The goal of this paper is to offer a presentation of the role of contagious diseases as a factor supporting or blocking European overseas expansion, using the example of the Cape Colony up to the end of the eighteenth century. South Africa is a useful example, as it shows both the role of diseases brought by Europeans in facilitating their expansion in the region and the significance of the lack of African diseases such as malaria or trypanosomiasis for the development of European settlement there. In this way, the paper also shows the role of those diseases in hindering European penetration of other parts of Africa.
The volume is a collection of interdisciplinary studies on African history. The texts discuss, among others, the history of beer production in the Nile Valley, the significance of diseases for the exploration of Africa, personal stories and experiences of travellers, local history and geopolitics after the Second World War.
Abstract:In April 1877 The South African Republic was annexed by the British Empire. This was a part of a wider scheme to unify the sub-continent under the British rule. The story is well known. Many works deals with the motives of Lord Carnarvon and other British decision-makers. Much less deals with the question of immediate Boer reaction, or to be exact, the reasons behind their inaction. This article deals with this problem. Tries to evaluate the attitudes of both, the British and the Boers, and to show why the Transvaal Boers mostly ignored the annexation declaration? This text is just an excursion into fi eld which demands much wider and more detailed studies.
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