Osprey - Men-at-Arms 301 Boer Wars (1)[Osprey MaA301].pdf

(4398 KB) Pobierz
SERIES E D I T O R : LEE J O H N S O N
THE BOER WARS (1)
1836-1898
TEXT BY
IAN KNIGHT
COLOUR PLATES BY
GERRY EMBLETON
First published in Great Britain in 1996 by OSPREY. an imprint of Reed
Consumer Books Ltd. Michehn House, 81 Fulham Road. London SW3 6RB
and Auckland, Melbourne, Singapore and Toronto
Publisher's
Osprey publications:
MAA 212
Queen
MAA 57
Zulu War
Elite 21
The Zulu
note
Readers may wish to study this title in conjunction with the following
© Copynght 1996 Reed International Books Ltd.
All nghts reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study,
research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copynght Designs and
Patents Act, 1988. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic,
electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the copynght owner Enquiries should be
addressed to the Publishers.
OSPREY
Victoria's Enemies (1) Southern Africa
Elite 32
British Forces in Zululand 1879
Campaign 14
Zulu War 1879
Campaign 41
Rorke's Drift 1879
Campaign 45
Majuba 1881
2nd Floor, Unit 6. Spring Gardens Tinworth Street Vauxhall, London SE11 5EH
ISBN 1 85532 612 4
Filmset in Great Britain by Keyspools Ltd.
Phnted through World Print Ltd, Hong Kong
Edited by: Sharon van der Merwe
Design: the Black Spot
Scorpio Gallery, P.O. Box 475, Hailsham, E. Sussex BN27 2SL
For a catalogue of all books published by Osprey Military please write to:
The Marketing Manager. Osprey Publishing Ltd., Michelin House,
81 Fulham Road. London SW3 6HB
The Publishers regret that they can enter into no correspondence
u p o n this matter.
Artist's
note
Readers may care to note that the original paintings from w h i c h the
colour plates in this book were prepared are available for private sale.
All reproduction copyright whatsoever is retained by the Publisher. All
enquiries should be addressed to:
THE BOER WARS (1)
1836-1898
INTRODUCTION
A
lthough the first European settlement at the Cape of Good Hope
on the extreme southern tip of Africa was established by the
Dutch East India Company in 1652, the African hinterland
remained largely unknown to the outside world for a further two centuries.
The Dutch had come to Africa to establish a way-station to service
their fleet on the long haul to the more profitable imperial adventures
in the Indies. Although they easily displaced the fragile culture of the
indigenous African Khoi and San groups they found there, they deter-
minedly set their face against colonial expansion further into southern
Africa. Nevertheless, over the space of two centuries, the original Dutch
settlers, augmented by a trickle of refugees from a succession of religious
wars in France and Germany, grew into a hardy breed who constantly
risked official disapproval by crossing the Company's boundaries in
search of hunting or grazing lands in the interior. In time, these people
came to think of themselves as Afrikaners - white Africans - though they
were generally known to one another, and outsiders, as
Boers -
farmers.
A skirmish between Boer
commandos and Xhosa warriors
during the Cape Frontier War of
1835. Boer disillusion with the
British handling of this campaign
was a contributory factor in the
Trek movement. This costume is
typical of the Trek period: short
jackets, flintlock muskets, and
powder-horns attached to waist
belts.
The Great Trek
By the beginning of the 19th century, European settlement had crept
steadily along the fertile eastern seaboard of the Gape, and had come up
against the vanguard of the more robust African societies who populated
the interior. In particular, competition for the rolling downland of the
eastern Cape was so severe that it led to a century of conflict - no less than
nine separate wars - between white settlers and the Xhosa people.
Furthermore, in 1806 history had introduced another element to com-
plicate an already tangled situation: as one of the side-effects of the shifts in
political allegiances which characterised the
Napoleonic Wars in Europe, the British had taken
over control of the Cape.
Main Afrikaner farmers on the frontier felt that
the British administration was decidedly unsympa-
thetic to their needs. British moves in the 1820s
and 1830s to outlaw slavery in its dominions struck
at the basis of the rural Afrikaner economy; many
Boers suffered severe financial losses in the 6th
Gape Frontier War of 1834-5, and blamed the
British for not protecting them more effectively
from the Xhosa. Although European penetration
of the coastal belt beyond the frontier was limited.
1
For an account of the Cape Frontier Wars see MAA 212. Queen
Victoria's
Enemies (1) Southern Africa.
3
4
adventurous hunters and traders had regularly crossed into the interior
since the 18th century. In 1835 the frontier farmers commissioned recon-
naissance parlies to travel beyond the boundaries of the Cape Colony in
search of lands which might be opened up for while settlement, away
from British influence. Between 1836 and 1840 some 6,000 Boers-known
as
Voortrekkers,
those who 'trek to the fore' - packed their belongings into
their ox-wagons and simply migrated into the interior. They went not in a
single wagon-train, but in groups linked by family or local ties, and led by
highly individualistic, and often mutually antagonistic, leaders. Their
passing provoked decades of warfare with the African groups they
encountered along the way and frequent military intervention by the
British authorities. These conflicts were often the result of local circum-
stances and apparently unconnected with one another, but they were
linked by a common thread, the stniggle to establish the republics of the
Orange Free State and the Transvaal, so they have been considered here
under the broad title the Boer Wars'. The story of the Voortrekkers is,
nevertheless, a remarkable tale of determination and endurance, com-
parable in many respects with the saga of the American frontier.
The struggle for the Interior of
South Africa, 1836-1890.

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin