Tuesday, January 5, 2010
what was so interesting about the southern most tip of Africa
Today in class Ms. Xia asked us why were two countries from northern Europe fighting over some land at the southern most tip of africa? In this blog i will attempt to bring in what we learned about the Berlin conference to help explain why it was that these two countries ended up here. SOuth Africa was valuable for a couple of reasons. It had some valuable natural recources like diamonds, silver, and rubber. This of course was extremely appealing to both nations because their own lands have terrible natural recourses (either because there was never any gold or silver there, or because by that point in time it had already been used up by the countries' inhabitants). So it had great stuff, but so did other parts of the world that were much closer to get to, and the waters around South AFrica are some of the most rough waters in the entire world. The reason that sailors would travel all the way around the southern tip of Africa is because otherwise they would have to take an even more dangerous land route. The land route would have them cross some extremely arid places. BY land, merchants, conquerors, and mitionaries would have to sail over to the easter Mediterrranean, walk hundreds of miles or ride a horse (but that would require extra supplies) then get another ship to take them across the Indian ocean to places like British India or the the Dutch invaded Indonesian Islands. SO you see both countries wanted to own the water route to their Eastern provinces so that they would make a convinient pit-stop on this long water voyage. The initil interest in Africa was created by the Berlin Conference where Africa was split up. ALthough they already had provinces in Africa, the Berlin conferences was a fiinilization of realizing what both countries wanted. They saw the AFrica was valuable real-estate with some great natural recourses and South Africa was in a perfect location. You can guess that with two countries wanting the same land, it would end up in a war specifically in this case it was the 1st BOer War.
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Marjory, in the war why didn't the Dutch and British try and sabotage and fight each other in their homelands? Was this not taken advantage because I would think this would give a severe advantage if one nation were to attack like a parliament building in the home nation.
ReplyDeletewhy would they be so focused on having South Africa be their pit stop? they could have chosen any other part of the african coastline to use as a pit stop, so your explanation doesn't solve the mystery of why these two empires were fighting over S.A.
ReplyDeleteThat's true Cy, but controlling the tip of South Africa could also greatly help a civilization in the world of trade. The journey through the sea around the tip of South Africa was much cheaper and safer than traveling by land. Being able to easily use a trade route that was safer and more affordable would be crucial in a world that was depending more and more on trade.
ReplyDeleteCarson, it wouldn't make sense to try and sabotage their homelands. If they're fighting over resources and a trade route in/along Africa, the war would most likely take place there. Attacking their homelands solves nothing, because meanwhile one nation could be taking over that southern tip.
ReplyDeleteI assumed that both the Dutch and the British were sending resources like weapons and men to South Africa and if they managed to destroy a port this could limit the resources being sent down to South Africa.
ReplyDeleteRehan, although you are right that it would be a good idea to maintain a strong attack on the tip of Africa to try to control the trade in that area or use the land for whatever they wanted, the British and Dutch would also benefit from attacking each others' homeland. Nobody in their right mind is going to concentrate on defending a far away land that they haven't even taken control of yet instead of protecting the land they call home. If the Dutch, for example, staged an attack on Britain, the British would likely withdraw some of their forces on the tip of South Africa in order to protect Britain. This would give an advantage to the Dutch in Southern Africa. The only downside for the Dutch is that they might have to withdraw some of their forces from South Africa in order to have enough men to attack Britain.
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