page_title: Colony of Natal
section_title: Boer War and aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Colony of Natal / Boer War and aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the North Natal war theatre during the Second Anglo-Boer War. &#160;&#160; Colony of Natal &#160;&#160; Hills and mountains &#160;&#160; Orange Free State &#160;&#160; Transvaal (or South African Republic) &#160;&#160; Zululand Indicated in black are the names of territories, towns and hamlets: TRANSVAAL, ORANGE FREE STATE, ZULULAND, (NATAL COLONY on green background), Volksrust, Wakkerstroom, Utrecht, Newcastle, Dundee, Beith, Helpmekaar[1], Rietfontein, Elandslaagte[2], LADYSMITH, Caesar's Camp, Acton Homes, Colenso, Springfield and Weenen. In red are passes, railway routes, railway junctions and halts: Alleman's Neck, Laing's Neck, Ingogo, Glencoe railway junction, Van Reenen's Pass (railway line ended at Harrismith), Van Tonder's Pass, Nicholson's Neck, Chieveley and Frere. In blue are rivers and drifts (i.e. fords): Klip River (a, a southern tributary of the Vaal River, and border between Orange Free State and Transvaal, i.e. South African Republic), Gansvlei River, Buffalo River, Ingogo River near Ingogo, Blood River[3], De Jager's Drift and Rorke's Drift[4] in Buffalo River, the Waschbank, Sunday's and Klip River (b), all tributaries of the Tugela, and Potgieter's Drift in the Tugela. In dark green are mountains and hills: Verzamelberg, Pougwana (also Pegwani), Majuba, Inkwelo, Inkweloana, Spitz Kop, Van Wyk's Kop, Impati Hill, Talana Hill, Lenox Hill, the Biggarsberg and Drakensberg, Lombard's Kop, Bulwana Hill, Spionkop, Vaalkrantz, Pieter's Hill and Hlanghwane Hill.
context_page_description: The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa, as one of its provinces. It is now the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.
  It was originally only about half the size of the present province, with the north-eastern boundaries being formed by the Tugela and Buffalo rivers beyond which lay the independent Kingdom of Zululand.
  Fierce conflict with the Zulu population led to the evacuation of Durban, and eventually, the Boers accepted British annexation in 1844 under military pressure. A British governor was appointed to the region and many settlers emigrated from Europe and the Cape Colony. The British established a sugar cane industry in the 1860s. Farm owners had a difficult time attracting Zulu labourers to work on their plantations, so the British brought thousands of indentured labourers from India. As a result of the importation of Indian labourers, Durban became the home to the largest concentration of Indians outside India.
context_section_description: The Second Boer War broke out on 11 October 1899 with the Boer seizure of a Natal train on the Orange Free State border. Boer forces quickly occupied Newcastle. A landdrost was appointed and the town was renamed Viljoensdorp. In the Battle of Talana Hill on 20 October 1899, outside Dundee, British forces under William Penn Symons defeated the Boer columns, but failed to prevent their escape due to the fraudulent use of Red Cross flags by the Boers. The British withdrew to Ladysmith. Boer forces proceeded to Ladysmith and surrounded the town, cutting off its communications from the south. The Siege of Ladysmith lasted until 28 February 1900, when the town was relieved by forces under Redvers Buller. During the six weeks previous to the relief, 200 deaths had occurred from disease alone, and altogether as many as 8424 were reported to have passed through the hospitals. The relief of Ladysmith soon led to the evacuation of Natal by the Boer forces, who trekked northwards.
  As one result of the war, an addition was made to the territory of Natal, consisting of a portion of what had previously been included in the Transvaal. The districts transferred to Natal were: Vryheid, Utrecht and such portion of the district of Wakkerstroom as was encompassed by a line drawn from the north-eastern corner of Natal, east by Volksrust in a northerly direction to the summit of the Drakensberg Range, along that range, passing just north of the town of Wakkerstroom, to the headwaters of the Pongola River (now called Phongolo River), and thence following the river to the border of the Utrecht district.
  The districts added to Natal contained about 6,000 white inhabitants (mostly Afrikaners), and some 92,000 natives, and had an area of nearly 7,000 square miles (18,000 km²), so that this annexation meant an addition to the white population of Natal of about one-tenth, to her native population of about one-tenth also, and to her territory of about one-fourth. An act authorizing the annexation was passed during 1902 and the territories were formally transferred to Natal in January 1903.
  The period following the war was succeeded by commercial depression, though in Natal it was not so severely felt as in other states of South Africa. The government met the crisis by renewed energy in harbour works, railway constructions and the development of the natural resources of the country. A railway to the Zululand coalfields was completed in 1903, and in the same year a line was opened to Vryheid in the newly annexed territories. Natal further built several railway lines in the eastern half of the Orange River Colony, thus opening up new markets for her produce and facilitating her transit trade. In August 1903 the Hime ministry resigned and was succeeded by a cabinet under the premiership of George Sutton, the founder of the wattle industry in Natal and one of the pioneers in the coal-mining industry. In May 1905 Sutton was replaced by a coalition ministry under Charles John Smythe, who had been colonial secretary under Hime. These somewhat frequent changes of ministry reflected, chiefly, differences concerning the treatment of commercial questions and the policy to be adopted towards the natives. All Dutch colonists who had joined the Boer forces during the war were pardoned.
  As early as July 1903 rumours were current that Dinuzulu, king of the Zulus, was disaffected. Dinuzulu, however, remained at the time quiescent, though the Zulus were in a state of excitement over incidents connected with the Boer war, when they had been subject to raids by Boer commandoes, and on one occasion at least had retaliated. Unrest was also manifested among the natives west of the Tugela, but it was not at first cause for alarm. During 1903–1904 a Native Affairs' Commission, representative of all the states, obtained evidence on the status and conditions of the natives. Its investigations pointed to the loosening of tribal ties and to the corresponding growth of a spirit of individual independence. Among its recommendations was the direct political representation of natives 
caption: War theater in northern Natal
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