General South African History timeline

SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY TIMELINES

1800s

1799 - 1802				Khoisan rise up in an unsuccessful but protracted rebellion in the eastern districts of the Cape in what becomes known as the Third War of Dispossession between the Khoisan of the colonial authorities

1800				Cape Colony: An official newspaper press is established. A Government Gazette is issued. The establishment of an official press forbids freedom of the press, with a heavy fine threatening anyone who attempts to publish. In July 1800 the Cape government orders the publication of a weekly newspaper called the Cape Town Gazette and African Advertiser. Cape Colony: Ndlambe and his people settle to the west of the Fish River, an area from which the Dutch colonial administration had driven the AmaXhosa on a number of previous occasions.

1802				The region of the AmaZulu is plagued by drought and accompanying famine. This leads to internal strife and social dislocation within the AmaZulu chiefdoms. The drought produces thousands of internal refugees.

1803 - 1806				The Cape is retroceded to Dutch rule under Batavian administration. Advocate A de Mist is elevated to the rank of Commissioner-General in order to receive the colony from Britain. He is also instructed to establish a new system of government for the Cape. Lieutenant-General J Janssens is appointed Governor. A mail service between Cape Town and Algoa Bay (present day Port Elizabeth) is inaugurated

1804				Godongwana, a son of Jobe the Chief of the AmaMthethwa, attempts to seize power by plotting to assassinate his ageing father. The plot is foiled and Godongwana is sent into exile

1804				A large group of Khoikhoi, deserting slaves, San, people of mixed ancestry and some who have problems integrating into the Cape colonial society trek from the Cape and settle at Klaarwater north of the Orange River. They are called “Basters” by the colonial authorities but name themselves Griqua, a name which has its possible origins in an old Khoikhoi clan, the Guriqua and which is recommended to them by the missionaries of the London Missionary Society who work amongst them

1805				Khoikhoi runners are employed to deliver letters from Cape Town to drostdies (offices of magistrates) in the various districts of the Colony

1806				The British occupy the Cape for a second time. After a skirmish between British troops and a Cape burgher militia at Blaauwberg, the Dutch capitulate. All property of the Batavian Government is surrendered to the British. The formal cession of the colony to the Britain takes place eight years later in 1814

1807				Promulgation of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in Britain. Britain hereby bans slave trading which includes the importation of slaves to the Cape. However, ownership of slaves is still legal

1808				Cape Colony: The Moravian missionaries are given the farm Groenekloof in the Malmesbury district to undertake missionary work among the freed slaves and Khoikhoi. The farm is later re-named Mamre. This grant marks the beginning of the founding of a number of Moravian missionary settlements amongst the Khoikhoi and later their descendants in the Western Cape, as well as amongst the AmaMfengu in the Eastern Cape

1809				Cape Governor Caledon introduces a code, the so-called “Hottentot Proclamation” to regulate the use of Khoisan and coloured labour to satisfy the labour needs of white farmers. This entails the curtailment of the freedom of movement to seek work, with a pass system being introduced as the regulatory tool

1809				Jobe of the AmaMthethwa dies. His exiled son, Gogongwana, returns with a new name, Dingiswayo. He removes his brother who had taken over the chieftainship from their father, and proclaims himself Chief of the AmaMthethwa. The AmaMthethwa society and economy blossom under the rule of Dingiswayo although he had assumed power and ruled autocratically and by violent means

1810				Shaka is appointed chief of the army of the AmaMthethwa

1811				Circuit courts are introduced in the Cape Colony to which black employees are able to formally lodge complaints against ill treatment by their white employers

1811				John Cradock replaces Caledon as Governor of the Cape as he is expected to follow a more aggressive policy towards the Colony's eastern frontier than Caledon. His “frontier policy” results in hostilities breaking out between the colonists and the AmaXhosa. The British government at the Cape appoints John Graham as its Commissioner for the eastern frontier

