Voortrekker forces defeat the Zulu army at Blood River

The Cape government promulgated Ordinance 50, formally ending compulsory passes for Khoikhoi and other free people of colour and recognizing equality before colonial law. Economic coercion and land...

Slavery legally ended in the Cape, but formerly enslaved people were compelled to serve a four-year apprenticeship. Slave owners received compensation while the emancipated received none.

During the Sixth War of Dispossession, Hintsa entered Governor Benjamin D'Urban's camp to negotiate after receiving assurances of safety. The British detained him and demanded cattle and territorial...

Hintsa was shot while attempting to escape British custody. His killing became a lasting symbol of colonial betrayal and Xhosa resistance.

Four years after formal abolition, the enforced apprenticeship period ended. Formerly enslaved people gained legal freedom but generally received neither land nor compensation.

The colonial proclamation pushed the Cape-Xhosa boundary to the Kei River and placed more African land under British authority. It followed the War of the Axe and intensified dispossession.

AmaNgqika fighters attacked a colonial patrol at Boomah Pass and military villages after Governor Harry Smith deposed Sandile. AmaGcaleka, AmaThembu and Kat River rebels joined the wider resistance.

The Truro landed 342 Indian workers at Port Natal. Colonial authorities had recruited them under coercive contracts to supply cheap labour to the sugar industry.

The Belvedere arrived from Calcutta with another group of indentured Indian labourers. Deaths during the voyage reflected the dangers of the system.

The British government annexed the South African Republic and included African territories claimed by the republic. The annexation expanded imperial control and prepared the way for renewed attacks on...