite of the British success at Rorke’s Drift the first invasion of Zululand ended with the catastrophe of Isandlwana where, along with heavy casualties, the main centre column lost all supplies, transport and ammunition and the British would be forced to
halt their advances elsewhere while a new invasion was prepared. The Battle of Intombe was fought on 12 March 1879, between British and Zulu forces. The Siege of Eshowe took place during a three-pronged attack on the Zulu Impis of king Cetshwayo at Ulundi. The Battle of Gingindlovu (uMgungundlovu) was fought between a British relief column sent to break the Siege of Eshowe and a Zulu Impi of king Cetshwayo on 2 April 1879. The battle restored the British commanders’ confidence in their army and their ability to defeat Zulu attacks. With the last resistance removed, they were able to advance and relieve Eshowe. The Battle of Hlobane was a total disaster for the British. 15 officers and 110 men were killed, a further 8 wounded and 100 native soldiers died. The Battle of Kambula took place in 1879 when a Zulu army attacked the British camp at Kambula, resulting in a massive Zulu defeat. It is considered to be the turning point of the Anglo-Zulu War. The Battle of Ulundi took place at the Zulu capital of Ulundi on 4 July 1879 and proved to be the decisive battle that finally broke the military power of the Zulu nation.
First Anglo-Boer War
The First Boer War also known as the First Anglo-Boer War or the Transvaal War, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881. It was the first clash between the British and the Transvaal Boers. The British consolidated their power over most of the colonies of South Africa in 1879 after the AngloZulu War, and attempted to impose an unpopular system of confederation on the region. The Boers protested and in December 1880 they revolted. After several disastrous battles, the British were unwilling to get further involved in a war which was already seen as lost. As a result, the British government of William Gladstone signed a truce on 6 March, and in the final peace treaty on 23
March 1881, they gave the Boers self-government in the Transvaal under a theoretical British oversight. The Second Boer War, also known as the Second Anglo-Boer War and the South African War, 11 October 1899 - 31 May 1902 was the first major international conflict of the 20th century. The war was fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic). In May 1902 the war ended with the Treaty of Vereeniging in the same month. The Union of South Africa was established in 1910. The treaty ended the existence of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State as Boer republics and placed them within the British Empire.
In war every side feels its fight is justyfied All knowing owl (Avatar the last airbender)