1811 - 1812				The Fourth War of Dispossession between the AmaXhosa and colonists takes place under the command of Commissioner John Graham. In a brutal battle against the AmaXhosa, which includes the indiscriminate shooting of women and other civilians as well as destruction of crops, the AmaXhosa are driven from the Zuurveld. Women and children are killed although the colonial authorities knew that the AmaXhosa only attack men as men are regarded, as soldiers while women are not. The AmaXhosa also never attacks male missionaries

1811				The headquarters of the Cape Regiment is named Graham's Town (subsequently Grahamstown) after Commissioner John Graham after his onslaught on the AmaXhosa

1812				Cape Colony: The Apprentice Ordinance is promulgated which gives any white farmer the right to apprentice the children of his labourers for a period of ten years from the age of eight

1812 - 1813				Cape Colony: In an attempt to provide Khoikhoi and coloured employees with legal protection with regard to labour, “Circuit Commissions” are instituted. Many charges made by the labourers against their employers cannot be substantiated. However, the Commissions uncover the violence endemic to the system of master-servant relationship. In the so-called public “Black Circuit” court hearings and sittings, numerous white employees are convicted of ill treatment of their employees. Missionaries such as James Read play a significant role in making the ill-treatment of labourers by their employees public, leading to the conviction and punishment of the worst perpetrators. The circuit courts and the support they enjoy from missionaries lead to tensions between the white settlers on the one hand and their servants and labourers and some missionaries on the other. Governor Sir John Cradock passes plans for the introduction of white English-medium schools throughout the Cape Colony

1813				The founding of the Cape Town Free School for needy white children

1813				Cape Colony: Fiscal Daniel Dennijson codifies the Cape Slave Trade Law

1813				Cape Colony: The Griqua at Klaarwater create the beginnings of a political state. The head of state is a Kaptyn (Captain). Adam Kok II and Barend Barends are elected Provisie Kaptyns (temporary Captains)

1814				With the official cession of the Cape from the Batavian Government to Britain, Charles, Lord Somerset is made Governor of the Cape

1815				Cape Colony: The colonial army crushes the Slachter's Nek Rebellion of white farmers against perceived British philanthropic policies in favour of the black population

1815				Cape Colony: Governor Lord Somerset forces Ngqika into an alliance with the Cape government in terms of which the latter has to prevent cattle raiding on the eastern frontier. This alliance causes friction amongst the chiefs of the AmaXhosa

1815				Shaka assumes supreme power over the AmaZulu

1816				One of the most influential diviners of the AmaXhosa, Ntsikana Gaba, converts to Christianity

1817 (approx)				Dingiswayo, Chief of the AmaMthethwa, wanders out of his military camp and is captured by Zwide, Chief of the AmaNwandwe. He is executed by Zwide and, left without its leader, the AmaMthethwa Confederacy collapses. The ensuing power vacuum allows the rise to regional prominence of the AmaZulu under the leadership of their young paramount chief, Shaka

1818 - 1819				Cape Colony: The Fifth War of Dispossession takes place as a result of Governor Somerset lifting 23 000 head of cattle belonging to Ndlambe who had been accused of alleged stock theft

1819				Ndlambe inflicts defeat over the British ally Ngqika's forces at Amalinde. Colonial forces heavily defeat Ndlambe's forces when he takes the battle to Grahamstown. The alliance between Ngqika and the Cape government is destroyed when Governor Somerset appropriates land between the Fish and the Keiskamma Rivers. The land was to serve as a buffer between the Colony and the AmaXhosa. The Cape government declares the Keiskamma River its eastern border

1819				The AmaZulu under Shaka's military leadership defeat the AmaNdwandwe at Gqokoli Hill

1820				Approximately 5 000 British settlers from economically depressed regions of Britain arrive in Algoa Bay in the eastern Cape to increase the size of the white settler population. Upon arrival it is revealed to them that they are also required to act as a civilian defence force against the indigenous people on whose land they are settled. They are allocated land in the Zuurveld, next to the Fish River

