Africa, according to accepted evolutionary theory is the birthplace of mankind, who then spread out across the world. Fine, but if you look at linguistics, mankind must have evolved to sentience and speech capability in at least two, probably three separate locations. If you dig back far enough, English can be related to Chinese even to Mayan, but none can be connected to sub-Saharan African languages at all, and the Koori languages of Australia form yet another ancient grouping. African history like that of the Americas,or the Austro-Pacific region, does not begin with the European explorations, but does create a good dividing line in history, and one used in these notes, at least for sub-Saharan Africa.
National boundaries as seen on the map today, were drawn by European Colonial Powers with
little regard to local ethnicity. In 1876 only about 10% of the continent was directly under external control, and half of that, from Tunis almost to Lake Victoria was under the Turks, the old Ottoman Empire. From 1876, the European Powers moved with almost indecent haste, each to gain control of as much of the remainder as possible. The only places that didn't end up as European protectorates or colonies were Liberia, a small nation created on the West African coast by the USA in 1863 for any freed slaves who wanted to return to the continent of their ancestors, and Ethiopia, whose mountainous terrain was almost a natural fortress. (It possibly helped too that they were Christian, bringing Christianity to the unenlightened was a favourite excuse of the Europeans to cover colonialist ambitions!) The Turkish Empire was already starting to fall apart, and Turkish Africa was also soon under European control.
The North African coast or 'Arab Africa' is a very different environment, and has a very different history to sub-Saharan Africa, so these nations are grouped together.
Canary Islands
Ceuta
Melilla
Even before the innovative meshing of commercial interest with explorative curiosity by Henry the Navigator, King of Portugal, in the early 15th century, Africa south of the Sahara was not totally unknown to the European, though a lot of what they did know was secondhand. The Romans may have learned something
of coastal regions from the Phoenicians (but the Phoenicians were a closed mouth lot!) They certainly did know of peoples in West Africa and traded with them, but generally through third parties, though they certainly made at least one trans-Saharan expedition themselves. The Nile River was a transport corridor that brought goods from tropical Africa to the Roman Empire, and the Red Sea too was a well used trade route.
The first white fellahs to see what is now South Africa were Portuguese Bartolomeu Dias and his crews aboard two 100 ton caravels (which were small ships even by 15th century standards in 1488. They were searching for a searoute to India to break the Moslem monopoly on trade between Europe and the East on the overland route. Earlier in the 15th century, a remarkable deal had been struck between the Portuguese King, the traders/explorers already making some progress down the western bulge of Africa, and the merchant bankers who supported the traders. The traders were charged to extend Portuguese knowledge of the African Coast by 200 km each year, in return they would pay minimal taxes on the profits from goods acquired on these voyages. By 1486, this policy had brought the Portuguese and their chain of coastal trading posts as far south as modern day Namibia.
Leaving a supply ship which had accompanied them from Portugal anchored off the Namibian coast, they continued south well out to sea for a few days (lee shores were very dangerous for sailing ships) then turned eastward. Not sighting land again as they had expected after 24 hours or so, they turned north, and soon did sight land. They had rounded the Cape out of sight, and where they were coming to shore was Mossel Bay. Khoi-khoi herders ashore saw two phantoms drifting in slowly across the sea,(no black Africans had ever developed the concept of sea travel, then when they were close the phantoms lost there white shrouds and stopped. A small boat came from each, and headed for shore. The Khoi-khoi, curiousity overcoming fear of ghosts,went down to the beach. Both sides were nervous at the encounter and sadly a Khoi-khoi was killed. The Portuguese needed fresh water and some of the landing party moved off along the beach toward a stream they'd noticed whilst rowing ashore. This seemed to upset the Khoi-khoi for some reason, they started yelling and jumping up and down and when one of them threw a small stone in the general direction of the water party, a Portuguese reacted with his crossbow.
The remaining Khoi-khoi fled, but even with refreshed water supplies the Portuguese were also badly rattled by the incident. A few days later they anchored again off St Croix Island. Unusually for any ship of that or any other century, they were operating under a charter of operation which provided a degree of democracy aboard. Whenever the anchor was down. The Captain (Dias) was obliged to listen to the opinions of senior crew, and a majority vote effected the further actions of the ship. While Dias was keen to explore further, the majority vote caused them to turn back. Rounding the Cape back into the Atlantic with a lot less trouble than later ships fighting prevailing westerlies and not infrequent storms, they were close enough inshore to produce basic maps and sight the Cape.
