Cape Republic: Difference between revisions
m
→Rapid expansion & a new identity: Added a Xhosa wars para
ElBortoTexas (talk | contribs) (→History: Added a new paragraph to the British occupation of the cape) |
ElBortoTexas (talk | contribs) m (→Rapid expansion & a new identity: Added a Xhosa wars para) |
||
Line 41:
=== Rapid expansion & a new identity ===
When the Dutch returned to power and their governance over the Kaap-Kolonie a new era was marked. As Europe was devastated by war the Kaap colonies experienced a rapid influx of new settlers, many of the urbanites. This was largely done by the newly formed so-called “Kaap Compagnie”. Formed by 2nd and even 3rd generation settlers of the Kaap-Kolonie it had the express goal to aid in the development of the colony. With the population growing the original lands below the table mountain were getting too crowded while settlement beyond the table mountains had occurred it would now need to become an organized effort. While prior to the 1800s the colony her borders were up until the Oranje-River that was only on paper and in reality the land between the Table mountains and the Oranje river was sparsely populated.
In order to further Dutch claims to the eastern Cape and to create a buffer between the Xhosa in the east, the Cape colony government gave land grants to 4,500 German settlers (mostly from the lower Rhine, Luxembourg and the Saarland) between 1819 and 1829. Many of these colonists settled along the Algoa bay and in the period the important port town of Fredrickstadt was founded. Eventually after years of border skirmishes between colonists and the Xhosa, tensions over the land surrounding the Groot Visch River led to the great Xhosa war (1829 to 1834). After 5 years of bloodshed and atrocities on both sides, the Xhosa surrendered to the Dutch with the single condition that Xhosa people not be taken as slaves. In 1834 the Dutch Cape colony annexed Xhosaland as a new district of the colony. Between 1835 and 1855 the Dutch government sent missions to Xhosaland to Christianize and "civilize" the newly conquered nation and while Christianity and Dutch farming practices spread rapidly throughout the Xhosa, the Dutch language did not and the Xhosa language remained the primary mother tongue of the district.
This began to change in 1819 when then Governor-General Henk Koenis signed the order that starts the organized settlement of lands beyond the Table mountains. In between 1820 and 1850 a large consolidated effort was carried out to settle the land up to the Oranje River. It saw tens of thousands leave towards towns, founded by scouting parties, that eventually all became connected by railroads, these towns would form the commercial and political center of an area of land that in general had 220 families/farms. This settlement policy proved relatively successful as the towns began to grow in size and importance, with raids by the natives being easily deterred by the effective implementation of a Kommando system fostering a strong militia culture on the frontier.
| |||