

AFRICA, SOUTHERN, COLONIES IN. 



have been raised and a reserve has been started. 

 The export of grain has been rigorously prohib- 

 ited, and large military granaries have been built 

 and filled at Cabul, Candahar, and Herat. The 

 transport arrangements have been completed by 

 the purchase of many thousand horses so as to 

 place the army on a war footing. The troops are 

 well armed with breechloaders, several thousands 

 with magazine rifles. 



AFRICA, SOUTHERN, COLONIES IN. 

 The Cape of Good Hope, which was first settled 

 by the Dutch and the Huguenots in the seven- 

 teenth century, was taken from the Netherlands 

 by the British in 1806 and was formally ceded 

 to Great Britain in 1815. Many descendants 

 of the original settlers who were unwilling to 

 accept British rule migrated in 1834 and 1835, 

 and beyond the Great Fish river, which was 

 then the eastern boundary, founded an inde- 

 pendent commonwealth in Natal; others crossed 

 the Orange river, which had been declared the 

 extreme northern boundary of the British pos- 

 sessions, and in 1837 established the settlements 

 that were declared independent and organized into 

 the Orange Free State, which was recognized by 

 Great Britain in 1854. In the meantime Great 

 Britain annexed the Natal settlements, whereupon 

 a majority of the Boer colonists abandoned their 

 farms and, joining others who had settled on the 

 farther side of the Vaal river, established in 1849 

 the new commonwealth called the Transvaal Re- 

 public, whose independence was acknowledged by 

 the British Government in 1852. Natal was sepa- 

 rated from Cape Colony and erected into a colony 

 in 1856. British Kaffraria was incorporated in 

 Cape Colony in 1865, and Tembuland, East Griqua- 

 land, and the Transkei territories were annexed in 

 later years ; . also the harbor of Walfisch Bay, on 

 the southwest coast. Griqualand West, originally 

 a part of the Orange Free State, was annexed by 

 Great Britain as a result of the discovery of dia- 

 mond mines in the vicinity of Kimberley, and it 

 also now forms an integral part of the colony of 

 the Cape of Good Hope. Basutoland was annexed 

 to Cape Colony in 1871, but after the Basuto war 

 it was detached and made a direct dependency of 

 the Crown in 1884. In that year Germany de- 

 clared a protectorate on the southwest coast of 

 Africa over Damaraland, extending from Cape 

 Frio, the southernmost point of Portuguese West 

 Africa, to Walfisch Bay, and over Namaqualand, 

 extending from Walfisch Bay southward to the 

 Orange river, which forms the northern boundary 

 of Cape Colony. Great Britain occupied the South 

 African or Transvaal Republic in 1877 in conse- 

 quence of internal dissensions among the burghers. 

 They rebelled in 1880, expelled the British officials 

 and drove out the garrison, defeated the first 

 detachment of troops that were sent against them, 

 and a new Government in England, presided over 

 by Mr. Gladstone, made peace in 1881 on the basis 

 of the restoration of their independence in internal 

 affairs, reserving the suzerainty of the Queen, in- 

 cluding the right to maintain a British resident, 

 the representation of the Transvaal Republic in its 

 foreign relations, the right to move troops through 

 the country, etc. In 1884 a new convention was 

 signed in London, from which the word suzerainty 

 was omitted, the old name of South African Re- 

 public was recognized once more, the British resi- 

 dent gave place to a diplomatic agent, and the 

 only right reserved by Great Britain was that of 

 vetoing any treaty made by the South African 

 Republic with foreign powers or with native tribes, 

 six months being allowed for the British Govern- 

 ment to approve or disapprove. Zululand was 

 made a protectorate of Great Britain and a part 



incorporated in the colony of Natal in 1880, and 

 in 1897 the rest of Zululand was annexed to Natal. 

 A part of Bechuanaland was occupied by British 

 troops in 1884 and after the forcible expulsion of 

 Boers from the Transvaal, who had proclaimed the 

 independent republic of Stellaland, with its capital 

 at Vryburg. In 1885 a British protectorate was 

 declared over independent Bechuanaland, the coun- 

 try still ruled by Chief Khama. In the east British 

 control was established over Zululand after the 

 Zulu war of 1879. A portion next to the Natal 

 border was set apart as a reserve for loyal Zulus 

 who had aided the British in the war; the rest 

 was restored to Cetewayo in 1883, but in 1887 

 about two thirds of this territory, together with 

 the Zulu reserve, was formally declared British 

 territory and placed under the administration of 

 the Governor of Natal, and in 1897 the whole of 

 Zululand and British Amatongaland were incor- 

 porated in Natal. A new republic founded by 

 Boer trekkers in Zululand was subsequently in- 

 corporated as the district of Vryheid in the South 

 African Republic with the assent of Great Britain. 

 By the convention of 1890 a part of Swaziland also 

 was added to the South African Republic. All 

 the territories north of the Transvaal, including 

 Matabeleland, ruled by King Lobengula, with the 

 neighboring country of Mashonaland and the ter- 

 ritory inhabited by the Makalakas and other vas- 

 sals of Lobengula, comprising all the region north 

 of 22 of south latitude, east of 20 of east longi- 

 tude, and west of the Portuguese district of Sofala, 

 were declared to be within the British sphere of 

 influence. In 1889 a royal charter was granted to 

 the British South Africa Company, which was 

 authorized to organize an administration for these 

 territories, known collectively as British South 

 Africa or, subsequently, Rhodesia, from the name 

 of Cecil Rhodes, founder of the company. The 

 company was empowered to take also under its 

 administration, subject to the approval of the Im- 

 perial Government, the regions north of the Bechu- 

 analand protectorate and the Kalihari region west 

 of it, as far as the German boundary. Portugal 

 originally claimed, by virtue of early conquests 

 and continuous occupation more or less effective, 

 both banks of the Zambesi river, from its mouth 

 up to its source, and the country still farther west, 

 reaching to the Portuguese possessions on the west 

 coast a continuous zone extending across the 

 whole of Africa from Mozambique to Angola. 

 Yielding, under threat of war, to superior force, 

 the Portuguese Government in 1891 agreed to rec- 

 ognize as a British protectorate these regions 

 known later as British South Africa and British 

 Central Africa, or Zambesi, including Matabele- 

 land, Mashonaland, and the Manica plateau south 

 of the Zambesi, and north of that river the Barotse 

 kingdom, and all other regions as far north as the 

 boundary of the Congo Free State. The Shire 

 highland's and the Nyassa region, where British 

 missionaries already were active, were included, 

 and this district, which had been declared to lie 

 within the British sphere in 1889, were now pro- 

 claimed a British protectorate separate from Brit- 

 ish Central Africa, or Northern Zambesia, over 

 which the British Government extended the ad- 

 ministrative authority and commercial privileges 

 of the British South Africa Company. Pondoland 

 was annexed to Cape Colony in 1804, and in 1895 

 the Crown colony of British Bechuanaland \vas 

 also handed over to the colonial administration. 



Cape Colony. The colony of the Cape of Good 

 Hope has possessed responsible government since 

 1872. The legislative power is vested in a Legis- 

 lative Council of 23 members elected for seven 

 years and a Legislative Assembly of 79 members 



