What Are The Causes Of The Battle Of Isandlwana

In the second half of the 19th century, most African countries faced the aggression of the European imperialism. All African countries were colonized except for Ethiopia and Liberia. South Africa was one of the main countries that faced imperialism. The Boers, also known as the Dutch descendents or Dutch farmers, were the first to colonize South Africa in 1652. Later on, the British came and took Cape Colony from the Dutch in 1795. The British at first mainly wanted to colonize South Africa as it helps her to trade with India by its route. South Africa’s temperate climate, natural resources, and massive minerals attracted Europeans to take it over. Also, South Africa has a strategic geographical location as it’s located at the center of the

The Apartheid was initiated as a ploy for Europeans to better control the exploited populations for economic gain, as maintaining tension between the different racial classifications diverted attention from the Europeans as it fed hatred between groups. This assisted in minimizing unity between the exploited to rally against European control as it backhandedly induced “submission” for survival. One way of accomplishing this was by instilling laws that’d force segregation, classification, educational “requirements”, and economic purposes. The Population Registration Act of 1950 enacted, requiring segregation of Europeans from Afrikaans . Following shortly, the Group Areas Act of 1950 was enacted as a new form of legislation alongside the Population Registration Act. This detailed act separated tribes based on ethnics; consequently, further detailing segregation amongst the natives .

During the period of Apartheid in South Africa between 1948 and 1994 the reactions of the South African citizens towards the legal separation of races varied depending on race, ideals and time period. After gold and diamonds were fud inSouthAfrica both the dutch and British wanted the land to themselves, leading to the Boer War from which the Dutch farmers emerged victorious. Following the Boer War and the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the Dutch Boers gained control over the majority of the land in the previously British Cape Colony along with the settlements they had already built, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Blacks in South Africa made up about eighty percent of the population but only lived on ten percent of

Mark X , chief of the Basutos of Southern Africa, wrote a letter to Sir George Grey, a British soldier and explorer, describing the way the Boers entered South Africa and gained power (Document 6). The African attitude toward the British at the time was noted to be positive; Mark X’s thought that all white men were honest. Later, the shift in economic ownership is captured in this letter as one British governor came to Mark X’s land and limited his power within the land. Then another governor came and took more land; the shift in attitude of the Africans toward the British is obvious as well when Mark X later stated that he had to send his son to watch the area in which the Boers occupied, as there was always trouble. As imperialistic steps were taken in Africa, the African attitude toward Europeans sharply changed.

When the Europeans scrambled to colonize Africa, the reactions of the natives was progressively more apprehensive. At first the natives found that they could be peaceful with this strange new white man. Soon after, though, they found that these new men mistreated and cheated them greatly, and had superior military technology. Given these new conditions of the relationship the Africans decided it was in their best interest to take up arms against the Europeans and try to rid themselves of the harmful White Man.

The first major piece of work to be written about the Anglo-Zulu war, with a small chapter devoted to the battle of Isandlwana, is called The History of the Zulu War and Its Origin by Frances Ellen Colenso. Written in 1880, one year after the war concluded, Colenso wrote in a Pro-nationalist focus. He applauds the camp tactics employed by Lord Chelmsford, General of British Forces in South Africa and Natal, and does in no way seem to dislike or question the Generals commands. As stated above, this a very short chapter in a very large book. There are thirty pages devoted to Isandlwana in a book of over 400 pages. The thesis of the book is “However insufficient the result may prove, we shall at least hope that our work may give some slight assistance to the maintenance of which alone can ensure the true honour of the British name .” The way the book was written, it is a very pro-British book with emphasis on helping the British reputation. The book does leave out a lot of important details because it is written one year after the event. Reading it, the book

European imperialists often took interest in obtaining new foreign land because of economic consideration that resulted in negative outcomes. A great example of a common imperial activity place was the continent of Africa. Very few European countries had already held territory in it, and the actual people occupying it were surpluses of ethnic groups that could be easily overthrown. The real hidden secret in Africa, however, was the abundance of natural resources available there. The Boer War found not just two groups, but instead three separate nations competing for the financial benefits available down in South Africa. In a dispute to gain the large bulk of diamonds and gold there, the Dutch had to defend South Africa, which they gained control of hundreds of years ago. British powers had grown an interest in the chances to find monetary success by acquiring the rarities present there, and declared war on the Dutch who maintained the land. However, African indigenous groups had lived on these lands too, and found themselves getting involved in the war. The Boer War was

During their take over, the Zulu nation fought against them because the only thing the Europeans wanted was their ivory and their men for slavery. They fought and won the first battle, but with the British weaponry, they were defeated and taken over by the British in the second battle.

