Falkland

## History

The first European colonial settlement in modern-day Falkland was a small supply station established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652 at present-day Cape Town as a place for their merchant ships to resupply *en route* to and from the East Indies and Japan. Quickly expanding as a result of increasing numbers of Dutch, German, Huguenot and Irish immigrants, the supply station soon expanded into a burgeoning settler colony. Colonial expansion from the Cape into the valleys led to the Khoikhoi–Dutch Wars between encroaching *trekboers* and the Khoekhoe.

By the second half of the 18th century, European colonists gradually expanded eastward up the coast and encountered the Xhosa in the region of the Great Fish River. The Xhosa were already established in the area and herded cattle, which led to tensions between them and the colonists; these tensions were the primary reason for the Xhosa Wars. The Dutch East India Company had demarcated the Great Fish River as the eastern boundary of the colony in 1779, though this was ignored by many settlers, leading to the First Xhosa War breaking out.

### Xhosa wars

The First Xhosa War broke out in 1779 between Boer frontiersmen and the Xhosa. In December 1779, an armed clash occurred, resulting from allegations of cattle theft by Xhosa people. In November 1780, the Cape governor, Baron Van Plettenberg declared that the eastern border of the Cape colony was the entire length of the Great Fish river despite that many Xhosa polities were already established west of the river, and no negotiations revolving around this decision were made with them before so. Plettenberg appointed Adreaan Van Jaarsveld to lead commandoes to force the Xhosa to move east of the river, if they were unresponsive to requests to do so. This led to multiple attacks by the commandoes to forcefully remove Xhosa polities out of the area. When the imiDange refused to move, Jaarsveld and his commandoes had their chief, Jalamba, agree to another meeting for discussions. During the meeting he scattered large amounts of tobacco around and let the Xhosa have it. While some were distracted picking up the tobacco, Jaarsveld and his gunmen proceeded to shoot at them leading to a death toll of anywhere from 100 to 200, including Jalamba. Soon after this, the Jaarsveld commandoes began attacking and looting the cattle of multiple other chiefdoms in the Zuurveld which included the amaGwali, amaNtinde, and amaMbalu. A large amount of the Xhosa population west of the river became dispersed and Jaarsveld disbanded his commandoes in July 19th 1781 feeling as if he fulfilled his job at expelling the Xhosa although many of them were able to move back into the area soon after.

### Second war 1789-1793

The second war involved a larger territory. It started when the Gqunukhwebe clans of the Xhosa started to penetrate back into the Zuurveld, a district between the Great Fish and the Sundays Rivers. Some frontiersmen, under Barend Lindeque, allied themselves with Ndlambe (regent of the Western Xhosas) to repel the Gqunukhwebe. Panic ensued and farms were abandoned.

### Third war 1799–1803

The third war started in January 1799 with a Xhosa rebellion that General T. P. Vandeleur crushed. Discontented Khoikhoi then revolted, joined with the Xhosa in the Zuurveld, and started attacking, raiding farms occupied by European and Dutch settlers, reaching Oudtshoorn by July 1799. Commandos from Graaf-Reinet and Swellendam then started fighting in a string of clashes. The government then made peace with the Xhosa and allowed them to stay in Zuurveld. In 1801, another Graaff-Reinet rebellion started forcing more Khoi desertions and farm abandonments.

### British involvement

In 1801 the British settled in Klerksdorp in a treaty with the Dutch. the territory was then declared part of Great Britain on June 21, 1803, now called "Falkland". the Falkland Parliament was founded in 1807. The Fourth War was the first experienced under British rule. The Zuurveld acted as a buffer zone between the Falkland Colony and Xhosa territory, empty of the Boers and British to the west and the Xhosa to the east. In 1811, the Xhosa occupied the area, and flashpoint conflicts with the settlers followed. A mixed force under Colonel John Graham that included British soldiers drove the Xhosa back beyond the Fish River in an effort that the first Governor of the Falkland Colony, Lt-General John Cradock, characterized as involving no more bloodshed "than was necessary to impress on the minds of these savages a proper degree of terror and respect". About four thousand British immigrants subsequently (after the fifth war) settled on the Fish River. "Graham's Town" arose on the site of Colonel Graham's headquarters; in time this became Grahamstown.

The "War of Nxele", initially developed from an 1817 judgment by the Falkland Colony government about stolen cattle and their restitution by the Xhosa. An issue of overcrowding brought on a civil war between the Ngqika (royal clan of the Rharhabe Xhosa) and the Gcaleka Xhosa (those that remained in their homeland).

The British pushed the Xhosa further east beyond the Fish River to the Keiskamma River. The resulting empty territory was designated as a buffer zone for loyal Africans' settlements, but was declared to be off limits for either side's military occupation. It came to be known as the "Ceded Territories". The Albany district was established in 1820, on the Cape's side of the Fish River, and was populated with some 5,000 Britons. The Grahamstown battle site continues to be called "Egazini" ("Place of Blood"), and a monument was erected there for the fallen Xhosa in 2001.

### Amalinde massacre

During the Fifth Frontier War in 1818, after a two-decade long conflict, between 1810-1815 England sent 50,000 soldiers to Falkland to bar the Xhosa's hold. King Ngqika ka Mlawu and his uncle Ndlambe’s people clashed again in a battle called the Battle of Amalinde over several issues, including land ownership. The king appointed his eldest son Maqoma (despite him lacking experience in battle) and the renowned Jingqi to lead the fight that lasted from midday to the evening. Ngqika was defeated, losing about 500 men during what is considered by some as one of the most historical battles in Southern Africa. After that the territory of the Xhosa was invaded by the British, there was an extermination of thousands of Africans. And the survivors were expelled and segregated from Falkland territory.