Rejoining their supply ship to the relief of the crews, they returned to Portugal wihout major incident. Despite the growing awareness of the need for fresh food re-supply on these long voyages, the Portuguese failed to establish any kind of way station at the cape. The first semi-permanent European outpost occurred as the result of an accident.
By 1647, the Dutch were powerful competitors to the Portuguese on the Asian trade voyages. and in that year a fleet of ships were returning to Europe from Dutch Batavia, when one of the ships, the 'Haerlem', ran aground on the 25 March at Rietvlei in Table Bay, and was damaged beyond repair. The fleet was laden to capacity with valuable cargo from the East Indies and there was no possibilty of transferring the Haelem's cargo to other ships. The fleet commander ordered the unfortunate captain and most of his crew to go ashore, salvage as much as possible, and await rescue. Using sand, and timbers from the wreck, Captain Jansz and his 58 remaining crew built a small fort, and called it Zandenburgh, not very imaginative when you think about it!
Though nervous of the Khoi-khoi, who were not overtly hostile, but as the Portuguese had discovered, rather unpredictable, they explored the general area and traded with the Khoi-khoi
Total area: sq.km.
Pop. 1972 : million
Pop. 1997 : million
Recent annual increase %
Major languages ...English Afrikaans
Capital: Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein
Colonial/Occupying Powers Netherlands U.K
Independence
Highest mt. .m
Special features ...
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for cattle and other fresh foodstuffs. They were rescued and returned to Holland the following year, and Jansz was ordered to write a report on the feasibility of establishing a permanent base at the Cape to be both self-supporting and to supply ships with fresh friut, vegetables and meat. Jansz's report led to the commissioning of a small fleet to establish the base under the command of Van Riebeeck. There were five ships in the plan, but on setting out from the port of Texel, two were discovered to be dangerously overloaded, and were ordered to return to port, resolve the problem and then to follow. Now with three ships, the 'Drommedaris', the 'Reijger' and 'De Goede Hoop' sailed south.
The little fleet dropped anchor at Table Bay on April 5, 1652. Amazingly, only two crewmen had died en route, which is some tribute to Van Riebeeck's management skills. (In contrast, when the other two ships arrived a month later, had lost a total of 130. Van Riebeeck was keen to return to the East Indies, and wrote frequently to his bosses, the Dutch East India Company, requesting transfer. But as a good Company Man, he was dilligent at the task given. By the time he was finally transferred in 1662 (to the role of Governor of Malacca) the outpost had become a colony as well, supplying passing ships as intended, though still having to import some types of foodstuffs from Europe or Asia.
In 1657, to save some money on wages, (the Company didn't like operations that weren't showing a profit!) nine men were released from Company service, allocated land nearby and given seed and equipment to establish their own farms. Over the next few years a few more men were released in the same way. There were some restrictions placed by the Company, who saw these 'Freedmen' farming operations as supplementary to their own, not as a generously allowed competition. In 1679 realising the potential of expansion, the Company began offering free passage and land to any man and his family if they were willing to become farmers in the new colony. The Khoi-khoi and nearby San people's numbers were in serious decline throughout this period, some killed in fights with whites over land resources, but far more by European diseases, particularly smallpox. In 1770, the white expansion had made first contact with the Xhosa, who had far more warlike characteristics than the Khoi-khoi, and over the years to come there would be a number of settler/Xhosa wars. By 1795 the white settlers had spread out 500 km to the north, and 800 km to the east, and the Afrikaans language had started to evolve from Dutch, influenced by non-Dutch settlers, by native Africans, and by slaves brought from Asia. Van Riebeeck had been under orders from the Company not to enslave the Khoi-khoi so had brought slaves in from Asia (though there were some African slaves from further north, 'confiscated' from the Portuguese.
!795 also saw the French invasion of the Netherlands, and the resultant British invasion of the Cape Colony to pre-empt any French attempt to do the same. By this time the colonists from various parts of northern continental Europe had merged sufficiently to be referred to by one name_ Afrikaaner, and the Britishers were outsiders. A fact that has dominated much of South Africa's history ever since.
