| Historical states in present-day South Africa |
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Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km² that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people - a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, who established several states outside the expanding frontier of the Cape Colony.
In 1873 it was proclaimed as a British colony, with its capital at Kimberley, and in 1880 it was annexed by the Cape Colony. When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910 Griqualand West was part of the Cape Province, but continued to have its own "provincial" sports teams.
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The Griqua are a mixed people who originated in the intermarriages between Dutch colonists in the Cape and the Khoikhoi already living there. They turned into a semi-nomadic Afrikaans-speaking nation of horsemen who migrated out of the Cape Colony and established short-lived states on the Colony's borderlands (In a similar manner to the Cossack states of imperial Russia).
Adam Kok I, the first Kaptein of the Griqua, led his people northwards from the Cape Colony. This area is where most of the Griqua nation settled, though many remained nomadic. By the 19th century, the Griqua controlled several political entities which were governed by Kapteins ("Captains", i.e. leaders) and their Councils, with their own written constitutions.[1]
Adam Kok's successor, Andries Waterboer, founded Griqualand West, and controlled it until the influx of Europeans accompanying the discovery of diamonds. In 1834, the Cape Colony had recognized Waterboer’s sovereignty over the territory and signed a treaty with him. Not long after 1843 however, the competition between the Cape Colony, Orange Free State, and the Transvaal became too much for the Griqua. Led by Adam Kok III, many migrated eastwards to establish Griqualand East.[2]
In the years 1870-1871 a large number of diggers had settled on the diamond fields near the junction of the Vaal and Orange rivers, which were situated in part on land claimed by the Fi Griqua chief Nicholas Waterboer and by the Boer Republic of the Orange Free State.
The Orange Free State established a temporary government over the diamond fields, but the administration of this body was satisfactory neither to the Orange Free State nor to the diggers. At this juncture, Waterboer offered to place the territory under the administration of Queen Victoria. The offer was accepted, and on October 27, 1871 the district, together with some adjacent territory to which the Transvaal had laid claim, was proclaimed, under the name of Griqualand West, British territory. Waterboer's claims were based on the treaty concluded by his father with the British in 1834, and on various arrangements with the Kok chiefs; the Orange Free State based its claim on its purchase of Adam Kok's sovereign rights and on long occupation. The difference between proprietorship and sovereignty was confused or ignored. That Waterboer exercised no authority in the disputed district was admitted. When the British annexation took place a party in the Orange Free State volksraad wished to go to war with Britain, but the wiser counsels of President Brand prevailed. The Orange Free State, however, did not abandon its claims. The matter involved no little irritation between the parties concerned until July 1876. It was then disposed of by Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, at that time secretary of state for the colonies, who granted to the Free State payment "in full satisfaction of all claims which it considers it may possess to Griqualand West."
Lord Carnarvon declined to entertain the proposal made by Mr Brand that the territory should be given up by Great Britain. One thing at least is certain with regard to the diamond fields - they were the means of restoring the credit and prosperity of the Orange Free State.
In the opinion, moreover, of Dr Theal, who has written the history of the Boer Republics and has been a consistent supporter of the Boers, the annexation of Griqualand West was probably in the best interests of the Orange Free State. "There was," he states, "no alternative from British sovereignty other than an independent diamond field republic." At this time, largely owing to the exhausting struggle with the Basutos, the Free State Boers, like their Transvaal Republic neighbours, had drifted into financial straits. A paper currency had been instituted, and the notes, known as "bluebacks", soon dropped to less than half their nominal value. Commerce was largely carried on by barter, and many cases of bankruptcy occurred in the state. But as British annexation in 1877 saved the Transvaal from bankruptcy, so did the influx of British and other immigrants to the diamond fields, in the early 1870s, restore public credit and individual prosperity to the Boers of the Free State. The diamond fields offered a ready market for stock and other agricultural produce. Money flowed into the pockets of the farmers. Public credit was restored. " Bluebacks " recovered par value, and were called in and redeemed by the government. Valuable diamond mines were also discovered within the Orange Free State, of which the one at Jagersfontein is the richest. Capital from Kimberley and London was soon provided with which to work them.
There was considerable debate at the time over whether Griqualand West should be joined to the Cape Colony in a confederation, or whether it should be annexed to the Cape Colony in a total union. The former view was supported by Lord Carnarvon and the British Colonial Office in London - as a precedent for its planned confederation of all the Southern African states. The latter view was put forward by the Cape government, particularly by its strong-willed Prime Minister John Molteno who went to London as plenipotentiary in 1876 to make his case that union was the only viable way for the mineral-rich but underdeveloped province to be administered, and that it should either be totally assimilated or kept totally separate from the Cape, as confederation was not economically viable. In 1880, Griqualand West was formally united with the Cape Colony, followed soon afterwards by Griqualand East. [3]
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