1820				Port Elizabeth is founded

1820				The rise of the kingdom of the AmaZulu continues the already violent dispersal of neighbouring political entities competing with each other and with British and Boer colonisers for land and basic resources. This troubled period goes down in official South African history as either the Mfecane (IsiZulu) or Difaqane (SeSotho) which literally means “forced dispersal” or “forced migration” because the upheavals caused thousands of refugees. The AmaMfengu, for example, flee to the eastern Cape Colony, to the lands of the AmaXhosa. The fleeing political entities engage in armed skirmishes for land with kingdoms and chiefdoms which they encounter during their flight. This conflict continues for a number of years throughout the southern African region. Until the 1990s the view that the upheavals were caused solely by the alleged tyranny of Shaka's rise to power. This view has subsequently been challenged, with some historians disputing the existence of the Mfecane or Difaqane at all. Instead historians identify increasing pressure on the various communities that populated the region as colonisers move in and colonisers and indigenous people fight each other for the dwindling resources. This phenomenon is seen as a direct result of an increase in population and a quest for power

1820				King Moshoeshoe moves the capital of the Basotho people to the Butha Buthe Mountain to escape the ravages of the upheavals commonly called the Mfecane or Difaqane

1820				Cape Colony: The missionaries of the London Missionary Society play a significant role in forming the Griqua state. With the arrival of the authoritarian missionary Robert Moffat at Griquatown, the role of the missionaries lead to internal strife in the Griqua community

1820				Cape Colony: Adam Kok II and his followers leave Griquatown for the area of the Riet River. The Griqua community is without a political leader. Andries Waterboer is elected the new leader or Kaptyn of the Griquas

1822				Cape Colony: A large group of Griqua leave their community and join up with groups of Koranna people. Together they eke out their existence by raiding cattle and attacking the various communities along the Orange and Vaal Rivers causing increased instability in the region. These roving bands are called “Bergenaars”

1822				Cape Colony: The London Missionary Society, under the direction of Dr Philip, establish a mission station for the San community at Philippolis

1822 (approx)				AmaNgwane cross the Drakensberg and enter the Caledon River valley. AmaMfengu refugees of the upheavals called the Difaqane settle in eastern Cape

1823				Cape Colony: The London Missionary Society establishes southern Africa's first printing press in the Tyhume Valley. Materials advancing missionary education and activities are printed. Eleven years later, in 1834, a printing press is built in Genadendal, the first Moravian missionary settlement. It is still operational

1823				The Cape government introduces a series of so-called “ameliorative” laws which attempts to improve the relationship between slave owner and slave by determining the nature of punishment that slave owners would be allowed to mete out, regulating working hours and the provision of food and clothes for slaves. The legislation outlaws public flogging, particularly of female slaves

1823				The AmaKhumalo, under Mzilikazi, move north of the Vaal River as a result of the upheavals called the Difaqane

1824				The AmaTlokwa besiege the Basotho. They flee from Butha Buthe and found a new capital, Thaba Bosiu

1824				Shaka grants generous land and other rights to two British traders and adventurers Lieutenant Francis Farewell and Henry Fynn who pretend to be envoys of the British monarch and who establish fiefdoms on the land granted them. They are involved in illicit trade. When the colonial government becomes aware of their criminal activities, the men attempt to divert the attention of the colonial authorities from themselves, instead claiming to the British and Cape governments that Shaka and his people are “barbarians”, and that Britain should annex Zululand. Together with another adventurer, Nathaniel Isaacs, these men determine the stereotype of Shaka as the “barbaric despot” that needed to be civilised by a colonising imperial Britain

1824				Cape traders settle at Port Natal, later renamed Durban

1824				The Dutch Reformed Church convenes its first synod

1824				South Africa's first lighthouse is built at Green Point, Cape Town

1825				Cape Colony: An uprising of slave and Khoikhoi labourers against their owners takes place in the Worcester district. Slaves are increasingly demanding the vindication of their rights in terms of the amelioration legislation that had been introduced as of 1823

1825				The Cape colonial frontier is extended northwards to the Orange River

1825				The depreciated rix dollar is converted into British curren

1825				Adam Kok II is elected Kaptyn of the Griquas in the Riet River area as well as of the “Bergenaars”

1825				Paul Kruger, who is to become the most influential president of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR), is born

