Emerging colonial frontiers
Conflict on the Cape Northern Frontier
| GRADE LEVEL | THEME | TOPIC | DURATION |
| 7 | SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY | EMERGING COLONIAL FRONTIERS | x LESSONS |
Emerging colonial frontiers |
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A: The movement of the Khoikhoi, Dutch and Oorlams towards the Cape
Northern Frontier The wilderness on the edge of a settled area in a country is called a frontier. It is a border between the region that is explored and inhabited and the part of the territory that has not been mapped and used as a home by settlers. When a frontier is not controlled by anyone because it is on the border of a settled area it is called an open frontier. As soon as one of the groups on either side of the frontier becomes stronger than the other it becomes closed. An example of an open frontier in South Africa was the Orange River in the late 18th century. There were several groups living in the region at the time like the Khoisan, the Tswana, the Dutch and the Oorlams. The Dutch, Khoikhoi and Oorlams had moved north from the Cape Colony until they met with the Tswana and San living close to the Orange River. None of the groups were dominant. One of the reasons the Cape Northern Frontier stayed an open frontier until the 19th century was the climate and environment. It was very dry and communities had to be nomadic to survive and never owned land because they would have to move when the season changed.
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B: The Cape Colony In the 17th and 18th centuries the Dutch settlers at the Cape Colony had only met the Khoikhoi, San and Tswana people living in the vicinity of Cape Town. As the demand for supplies of food increased from the Dutch East India Company or VOC they were forced to move further inland to farm bigger crop areas. The VOC used the Cape as a halfway station for trade ships travelling from Europe to East Asia where sailors could stock up on fresh food and water. The interior of the Cape Colony was very dry and not fertile enough for large crops and farmers could only live around springs or fountains that produced water all year round. The Karoo formed part of the interior of the Cape Colony and couldn’t provide permanent grazing for animals. This situation forced the Dutch farmers to expand towards the north and northwest to find more fertile land.
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A: The dry interior of the Cape Colony The local Khoikhoi and San were already living in the areas the Dutch farmers were moving into and the settlers met with violent resistance from them, especially in the northeast, where they were forced to stop expansion. The local populations were small, however, and this made expansion much easier for the Dutch. Britain at the Cape Colony Britain took over control of the Cape for the first time in 1795, and after a brief period of Batavian control from 1803 to 1806, occupied the Cape again in 1806. From 1806 onwards Britain dominated in 19th century southern Africa. Development in the Cape colony was slow and the British government did not want to spend too much money in ruling the colony. Gradually the colonial frontiers shifted into the interior and along the east coast. The Xhosa farmers were settled in the fertile region on the eastern frontier and soon there was a competition for land between the White settlers and the local Black communities. Both were cattle farmers who needed grazing for their livestock. In 1820 a large group of British settlers arrived in South Africa. They had been sent because unemployment and poverty in England was so bad. People were sent to British colonies like the Cape to try and survive. Most of these new settlers had never farmed before. They settled on land that had not been officially won as British territory. This could have been a reason for later conflicts with the local people. Expanding the colony The first plans to expand the Cape Colony to the Orange River were implemented in 1820, with the arrival of the British settlers, but local farmers had been settling outside the official borders of the colony for many years. In 1822 the borders were reworked to fit in the expansion and the Cape Colony’s northern border now reached the Orange River with its eastern border stretching to the Stormberg Spruit. John Campbell, a member of the London Missionary Society (LMS), had travelled north of the Orange River before 1820. He reported that the whole area was plagued by violence. He wrote about the various tribes in the area in his journal, but because many of these groups were competing for trade routes to Mozambique he was often misinformed. British officials at the Cape didn’t believe much of his reports and only took interest in the regions he had visited after 1820. Drought and locusts in 1825 caused farmers in the Orange River area to extend their grazing over the river. These farmers became known as trekboers. (Not the same as Voortrekkers). Rainfall in 1826 resulted in most of them returning their cattle to their own land, but another drought in 1828 and 1829 resulted in permanent settlement north of the Orange River. There was no intention of breaking with the Cape Colony and the trekboers still paid their taxes to the Cape government. Click
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Treks. Learning Outcome: The learner is able to compile and organise information from maps to obtain evidence about conflict on the northern frontier of the Cape. He or she is then able to use information from sources to present answers to questions on the topic, and to describe and make links between reasons for and results of events and changes. The learner is also able to communicate knowledge and understanding by formulating arguments based on evidence from sources.
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