The origins of the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879.
[摘要] This thesis provides a detailed account of the. events leading up to the war between Britain andthe Zulu kingdom in 1879, and undertakes to explain why the war came aboutTheophilus Shepstone, Natal's Secretary for Native Affairs, had long aspired to bring Zululandunder British control, When King Mpande died in 1872, his heir, Cetshwayo, was anxious forBritish support against rival claimants, and against the South African Republic, with which he hada border dispute. He therefore invited Shepstone to preside over a ceremony recognizing him asKing. Shepstone's hopes that his 'coronation' of Cetshwayo would lead to greater control overZululand were disappointed, but it did serve as a precedent for British intervention.The war of 1879, in the event, did not arise out of purely local causes, but was more the resultof British imperial policy. Lord Carnarvon, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, aspired to'confederate' the various territories of southern Africa into a 'self-governing' (that is, settler governed)dominion under the British flag. To this end Shepstone annexed the Transvaal in 1877.The border dispute now became a dispute between Britain and the Zulu kingdom, and relationsdeteriorated sharply. Sir Bartle Frere, the High Commissioner entrusted by Carnarvon with the taskof implementing his confederation policy, decided that the continued independence of the Zulukingdom was an insuperable obstacle to confederation. He therefore took advantage of certain borderincidents (and of the warlike reputation of the Zulu) to send an ultimatum calculated to bring aboutwar.The question this thesis particularly addresses is whether the war was an incidental by-productof a confederation policy carried out for other reasons, or whether bringing Zululand under Britishcontrol was inherent in the policy itself. It argues that the latter was the case. The purpose ofconfederation was neither retrenchment nor to safeguard naval bases, as some have argued, but acomprehensive political and economic reconstruction of South African society in Which anindependent Zulu kingdom could have no place. On the other hand, to argue that Zululand wasinvaded to facilitate the advance of capitalist production in South Africa., as others have done, is tostate the case too narrowly. The desirability and inevitability of capitalist production was assumedrather than consciously striven for by those who believed that the invasion of Zululand was necessaryto facilitate the progress and civilization of South Africa.
[发布日期] [发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand
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