1826				The Cape colonial government approves the election of Adam Kok II. Due to internal strife Adam Kok II resigns some months later. He is succeeded by Cornelius Kok II

1826				Cape Colony: Legislation is passed to reform the justice system. Jury in the Cape Colony institutes the Cape Charter of Justice, which introduces trial

1826				The Cape Parliament passes Ordinance 19 which provides for the appointment of a Guardian of Slaves to ensure that slave owners adhere to the extent of punishment that they are allowed to mete out to their slaves. Slaves could lodge complaints of violations of the “ameliorative” legislation to the Guardian of Slaves or his assistants who were required to investigate the accusations and take action against the perpetrators. Ordinance 19 also provided for slaves to have their freedom bought for them by family members. Slave owners rise up in protest against Ordinance 19

1828				In one of the numerous skirmishes that form part of the Difaqane combined forces of the colonial government, AmaXhosa, AmaThembu and white soldiers and farmers defeat Matiwane, Chief of the AmaNgwane at the Battle of Mbholompo in an attempt to restore some stability in the region. Matiwane returns to Zululand where Dingane executes him. His brother Dingane who succeeds him as paramount leader of the AmaZulu assassinates Shaka

1828				Cape Colony: Promulgation of Ordinance 50, which aims at ensuring equality before the law of “every free inhabitant in the Colony” is introduced. Effectively this Ordinance curtails the power that an employer has over his employee. It also exempts Coloureds from carrying passes. Furthermore the Ordinance revises the Apprenticeship Ordinance of 1812 by requiring that children could only be apprenticed with the consent of their parents. Finally, magistrates no longer have the power to administer corporal punishment

1828				Freedom of the press is recognised by the Cape government

1828				The Griqua leader Cornelius Kok II dies. Adam Kok II once again becomes the political leader of the Griquas

1829				The fertile land in the basin of the Kat River in the Cape is granted to two hundred and fifty Khoikhoi and coloured families. This marks the beginning of what came to be known as the Kat River Settlement. This area is regarded as particularly strategic in the struggle between the AmaXhosa and the colonial government for the land of the AmaXhosa. The settlement is designed as a buffer zone of the eastern frontier. Hence the inhabitants are armed by the colonial government, despite objections by white settlers in the region. The settlement soon develops into a self-sufficient farming community supported by much missionary activity, a phenomenon which further irates the white farmers because it means that the well-organised settlers of the Kat River could not be hired as underpaid labourers on their farms

1829				Cape Colony: In the face of attacks by the British colonial authorities the Rharhabe and Gcaleka polities reconcile and establish peace between them in order to ward off colonial aggression as a combined force

1829				The South African College is founded in Cape Town in order to advance higher education in the colonist society as higher education was lagging behind elementary education

1833				The Basotho kingdom of King Moshoeshoe comes under threat from marauding mounted and armed “Bergenaars”, defectors from the Griqua and Korana polities. Moshoeshoe introduces horses that are adapted to his mountainous kingdom and arms his subjects to meet the threat. With this strategy they successfully beat off the “Bergenaars” as well as subsequent attacks on the Basotho kingdom. The kingdom is able to maintain its sovereignty and is an independent state today

1833				King Moshoeshoe of the Basotho invites missionaries to assist him with the consolidation of a modern state. Two missionaries from the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, Thomas Arbousset and Eugene Casilis, as well as the artisan Constant Gosselin assist with this project. Moshoeshoe instructs the missionaries to establish villages south of the capital Thabo Bosiu along the frontier with the Korana under the leadership of his sons Letsie and Molapa. The establishment of villages along threatened borders become a pattern when other missionaries follow the first missionaries to ensure that the King's authority is recognised by potential attackers

1833				The British Parliament passes an emancipation decree, the Abolition Act, which abolishes the system of slavery, but which writes a kind of indentured labour system, called “apprenticeship”, into the legislation. This is to ensure that the slave-based economies of the British Empire do not collapse as a result of the end of slavery