The South African people lost their own government during the colonization because they were under the control of the British and the people were enslaved. It gave the South African people a very unfair feeling because they were living in their own country but controlled by someone else. When they first lost their own government, the people could not adapt to the new policy of slavery due to the loss of freedom. Even though a lot of people did not like it that way, they had to adapt to the policy as soon as possible in order to survive. They were also not used to be controlled by the rules that the British created. For example, the punishment of the slaves were strictly controlled by the British government. One of the policy was “The number of hours the slaves could be made to work was not limited,” which meant they had to work a lot everyday. In addition, slaves’ marriages were only allowed in 1824 after South Africa had regained independence in 1822. It showed that after South Africa was not colonized by the British, people had much more freedom than before. Therefore, the British colonization brought the South African people a very bad political impact by losing its own government, not being used to be controlled by the rules, and not being able to adapt to the new

Although whites held superior positions within South Africa, they were outnumbered by blacks, yet they still managed to overpower them.

     The South African Republic and the Orange Free Stated made an alliance. They then declared war on the British on October 12, 1899 because they were uncooperative with Kurger’s demands. The Afrikaner forces were successful in invading Natal and Cape Colony. In December the British commander in chief Sir Redvers H. Buller sent fresh troops to relieve the British forces in three war zones. These zones were Colenso, Natal, the hills of Magersfontein on the Orange Free State and Cape Colony borders, and the mountain range of Stormberge in the Cape Colony. Within a week, which is referred to as the Black Week by the British, each of the new units had been defeated by Afrikaner forces.

When Europeans moved into the bush of Southern Africa and realized that they were hopelessly outnumbered, they had to develop ways to create and maintain their authority over the native population. They had tremendous advantages in the obvious areas, as author Jared Diamond writes in his Pulitzer Prize winning book:

By not sacrificing power, the whites are bringing this fear upon themselves. “And our lives will shrink, but they shall be the lives of superior beings; and we shall live with fear, but at least it will not be a fear of the unknown.”(Pg. 79) The question is: how long can this unstable and superficial lifestyle endure before the dawn of a new equity? Future generations will have to deal with these issues which are left unsolved by a power hungry nation. And if problems are left unsettled for too long, hatred may establish a permanent residence in South Africa.

This is clear in that his original vision for South Africa, was one that implied and sought for “nothing less than the defence and extension of the British Empire” . This vision he had, had included various genius in thought for the growth of South Africa as well as through the extension of the British Empire, however through notions of policy, it had become clear that there were introductions and representations of various factors pertaining towards racial discrimination, corruption as well as others. These representations through policies such as The Glen Grey Act of 1894 which “denied a vote to Africans from that district and, additionally, restricted the size of African-owned freeholds, restricted inheritance rights, and imposed a head tax- all measures devised to ensure labour migration” , are a depiction of how Rhodes had been accustomed to ruling through the means of oppressing the natives. This vision for South Africa, by Rhodes, can therefore be said to have been one that focused on achieving the expansion of the British Empire, the control of white supremacy as well as keeping control of South Africa’s wealth and minerals

From the 17th century until the early 1900’s, European countries were fighting to get tracks of land across Africa. Although South Africa was unified by Great Britain in 1910, the African National Congress was formed two years later. It was only on Dec 11, 1931 after World War II when Britain gave South Africa its’ independence as a country. For the first sixty years after South Africa was claimed independent, white minority rulers dominated the country. South Africa is now an independent Nation but is still a member of the British Commonwealth.