British Colonialism
Contact with the British came early in Mswati's reign, when he asked British authorities in South Africa for assistance against Zulu raids into Swaziland. It was also during Mswati's reign that the first whites, Transvaal Boers, settled in the country. Following Mswati's death, the Swazis reached agreements with British and South African Republic authorities over a range of issues, including independence, claims on resources by Europeans, administrative authority, and security, though the white parties later reneged on those agreements. Over Swazi protests, the South African Republic with British concurrence established incomplete colonial rule over Swaziland from 1894 to 1899, when they withdrew their administration with the start of the Anglo-Boer War. In 1902 British forces entered the territory, proclaiming British overrule and jurisdiction in 1903, initially as part of the Transvaal. In 1906 Swaziland was separated administratively when the Transvaal Colony was granted responsible government.
Read more about this topic: History Of Swaziland
Famous quotes containing the word british:
“These battles sound incredible to us. I think that posterity will doubt if such things ever were,—if our bold ancestors who settled this land were not struggling rather with the forest shadows, and not with a copper-colored race of men. They were vapors, fever and ague of the unsettled woods. Now, only a few arrowheads are turned up by the plow. In the Pelasgic, the Etruscan, or the British story, there is nothing so shadowy and unreal.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)