1834				Cape Colony: Official emancipation of slaves. Although legally emancipated, the Cape slaves are indentured as “apprentices” to their owners for a period of four years. Despite the system of “apprenticeship”, numerous slaves desert their owners, while those who remain to serve their “apprenticeship” increasingly adopt a less subordinate attitude towards their masters. Desertion and insubordination hence become characteristic of the slave-master relation after Emancipation. It is estimated that the slave population of the Cape stood at 59 000 souls at Emancipation

1834				The newly appointed Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, establishes Executive and Legislative Councils to determine the parameters of legislative and executive authority in the Colony. Although no one could be elected onto the Council, freedom of debate was guaranteed and most legislative initiatives had to pass through the Council for approval

1834				Beginning of the migration out of the Cape Colony by groups of armed Boer farmers in what is to go down in South African history as the Great Trek. Preparations for the migration were done secretly in 1834. The key organisers, Louis Trichardt, Hans van Rensburg, Hendrick Potgieter and Gert Maritz kept their scouting preparations a secret from the British authorities, thereby making an accurate reconstruction of events historically unreliable. The widely accepted reasons for the Great Trek are regarded as political, economic and social. Boer farmers migrated from the authority of the British colonial government of the Cape whom they perceive as being politically unsympathetic to their needs. Policy decisions taken in London meant that the Boer farmer were no longer allowed to expand their farms and grazing areas at the expense of the indigenous population with impunity. Ordinance 50 of 1828 granted Khoikhoi and Coloureds, the traditional servants and slaves of the Boer farmers not only the freedom to seek work, but also to own land. This leads to a shortage of labour for Boer farmers. In addition Ordinance 50 put all “free inhabitants” of the Colony on equal political footing before the law. This political act is unacceptable to the Boers who regard Blacks as uncivilised heathen and therefore inferior to Whites. Finally, the gradual introduction of a cash economy means that also Boer farmers have to engage in surplus farming in order to get cash. Boer farmers had been accustomed to a bartering economy

1834 - 1835				AmaXhosa chiefdoms invade the Cape Colony in an attempt to regain the land that the Cape government had appropriated from them in previous wars. This goes down in history as the Sixth War of Dispossession. The Governor, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, sends in the Cape regiment troops as well as African allies to effect a devastation of the invading AmaXhosa. The target of the military action is less the armed AmaXhosa as the basis of their livelihood. Hence D'Urban orders the destruction of whole villages and all the crops and food supplies. An AmaXhosa nation thus impoverished and devastated would be forced to accept colonial authority and rule. With the AmaXhosa defeated and stripped of their means of production and existence, D'Urban annexes all their land between the Kei and Keiskamma rivers and expels the AmaXhosa living there. The annexed land is called the Province of Adelaide. The London Missionary Society missionary, Dr John Philip intervenes on behalf of the AmaXhosa. As a result of his report to the British government, D'Urban is forced to reverse his annexation policy. Philip and the London Missionary Society had in the past persuaded the British government of the injustice and belligerence of Cape colonial polices towards the indigenous people of the Cape. His Researches in South Africa which was published in 1828 formed the basis of the British government's decision to act against some Cape colonial policies. Missionaries are instrumental in the first publication of an IsiXhosa grammar in Grahamstown

1835				Cape Colony: Ordinance 1 lays down the number of hours that an “apprentice” is required to work in gardens or on fields. This does not apply to domestic service. Most provisions of this Ordinance prove to be unenforceable. Ordinance 1 forbids slave owners from meting out punishment. A judicial and magisterial system is introduced to implement punishment in an attempt to establish the “rule of law” in the Cape Colony

1835				The trekking groups move north and east of the Cape Colony, and during the Trek seize in violent skirmishes and also protracted battles the land of African political entities that they encounter

1835				Hintsa, the Paramount Chief of the AmaXhosa, is illegally captured under a flag of truce and the pretext of peace negotiations by the military troops of the Cape Governor, Sir Benjamin D'Urban. Both the Governor and his Colonel, Sir Harry Smith, who unsuccessfully try to force him, under the threat of being hanged, to convince the AmaXhosa to surrender to the colonial government during the Sixth War of Dispossession, interrogate him for days. They murder him while he attempts to escape. His ears are taken as trophy

