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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | International context of the creation of Bechuanaland Protectorate in 1885 |
Author: | Zins, Henryk |
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. |