Abstract
In South Africa it was usual to speak of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as the foundation members of the British Commonwealth of Nations; elsewhere it was customary to include South Africa itself among their number. Historically the distinction is debatable and in any case of no great importance; conceptually South Africa’s place is with the founder-states. At almost every stage in the evolution of the Commonwealth, South Africa was notionally, if not actually, an integral part of it. Canadian confederation was at once preceded and succeeded by abortive attempts at South African federation; and the problems of race and colour, existing with peculiar intensity in the South African colonies, came to be accepted as belonging from the outset to the Commonwealth as a whole. Such problems might no longer exist in more than nominal form in respect of Red Indian survivors in Canada or of the aborigines in Australia; they did exist, but within manageable dimensions, in New Zealand with its indigenous Maori population. But long before a united South Africa became a dominion in 1910, they had their place in the thinking which brought the Commonwealth into existence. It was no chance, it was the logic of history that made first popular reaction against an imperialist war in South Africa and then popular (if in part misguided) enthusiasm for a magnanimous South African settlement the immediate precursors to the recognition by name of a Commonwealth, already thought of as being in embryonic existence.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Cf. C.W. de Kiewiet, British Colonial Policy and the South African Republics, 1848–1872, London, 1929, pp. 2–3, on concepts of South African history, and the same author’s A History of South Africa, Social and Economic, Oxford, 1941, pp. 47–8 on the nature of its problems.
W.K. Hancock and Jean van der Poel, Selections from the Smuts Papers (4 vols), Cambridge, 1966, vol. 1, p. 117.
James Bryce, Impressions of South Africa, London, 1897, p. 571.
G. McC. Theal, History of South Africa South of the Zambesi, 1843–54, Cape Town, 1926–7, pp. 90–115; The Cambridge History of the British Empire, pp. 324–6
E.A. Walker, The Great Trek, London, 1934.
Hedley A. Chilvers, The Story of de Beers, London, 1939, pp. 6–7.
G. McC. Theal, History of South Africa, 1873–1884 (2 vols), London, 1919, vol 1, p. 271.
It was the subject of a study by Sir R. Coupland, Zulu Battle Piece: Isandhlwana, London, 1948.
James Bryce, Impressions of South Africa (third ed.), London, 1899, pp. xxi–xxiii.
J.S. Marais, The Fall of Kruger’s Republic, Oxford, 1961, p. 1.
H. Marshall Hole, The Making of Rhodesia, London, 1926, p. 17–8.
A.G. Gardiner, Pillars of Society, London, 1913, pp. 12–5.
John Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, London, 1940, p. 99.
J.L. Garvin, The Life of Joseph Chamberlain (3 vols), London, 1932–4, vol. 3, pp. 71–2.
N. Rich and M.H. Fisher (eds), The Holstein Papers (4 vols), Cambridge, 1955–63, vol. 1, pp. 162–3.
See C. Headlam (ed.), The Milner Papers, South Africa 1897–1899 (2 vols), London, 1931–3, vol. 1, p. 212, and also Marais, op. cit., pp. 200–2, for an account of the electoral campaign.
R.B. McCallum, Asquith, London, 1936, p. 55
R.B. McCallum, The Liberal Party from Earl Grey to Asquith, London, 1963, p. 151.
For a review of the discussion see J. Wilson, C.B. A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, London, 1973, pp. 479–85.
Hansard, Parl. Deb. (Commons), 1906, vol. clxii, col. 84.
J.A. Spender, The Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (2 vols), London, 1923, vol. 2, pp. 237–8.
Hancock, op. cit., The Fields of Force, vol. 2, 1919–1950, p. 518.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1982 Nicholas Mansergh
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mansergh, N. (1982). South Africa; Races and Riches, War and Union. In: The Commonwealth Experience. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16950-4_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16950-4_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-33159-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-16950-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)