1836				Cape Colony: Andries Stockenström, Lieutenant Governor of the Eastern Districts, restores the Province of Queen Adelaide, land that had been annexed during the Sixth War of Dispossession, to the AmaXhosa at the instruction of Britain. This follows his testimony to the Aborigines Commission in London in which he describes the freedom with which settlers are allowed to counter-raid suspected cattle thieves among the AmaXhosa as a significant reason for the outbreak of warfare on the frontier. Stockenström also institutes a “treaty system”, that recognises the independence and authority of the AmaXhosa chiefs. This causes tension between him and Governor Sir Benjamin D'Urban who had been overlooked by Britain in the making of this policy

1836				Passing of the Cape of Good Hope Punishment Act which attempts to control the movement of trekboers and Voortrekkers

1836				The AmaNdebele under the leadership of their king, Mzilikatsi, pose the biggest challenge to the marauding Voortrekkers during the course of the Great Trek. In a series of bloody battles they defeat the AmaNdebele, most notably by Hendrick Potgieter from his main laager at Vegkop. The Battle of Vegkop, while signalling a victory for the Boers, demands a great toll on lives on both sides as well as on their stocks of cattle and trek oxen. Chief Moroka of the Barolong and his missionary Archibell come to the rescue of the Voortrekkers with food and oxen

1836				Voortrekker leaders Andries Potgieter and Pieter Uys, with the aid of the Griqua, Barolong, Koranna and BaTlokwa, seize the stronghold of Mzilikatsi in Mosega and drive him and his people out of the region towards the Marico Valley in the north. The Voortrekkers conclude “friendship” treaties with their allies in the defeat of Mzilikatsi

1837 - 1838				The forces of Potgieter and Uys attack Mzilikatsi anew. This time they drive him and his people beyond the Limpopo River into what is present day Zimbabwe. Potgieter and Uys seize the land of the AmaNdebele

1837				The Voortrekker leader and spokesperson, Piet Retief, sets out in a “Manifesto” the reasons for the Great Trek. One of the main reasons is the perceived lack of sympathy of the colonial government to the political and economic demands of the Boers, which is expressed in the passing of legislation that aims at placing Black and White on equal footing before the law

1837				Dissension amongst the Voortrekkers causes them to split. Piet Retief and his followers trek eastwards to Port Natal, which will later be known as Durban. Other groups move northwards

1837				Piet Retief visits Dingane, Chief of the AmaZulu, to negotiate an apparent claim to the land between the Tugela and Mzimvubu Rivers in exchange for cattle and rifles. The cattle are delivered but not the rifles. Dingane orders the execution of Retief and his negotiating party

1837				The Voortrekker Republic of Natalia is established

1838				The Voortrekkers, who by now have settled on the land seized from the various African chiefdoms in battles, attempt to organise themselves as a state. They draw up the framework of a Constitution which entrenches the superiority of White over Black and a racial master-servant social order. The main institution of the new state is a Volksraad (people's council or assembly), a body comprising twenty-four elected men. The Volksraad combines legislative, judiciary and executive powers. The British colonial government does not recognise the Republic of Natalia and hence occupy Port Natal, thereby denying the newly founded republic access to the harbour that is the potential gateway to the eastern trade routes

1838				AmaZulu regiments are defeated by the military superiority of the Voortrekkers at the Battle of Blood River, a revenge attack for the murder of Piet Retief and the subsequent attack on Boer laagers at Weenen. The AmaZulu lose an estimate of three thousand troops

1838				The kingdom of the AmaZulu breaks into civil war. Mpande, chief military advisor and brother of the King of the AmaZulu, overthrows Dingane with the assistance of Voortrekkers, who capture children to work as their servants. Dingane flees into Swazi territory. Pretorius instates Mpande as king. The Republic of Natalia annexes the southern region of Zululand

1838				The Voortrekkers lift thousands of head of Mzilikatsi's cattle and distribute them amongst the Boer farmers

1838				Andries Hendrick Potgieter founds Potchefstroom as the capital of the new Transvaal Republic, north of the Orange River