The British had moved in on an already complex situation; the Afrikaaner settled in the immediate Cape area were already at odds with the Trekboer (farmers-on-the-move) who had adopted a lifestyle not unlike that of the Khoi-khoi and other African tribes, moving along from one grazing area to another with their herds of cattle. The Trekboer were out on the periphery of the expanding colonial area, and increasingly ignored any directives emanating from Capetown, whilst at the same time being in an on-again / off-again state of war with first the Xhosa, then as a result of the constant expansion to new grazing lands, with other tribes. Expansion caused displacement of those who had been there before. As black tribes retreated their need for new grazing land displaced others. This ripple effect called 'mfecane' by Nguni peoples, and 'difaqane' by the Sotho, was flet thru the iterior grasslands clear up to the equator. The settled Cape Afrikaaner grudgingly accepted the British presence, but the Trekboer were a different matter, having become selective in obeying directives from the Dutch East India Company officials in Den Kaap, they darn sure weren't going to be accepting any orders from the British! British military expeditions went out to the periphery to enforce British authority, but it was like trying to catch water with a sieve, and authority remained, well, peripheral!
In 1803, the Brits handed control of the Cape back to the Dutch, but after yet another change in the European situation, re-invaded in 1806. This time they stayed, formally annexing Cape Colony into the British Empire in 1820.
Meanwhile the ongoing expansion of the Trekboer maintained the "mfecane' which in turn had a lot to do with the conversion of the Zulu from one small Bantu speaking tribe amongst a thousand others in what is now Kwa-Zulu-Natal, into a warforce that was to give the whites, both Afrikaaner and British serious trouble. In 1816, Shaka had succeeded his father as King of the Zulu. Traditionally, Africans had carried a long throwing spear, which was great for hunting, but of limited value in warfare. During territorial disputes, opposing groups would face off, do a lot of yelling, and throw a few spears. Then everyone went home, honour satisfied. Shaka introduced a short spear called an assegai, intended for close combat, and re-trained his army to fight in platoons (impi). When faced with the enemy, each impi would form up with its strongest fighters a solid mass in the centre to attack head-on, whilst others, not as strong but fleet of foot, formed up as 'horns' on each side, to race out on each flank of the enemy force and attack from the sides. This tactic overwhelmed tribes up and down the Natal coast and wherever Shaka's army roamed inland. Many fled further inland and north, further maintaining and expanding the 'mfecane', whilst others joined forces with the Zulus.
Shaka himself was murdered in 1828 by two of his own brothers after he apparently went mad, but his empire and war tactics lived on. By the time of first serious contact with the whites in the late 1830's, the Zulu nation was a formidable opponent.
The Afrikaaner were no happier with the arrival of the British in 1806 than they had been in 1795, and that resentment deepened with the different attitudes toward slavery. In 1807, the Brits banned slave trading throughout their empire (and with the most powerful navy in the world, were also able to disrupt slave trading by ships of other nations). The Brits broughrt in laws to have servants and existing slaves treated more humanely, which were largely ignored by the Afrikaaner, and improved the education system and reduced customs duties on some goods exported to Britain, both of which met with approval. Simultaneously, there were three situations developing:-
There was a growing shortage of manual labourers in the Colony as a result of the ban on bringing in more slaves, there were increasing clashes in the border areas over grazing land, and in Britain, the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814 had caused a sharp jump in the number of unemployed. The British government came up with a three tier assisted passage scheme to alleviate these problems.
Item two was kept pretty quiet, what the would-be migrants were not told is that they would be part time soldiers in the borderlands, as well as farmers!
The first migrant ship arrived in Algoa Bay (Port Elizabeth) in 1820, the same year that the Cape Colony was formally absorbed into the Empire. Lack of farming experience on the part of most of these newcomers, unsuitable land for crop farming and restrictive govt regualtions made for a poor start, but switching to merino sheep farming improved the situation, and exporting merino wool became a major money-spinner for the colony.
