DM_South+Africa

South Africa The **Republic of South Africa** (also known by [|other official names] ) is a country located at the southern tip of [|Africa]. It borders the [|Atlantic] and [|Indian] [|oceans] and [|Namibia], [|Botswana] , [|Zimbabwe] , [|Mozambique] , [|Swaziland] , and [|Lesotho] , an independent [|enclave] surrounded by South African territory. South Africa is a member of the [|Commonwealth of Nations]. The South African economy is the largest in Africa and 24th largest in the world. Due to this it is the most socially, economically and infrastructurally developed country on the [|continent]. History of South Africa The **history of South Africa** is marked by migration, ethnic conflict, and the anti- [|Apartheid] struggle.a [|Khoisan] peoples are the aboriginal people of the region who have lived there for millennia. Black South Africans are believed to originate from the [|Great Lakes] region of Africa in prehistoric times. [|White South Africans], descendants of later European migrations, regard themselves equally as products of South Africa, as do South Africa's [|Coloureds] , [|Indians, Asians] , and [|Jews]. British at the cape As the 18th century drew to a close, Dutch mercantile power began to fade and the [|British] moved in to fill the vacuum. They seized the Cape in 1795 to prevent it from falling into the hands of [|Napoleonic France], then briefly relinquished it back to the Dutch (1803), before definitely conquering it in 1806. British [|sovereignty] of the area was recognized at the [|Congress of Vienna] in [|1815]. At the tip of the continent the British found an established [|colony] with 25,000 slaves, 20,000 white colonists, 15,000 [|Khoisan], and 1,000 freed black slaves. Power resided solely with a white [|élite] in [|Cape Town], and differentiation on the basis of race was deeply entrenched. Outside Cape Town and the immediate hinterland, isolated black and white pastoralists populated the country. The gap between the British settlers and the Boers further widened with the abolition of slavery in [|1833], a move that the Boers generally regarded as against the God-given ordering of the races. Yet the British settlers' [|conservatism] stopped any radical social reforms, and in [|1841] the authorities passed a [|Masters and Servants Ordinance], which perpetuated white control. Meanwhile, numbers of British immigrants increased rapidly in Cape Town, in the area east of the Cape Colony (present-day [|Eastern Cape Province] ), in [|Natal] and, after the discovery of [|gold] and [|diamonds], in parts of the [|Transvaal] , mainly around present-day [|Gauteng]. Difaqane and destruction The early 19th century saw a time of immense upheaval relating to the military expansion of the [|Zulu] [|kingdom]. [|Sotho] -speakers know this period as the //[|difaqane]// (" [|forced migration] "); while [|Zulu] -speakers call it the //mfecane// ("crushing"). The full causes of the //difaqane// remain in dispute, although certain factors stand out. The rise of a unified Zulu kingdom had particular significance. In the early 19th century, [|Nguni] tribes in KwaZulu-Natal began to shift from a loosely-organised collection of kingdoms into a centralised, militaristic state. [|Shaka Zulu], son of the chief of the small Zulu clan, became the driving force behind this shift. At first something of an [|outcast], Shaka proved himself in battle and gradually succeeded in consolidating power in his own hands. He built large [|armies], breaking from clan tradition by placing the armies under the control of his own officers rather than of the hereditary chiefs. Shaka then set out on a massive programme of expansion, killing or enslaving those who resisted in the territories he conquered. His //[|impis]// (warrior regiments) were rigorously disciplined: failure in battle meant death. The flag of South Africa