1838				Louis Trichardt, a Voortrekker leader moves with his following to Delagoa Bay. He dies there

1838				Britain occupies Port Natal. It is later named Durban

1838				Cape Colony: The “apprenticeship” of slaves, formally emancipated in 1834, ends. This marks the factual end of slavery in the Cape, as the “apprentices” are officially no longer slaves

1838				Civil war of a kind breaks out in the strife-ridden Griqua confederacy as the various leaders and their following, each group aided by a missionary, fight each other to establish who would be the most senior leader of the confederacy. A treaty is concluded between the two Kaptyne,Adam Kok III and Andries Waterboer, which provided for a Joint Council to act as a Supreme Court for these two captaincies

1838 - 1843				The Republic of Natalia recruits Tsonga men from Moçambique to fill their labour needs

1839				The town of Pietermaritzburg is founded. It is named after the Voortrekker leaders Gert Maritz and Piet Retief. It becomes the capital of the newly established Voortrekker Republic of Natalia

1841				Cape Colony: Passing of the Cape Masters and Servants Ordinance which supersedes Ordinance 50 of 1828 by disqualifying racial distinction between servants. White and coloured servants as well as ex-slaves are placed on equal legal footing in terms of criminal sanctions for breach of contract

1841				After the Battle of Blood River of 1838 there is considerable movement in the Zululand-Natal region as refugees enter Natal to return to their homelands that had been absorbed into Shaka's kingdom. While the increased number of Africans means that the problem of labour for Boer farmers was being solved, the Boers perceive the presence of tens of thousands of Africans in Natalia as a security threat. Hence the Volksraad determines that all “surplus” Africans, that is, Africans who are not working for Whites, be moved to the area between the Mtamvuba and the Mzimvubu Rivers

1842				Cape Governor George Napier issues a proclamation against the incursions by Boers of the territories of the Basotho and Griqua. This is the result of interventions to both the imperial and colonial governments about Boer aggression against the indigenous population by Adam Kk III and Dr John Philip of the London Missionary Society

1842				A severe drought breaks out in the eastern region of the Cape Colony. This leads to cattle theft by both settlers and AmaXhosa. It marks the decline of the treaty system introduced by Stockenström in 1836 and sets the scene for yet another war on the frontier

1843				British forces of Governor Sir George Napier annex the Republic of Natalia, which becomes a British colony. The annexation comes in the wake of a military intervention in 1842 when British forces attempt to pre-empt a n by other European imperialist powers and when the Voortrekker head of state, Andries Pretorius, stages a failed siege against the British. As a result of the strength of British intervention, Mpande agrees to cede St Lucia Bay to the British. Furthermore he signs a treaty which restricts the AmaZulu to the region south of the Tugela River

1843				The entrenchment of merino sheep farming in the eastern regions of the Cape Colony changes its socio-economic as well as the political arena. Merino farmers are intent upon gaining access to more grazing land, despite the fact that the land that they want belongs to the AmaXhosa. As Boer merino sheep farmer contingents look to expanding their grazing areas by violent means and marauding Griqua groups called “Bergenaars” raiding the region, Moshoeshoe's kingdom is constantly threatened by these groups. The Governor, Sir George Napier, supports Moshoeshoe's claim to his territory, by concluding a treaty with the Basotho king in which the Basotho territory is determined as all the land between the Orange and Caledon Rivers. Moshoeshoe is granted a salary of £75 to maintain order in his newly defined territory

1843				Cape Governor Napier signs an agreement with the Griqua leader Adam Kok III to maintain order in his territory in return for an annual salary of £100. Unlike the treaty with Moshoeshoe, Kok's treaty does not define the limits of his territory

1844				Sir Peregrine Maitland becomes Governor of the Cape Colony. His first action is to rescind the treaty system introduced by Stockenström in 1836. In its place he places his own treaty system which fore spells conflict on the eastern frontier because the new system gives farmers the right to follow up on allegedly stolen cattle and to demand equivalent compensation if they could not find the cattle. The treaty system also allows for the erection of military fortifications in ceded territory. Tribunals at which farmers could lodge complaints against chiefs and Diplomatic Agents are part of Maitland's new treaty system. Finally, African converts to Christianity no longer fall under the jurisdiction of their chiefs

