The 'Key to South Africa' in the 1890s: Delagoa Bay and the Origins of the South African War

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Periodical article

Title:	The 'Key to South Africa' in the 1890s: Delagoa Bay and the Origins of the South African War
Author:	Henshaw, Peter
Year:	1998
Periodical:	Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:	24
Issue:	3
Period:	September
Pages:	527-543
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Mozambique South Africa United Kingdom
Subjects:	colonial conquest Anglo-Boer wars History and Exploration international relations colonialism
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637659
Abstract:	How important were developments at Delagoa Bay (Mozambique) to the rising tensions between Britain and the Transvaal in the 1980s? Most accounts of the South African war, or Anglo-Boer war (1899-1902), accord them little significance. This article argues that British concerns about Delagoa Bay were a key, and hitherto neglected, factor in the origins of the South African war. These concerns sprang from threats posed via the Bay to a whole range of interconnected British interests relating to strategy, economics, geopolitics, and prestige. In particular the secret Anglo-German agreement of 1898, which included a clause that permitted the development of port facilities at Delagoa Bay by rival (German) commercial firms, had the potential to undermine Britain's position in the region to a dangerous extent. Ref., sum.