Anglo-African - History

History

Further information: History of South Africa, History of Zimbabwe, and History of Kenya

Although there were small temporary British settlements along the West African coast from the 1700s onwards, British settlement in Africa began in earnest only at the end of the eighteenth century, in the Cape of Good Hope.

British settlement in the Cape gained momentum following the success of the second British annexation of the Cape from the Dutch East India Company, and the subsequent encouragement of settlers in Albany ("Settler Country") in the Eastern Cape in an effort to consolidate the colony's eastern frontier following the Cape Frontier Wars against the Xhosa.

As Britain expanded the Cape Colony northwards into Khoikhoi and San territory, many Britons settled in the region, but developed a culture distinct from that in Britain; a culture which had similarities to developing Australian and Afrikaner cultures.

Livingstone famously explored southern Africa, and was the first European to set eyes on Victoria Falls. He is a key character in Anglo-African history, being one of the first well-known Britons to believe his heart was in Africa.

In the late nineteenth century, the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand and diamonds in Kimberley further encouraged colonisation by Britons, Australians, Americans, and Canadians. Following the defeat of the Afrikaners after the First and Second Boer Wars, Britain annexed the Boer Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State.

Cecil Rhodes dreamt of a British Africa from Cape Town to Cairo, and the BSAC conquered Mashonaland, Matabeleland, and some settlements further north, which became known as Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia). The search for gold drove expansion north into Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi). Simultaneously, British settlers began expansion into the fertile uplands (often called the "White Highlands") of British East Africa (now Kenya and Tanzania). With the advent of the post-World War II decolonization movement, black nationalist guerrilla forces, such as the Mau Mau in Kenya and ZANU in Zimbabwe, aided by Soviet expertise and weapons, clamored for independence. In Rhodesia, the Anglo community developed something of a fortress mentality in the 1960s and 1970s, as Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence was recognized neither by Great Britain nor the Commonwealth of Nations. After Rhodesia's independence in 1980, its Anglo-African population declined sharply; tens of thousands of white Zimbabwe citizens were driven off their lands and property, with many of those remaining being intimidated and threatened by the governmental, political, and paramilitary organizations. As a result, thousands of Anglo-Africans were killed, pushed out, deported or went into exile from the original British colonies, and only a few thousand British settlers remained after independence. In spite of it, in all of these colonies, a number of well connected extremely wealthy settlers remained to live following independence and the introduction of self-rule in the second half of the twentieth century.