1844				Fighting breaks out between the Boers and the Griqua as the former refuse to accept Kok's jurisdiction over them

1845				The new Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Peregrine Maitland, sends troops into the area to counter Boer attacks on the Griqua in compliance with the treaties Napier had signed with the Griqua and the Basotho. The Boers are defeated by the British with their Griqua allies in the Battle of Zwartkoppies. This skirmish marks the first open shooting exchange between Boers and British

1845				Cape Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland concludes a treaty with Adam Kok III. In terms of this “Maitland Treaty” the land of the Griqua is divided into “alienable” and “inalienable” areas. Griqua are permitted to hire farmland in the alienable areas to Boers who are British subjects for a period of no more than forty years. A British Resident is placed in the region to oversee the implementation of the conditions of the treaty

1845				After the annexation of the Republic of Natalia by the British in 1843, Natal becomes an autonomous district of the Cape Colony. The most important government offices are held by Martin West, who is made Lieutenant Governor, Hendrick Cloete who takes on the position of Chief Justice and Sir Theophilus Shepstone who is appointed the “Diplomatic Agent to the Native Tribes”

1846				Chief Justice Cloete and Sir Theophilus Shepstone set up the Locations Commission to investigate the feasibility of segregating black and white in Natal. Seven locations are initially established, financed in the main by a hut tax imposed on Africans. Shepstone introduces the system whereby the hereditary chiefs are responsible for the immediate running of the locations. The system comes under attack from white settlers who fear that self-sufficient locations would rob them of cheap black labour

1846 - 1847				The Seventh War of Dispossession against the western AmaXhosa or AmaNgqika goes down in history as the War of the Axe as the ostensible reason for the colonial attack on the western AmaXhosa is the theft of an axe which leads to the detention of the thief and the subsequent freeing of the thief by his fellow clansmen. The real reasons for this war are to be found in the persistent efforts by the colonial government to seize the land of the western AmaXhosa and the agitation in the Graham's Town Journal that the Province of Queen Adelaide be given to the settlers, land that had been seized by the colonial troops during the Sixth War of Dispossession of 1834, but which Britain had decreed should be returned to the AmaXhosa. The conflict is a full-scale war with the western AmaXhosa being the more victorious side. They adopt the British tactic of a scorched earth policy, which does not only wreak havoc on the colonial troops but also within the western AmaXhosa chiefdom. Despite the imminent defeat of the colonial troops, the AmaXhosa offer to end hostilities. The British colonial troops realising that the offer of peace was because the AmaXhosa were running out of food supplies, demand their unconditional surrender and the annexation of all land west of the Kei River

1847				The western AmaXhosa resist the British conditions of peace while simultaneously refusing to engage in warfare. Maitland thereupon attacks the homes, remaining cattle and crops as well as the grain bins of these AmaXhosa. Hence the defeat of the AmaXhosa by the British colonial forces is ultimately not effected on the battlefields but in the homesteads of a people passively resisting warfare

1847				Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Harry Smith is appointed Governor of the Cape. He embarks on aggressive expansionist politics

1847				With the defeat of the AmaXhosa in the War of the Axe the Cape colonial government in the person of the newly appointed Governor and High Commissioner, Sir Harry Smith, extends the Colony to the Keiskamma River. Smith also creates a new colony on the land of the AmaNgqika, which he names British Kaffraria. AmaXhosa are allowed to live in that region as British subjects

1847				Cape Governor Sir Harry Smith meets with the Griqua leader Adam Kok. He rescinds the land tenure system that Sir Peregrine Maitland had negotiated with the Griqua in 1846. The new agreement is loaded to the advantage of the British Crown and the white farmers in the region. Smith demands that all rent accrued from white tenant farmers on Griqua land north of the Riet River be paid to the Crown. Maitland had demanded half of the rental. Smith also decrees that white farmers be allowed to settle on Griqua land south of the Riet River which Maitland had forbidden