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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 193
Reference:
Marix Evans, Martin, The Boer War: South Africa 1899–1902 (Oxford, Osprey Publishing, 1999).
Natal
Natal, on the south-eastern coast of South Africa, was separated from the lands of the Boer republics
by the mountains surrounding the northern wedge of the territory and was flanked to the east by
Zululand. It had been under British rule since 1843, and was an apparently secure base for operations
against the Boers, and thus a prime target for them in war.
The British colony of Natal grew from a coastal settlement, Port Natal, which by 1824 was well
established with the permission of Shaka, ruler of the Zulu, who had devastated the hinterland to the
north. A decade later the Voortrekkers arrived under Piet Retief who attempted to treat with the new
Zulu chief, Dingane, for a grant of land. This was made but immediately invalidated by the slaughter
of Retief and most of the whites in Natal; Port Natal itself was abandoned. The penalty visited upon
the Zulu was immense. At the Battle of Blood River on 16 December 1837 the Boers, under Andries
Pretorius, won an overwhelming victory. By 1840 the republic of Natalia had come into being with
its capital at Pietermaritzburg, and a policy of denial of rights to black Africans except for servants.
The British were disturbed by the effects the republic had on black African peoples on the
borders and by the numbers of black refugees being ejected from the territory. They were also
interested in having an additional port on the route to India. They therefore reoccupied Port Natal in
1843 and annexed the whole territory. In addition to farming, the growing of sugar cane was a
potentially important industry in Natal and indentured Indian labourers were brought in to work in the
cane fields. These workers, once their indentures had been worked out, acquired land or went into
business and by 1904 numbered more than 100,000, a slightly larger population than the Europeans,
despite the antagonism of the government. Zululand was incorporated into Natal on 30 December
1897.
Coal was found in the north of the colony at Elandslaagte, Dundee and Newcastle, adding a
further dimension to the economy and increasing commercial interest in maintaining control of the
north; this was possibly a factor in the tactics adopted – of moving British troops north beyond the
Tugela River – when war threatened in 1899.
Reference:
Laband, John, Rope of Sand (Jeppestown, Jonathan Ball, 1995), and as The Rise and Fall of the Zulu
Nation (London, Arms and Armour Press, 1995); Troup, Freda, South Africa: An Historical
Introduction (London, Eyre Methuen, 1972).
Nek
A pass between hills.
Newcastle
The most northerly town of importance in Natal, Newcastle was occu-
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