My hypothesis for this research is that geography of South Africa was the major factor for British Empire to conquer it in early 19th century and poses it throughout 20th century. And in this research paper I will study the geographical significance of South Africa to the British Empire, and try to answer questions like how geographically was South Africa important, and what South Africa meant to British Empire, and what were the geopolitical meaning of South Africa to the British Empire throughout their relationship. .
Before studying historical background of South Africa, I think it is important to define what I mean by geopolitics. One reason for that is there can be many definitions f geopolitics, and the other is that I am studying geopolitics of South Africa. I would define geopolitics as influence of the geographical factors on politics of the international realm. So the geopolitics of South Africa would be the following: influence of geographic factors of South Africa on the significance of the South Africa to the British Empire. .
Historical Background.
First white settlement in the southern tip of Africa - Cape Town started in 1652. These settlers were Dutch, and Dutch East India Company established a port at Cape Town in order to supply its ships with food and repair the ships on the way to India. In addition to it was a useful point for other European traders with Asia, since they could stop on the half way and get fresh meat and water. This intensified settlement process and "by the beginning of the 19th century there were 25 000 who were Dutch, French, Scandinavians, and Germans who are called Afrikaners" . Afrikaners developed their community farming and getting more land for planting, they moved inwards. Afrikaners had hard times with the Africans but with the support of the Europeans they could manage to enlarge their territories and stay there. As Bill Freund argues that "the expansion of the exchange and capitalist productive forces had generated a complex society at the Cape".
