page_title: Palgrave Commission
section_title: Fall-out between the Cape and Britain
hierarchical_section_title: Palgrave Commission / History / Palgrave's 5 missions / Fall-out between the Cape and Britain
caption_attribution_description: English: Sir Henry Bartle Frere, 1st Baronet
context_page_description: The Palgrave Commission was a series of diplomatic missions undertaken by Special Commissioner William Coates Palgrave to the territory of South West Africa. Palgrave was commissioned by the Cape Government to meet with the leaders of the nations of Hereroland and Namaland, hear their wishes regarding political sovereignty, and relay the assembled information to the Cape Colony Government.
  In the early 1870s, South West Africa was torn by internecine warfare and threatened with impending invasion and colonisation by Portugal, Germany and the Boers. In desperation, several local leaders requested incorporation into the relatively peaceful Cape Colony, with the promise of equal representation in the Cape Parliament. The Cape Government commissioned Palgrave to investigate, and Palgrave recommended that South West Africa be incorporated into the Cape and its inhabitants granted equal political rights.
  This would have resulted in a new state, comprising the Cape and modern Namibia. However the breakdown in relations between the local Cape government and the British Imperial government prevented it from being implemented.
context_section_description: Palgrave's commission was increasingly undermined by the growing tension between the local Cape government and the British Empire.
  The Cape Colony had attained a degree of independence, but its first Prime Minister John Molteno was engaged in a growing struggle with the British Governor, Bartle Frere, for control over the Cape's external relations (of which Palgrave's commission formed a part). This caused the British Imperial Government first to push for the annexation, but then to actively forestall it as a way of putting pressure on the Cape government. This fatally undermined Palgrave's work.
  Nonetheless, aside from any humanitarian considerations, the Cape began to have serious strategic reasons for wanting to secure South West Africa. It correctly predicted the invasion of this area by an imperialist European power (in this case, Germany), and it wished to protect the flank of the new Kimberley diamond fields. It was also very aware of the need to secure the only viable harbour of the region (Walvis Bay) and the trade routes to the north.
  The British government believed it to be a strife-torn territory, of no significant value. A reflection of its ignorance of the land was Carnarvon's belief that Walvis Bay was the port for Kimberley. The British government wanted to force upon southern Africa a system of Confederation under Britain. The Cape government rejected this Confederation plan, as it predicted (correctly) that it would lead to war with the Boer Republics. However, the British Governor used his ability to obstruct the implementation of Palgrave's work as a tactical tool, to pressurise the Cape government to agree to confederation.
  Failing to persuade the Cape government, the British Governor overthrew it, and assumed direct control of the country to enforce the Confederation system. The Confederation plan collapsed as predicted, leaving a swath of wars across southern Africa, culminating in the Anglo-Zulu War and the first Anglo-Boer War.
  In a peculiar step, the incorporation of Walvis Bay and the offshore islands was then authorised by the British in 1878, while the rest of the country remained in legal limbo until the Germans arrived.
caption: British Governor Bartle Frere
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