Though the British had improved education levels and prosperity, removed some of the more restrictive trade practises of the Dutch East India Company, and the presence of British troops in the border areas improved security, British rule was still unwelcome. In 1834, slavery as such, was also banned, all existing slaves were to be freed within a four year transition period. Many Afrikaaner, mostly trekboer but also some settled on farms in the Colony, decided that if the Brits wouldn't go away, then they would have to take themselves away from the Brits. This decision was the beginning of what was to become known as the Great Trek. in 1834/5 reconnaisance parties went out, and came back to report that the high veld was uninhabited, just how 'uninhabited' has been a matter of argument ever since. in 1836-8 over 14000 people headed out, most of the Voortrekker groups set out from Eastern Cape and headed intially over the Orange River into what was to become the Oranj Frei Statt, and some settled down here. Most however
moved on, either north across the Vaal river to get themselves as far away from the Brits as possible, or east over the Drakensburg Mts and down to the coast to Port Natal. Descending into Natal there were a number of encounters with the Zulu, but the trekkers had firearms and a good defensive technique - laagering (pulling their wagons into tight circles, and keeping as much livestock inside as practical) The most famous encounter (or infamous if you happen to be Zulu) was at the Ncome River. 100 wagons were attacked by a large Zulu army, at the end of the battle 3000 Zulu were dead for just 3 injuries amongst the Afrikaaner. They had established their dominance in the area, and declared it the Republic of Natalia. But, the brits wouldn't have a bar of an independent afrikaaner republic controlling one of the few good harbours on the South African coast, and sent a garrison to occupy the harbour area. A tense standoff remained in place for over three years, but when the Afrikaaner resolved to southward over the Matamvuna River any blacks not working for them, the Governor of Cape Colony, Sir George Napier, saw such a southward 'Mfecane' wave as a threat to the Colony, and sent a force of 250 men to 'dissuade' the Afrikaaner leader Andries Pretorius. When negotiations failed, Capt Smith the British force commander attempted a surprise night attack on the Afrikaaner camp, but was spotted by lookouts, and found themselves surrounded and under siege. They held out five weeks whilst one of their number slipped thru siege lines on horsback and rode 500km to Grahamstown to alert and bring back a relief force. The Afrikaaner were pushed back, and on 15 July 1842 signed surrender papers. Unwilling to stay in Natal under British terms, they loaded up their wagons and headed back up on to the veld. Some went north to join the volk beyond the Vaal River, whilst others returned to the Orange River area. The British forces stayed in Natal, and were soon joined by British settlers, both from the Cape and directly from Britain. Natal was formally declard a separate colony in 1845.
The Transvaal Republic was declared in 1852 and the Orange Free State in 1854. For a while The Brits seemed happy enough to recognise the independence of the two inland republic, they did after all form a buffer between themselves and the bulk of black africa. Then mineral riches began to be found across the highveld, diamonds in various locations across the Orange Free State 1866-70, and later, gold in the Transvaal in 1886.
Walvis Bay
Prince Edward Islands
India et L'Europa
Madagascar is the 4th largest island in the world, almost half the size of the N.T. At its nearest point it is 250km across the water to the east coast of Africa, The island 1600km north to south, and averaging over 350km wide.
The island enjoys a tropical climate, though with substantial variations from one part of the country to another. This is due mainly to a 1000m plus plateau that runs most of the lengh of the island. The East Coast is the wettest and thus the most luxuriant area, but is plagued by cyclones. The exreme S.W. gets as little as 15cm of rain a year in places, and can experience eight months of drought.
The biodiversity of the fauna and flora is immense. 25% of all flora and fauna from the entire planet are represented here, and 85% of those are unique to the island. There is still extensive tropical forest, though indiscriminate felling over the centuries has caused severe erosion in some places. The island plateau is naturally enough a little cooler than the coastal areas,
Official name : Repoblika Demokratika
n'i Madagaskar
Total area: 594180 sq.km.
Pop. 1972 : 7 million
Pop. 1997 : 13.5 million
Recent annual increase 3.7 %
Major languages ...Malagasy, French
Capital: Antananarivo pop. 1m plus
Colonial/Occupying Powers France U.K
Independence 26.6.1960
Highest mt. .Tsaratanana 2876m
Special features ...east coast canal
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in fact overnight winter temperatures in the highlands can drop down to freezing.The island enjoys a tropical climate, though with substantial variations from one part of the country to another. This is due mainly to a 1000m plus plateau that runs most of the lengh of the island. The East Coast is the wettest and thus the most luxuriant area, but is plagued by cyclones. The exreme S.W. gets as little as 15cm of rain a year in places, and can experience eight months of drought.
The biodiversity of the fauna and flora is immense. 25% of all flora and fauna from the entire planet are represented here, and 85% of those are unique to the island. There is still extensive tropical forest, though indiscriminate
felling over the centuries has caused severe erosion in some places. The island plateau is naturally enough a little cooler than the coastal areas, in fact overnight winter temperatures in the highlands can drop down to freezing.
A most interesting man-made feature can be found on the east coast, a 600km long canal just behind the beachline. The canal was built long before European influence.
