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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:International context of the creation of Bechuanaland Protectorate in 1885
Author:Zins, HenrykISNI
Year:1999
Periodical:Africana Bulletin
Issue:47
Pages:41-53
Language:English
Geographic terms:Botswana
Great Britain
Subject:colonial conquest
Abstract:Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (South Africa) in the late 19th century, saw Bechuanaland as the key to the interior of Africa and he desperately sought to keep the road northward free of interference from the Transvaal Republic and Germany. In 1884 the British government accepted the notion that Bechuanaland (later Botswana) was vital for the British, and in 1885 the Warren expedition took place which resulted in the creation of the Bechuanaland Protectorate. This article analyses the international background to the annexation of Bechuanaland. It first discusses the role of Christian missionaries in British imperialist policy in southern Africa and then deals with the clash of British, Transvaal and German interests in the area. It concludes that the British decision to intervene in Bechuanaland was a logical political consequence of international developments in southern Africa, in particular the threat of a Boer-German connection through Bechuanaland. Notes, ref.
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