Legacy of Colonialism: South Africa

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The Legacy of Colonialism: South Africa Throughout the period of the European chaos which was started by the French Revolution, Great Britain became the leading sea power and occupied the Cape peninsula to stop it from going to the French. A British journey simply required that the Dutch officials surrender in 1795, and even though the Dutch redeemed the Cape again because of the terms of the Treaty of Amiens in 1803, the Dutch were kicked out yet another time in January 1806. By this time British power and control was established or complete in the opinion of the Europeans, but, of course, without taking in the consideration of meeting with and discussing it with the Southern Africans, in the peace settlement of 1814. In 1820, when the first large group of white settlers came to South Africa. The population of the white man took a major increase when there were 47,000 immigrants (43,000 of which were Dutch)(RD 95). The British took it into their own consideration to make the Africans their slaves and change their way of life forever. The British had only been in Africa for a couple of years before they started to scheme their way into the government. They started changing the social and physical features of the African way of life in replace with the English way of life. With newspapers, debating societies, horse racing, village-green cricket matches, and even their buildings and architecture (RD 95). Not too long after that they wanted to provide education, so they built lots of elementary schools, with British teachers. The rise of the new commercial system made much tension rise between the whites and the blacks. The main concern for both sides resided over land issues and labor. Even though the British had expressed that owning slaves was forbidden, they wanted some way of controlling labor like Africans did with their own people. Knowing that
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