Aside from Antarctica, Madagascar is by far the largest landmass not inhabited by mankind thousands of years ago. At about the time of christ, the first arrivals came, not from Africa 250 km away, but from S.E.Asia. they probably used large outrigger sailing canoes perhaps carrying up to 100 people, plus supplies for extended journeys, plus livestock and seedstock. The only linguistic relatives existing today of the Malagasy language are found inland amongst tribes of the island of Borneo. for nearly a thousand years, these original inhabitants (known as the Vazimba) maintained trading contact almost exclusively with S.E.Asia, although it is likely they did some trading with the East Coast of Africa, Arabia, and India. They also almost certainly captured East Africans, and brought them to the island as slaves.
Around 1000 AD, Arabs traders, who had been slowly extending their range down the east coast of Africa, established trading posts on the west coast of Madagascar, and brought more Africans with them. There was no ivory or precious metals of interest to the Arabs, but the Malagasi were proficient farmers willing to trade food supplies that the Arabs needed for their East African coastal trade.
The first Europeans to reach Madagascar, in the early 16th century, were the Portuguese during the course of establishing seatrade via the Cape of Good Hope to India and the Moluccas. They were soon followed by Dutch and English, but none at this point had any interest in establishing a permanent presence; the island was however, excellently located as somewhere to take on fresh water and trade for food supplies for their journeys, just as had the Arabs. The first European attempt to establish a permanet outpost were the French in 1642; but,
ravaged by disease and under constant attack by the Malagasi, withdrew within a few years. Coastal trading continued, but for 150 years, the only permanent outsider settlements were a few pirate stronholds on the east coast, the main one of those was Nosy Boraha Island. By trading with the Europeans (passing ships and pirates alike) the coastal tribes acquired firearms and with these, subdued other tribes, establishing reasonable size kingdoms, in the south the Menabe Kingdom, and in the N.E. the Betsimisaraka. These remained dominant until the early 19th century, until the Merina Kingdom, based on the central plateau gained ascendancy.
In 1820 the British established contact with the Merina, and effectively guaranteed Merina hegemony over the entire island.
In return, King Radama allowed British missionaries and teachers to become active, The Merina royal court and many of the people accepted Christianity, and levels of education and apprenticeship comparable to much of Europe at the time spread to much of the island. French influence also returned to the island.
In the late 19th century, the European Powers were busy carving up hegemony of those parts of Africa that one Power or another hadn't already claimed. As was typical of the time, the British and French signed a deal whereby British influence was withdrawn from Madagascar, in return for the French keeping their hands off Zanzibar, which was the gateway to the British East Africa Protectorate. The Hova people of the Merina Kingdom, didn't agree with the idea of being under any outside control, (they had in fact already fought a small war with the French) so in 1894, the French mounted a military expedition to capture the capital Antananarivo and subdue the Malagasi once and for all. 15,000 men were landed at the N.Western port of Mahajunga and marched inland. By the time they finally reached the capital 500 km away, only 4,000 were still alive. Some had been killed in skirmishes, but far more had died from diseases, just like their forebears back in the 1640's. However, the Merina army too was weakened by disease and starvation, and the French achieved their goal. Madagascar was formally declared a French Protectorate in 1897.
During WW2, the British invaded and overwhelmed the French forces loyal to the Vichy puppet government, to take control of the capital and major ports, particularly Diego Suarez (Antseranana) in the far north. The allied belief was that even if India could be held against the Japanese land advance, Japanese Naval and Naval Transport Forces were very likely to take out Ceylon and leapfrog from their to Madagascar, effectively cutting Indian Ocean supply lines. At the end of the war, Madagascar was returned to French control. As in many other colonies/protectorates etc, the cessation of hostilities was quickly followed by a desire for independence. In Madagascar, this took the form of an uprising by the Merina people in March 1947. Thousands of Malagasi were killed in the suppresion by the French army. In 1958, France negotiated with many of its colonies toward an economic interdependency deal as a prelude to independence, and the Malagasi referendum accepted the deal, which led to full independence on June 26, 1960 (Though the French remained in place for sometime as advisors on external affairs).
As in many African countries, democracy was a foreign concept, and civil unrest led in 1972 to the military takin control. ('72 also saw French dumped as an official language alongside Malagasy, and Malagasy only was used in schools. In 1975, the military govt gave way to a Marxist civilian one; the economic policies that go with marxist doctrine lasted only until 1981, though the govt continued to call itself marxist until 1992 saw the return of full multiparty democratic govt. Pragmatically, French was re-introduced in 1986 as an official language and as the major language of education.
Reunion
Mayotte
