Afrikaners from the Cape Colony establish themselves on the borders of Botswana in the Transvaal following the Great Trek.

In 1852 a coalition of Tswana chiefdoms led by Sechele I resists Afrikaner incursions during the Battle of Dimawe, and after about eight years of intermittent tensions and hostilities, eventually come to a peace agreement in Potchefstroom in 1860.

From this point on, the modern-day border between South Africa and Botswana is agreed on, and the Afrikaners and Batswana trade and work together 'peacefully'.

The first diamond had been discovered in South Africa in 1866, when Erasmus Jacobs found a small brilliant pebble on the banks of the Orange River, on the farm De Kalk, leased from local Griquas, near Hopetown, which is his father's farm.

He had showed the pebble to his father, who had sold it Schalk van Niekerk, who later resold it.

It has proved to be a 21.25 carat (4.25 gram) diamond, and becomes known as the Eureka.

Three years later Schalk van Niekerk had sold another diamond also found in the De Kalk vicinity, the Star of South Africa, for £11,200.

The second diamond had been promptly resold in the London market for £25,000.

In 1871, an even larger 83.50 carat (16.7 gram) diamond is found on the slopes of Colesberg Kopje on the farm Vooruitzigt, belonging to the De Beers brothers.

Henry Richard Giddy recounts how Esau Damoense (or Damon), the cook for prospector Fleetwood Rawstone's "Red Cap Party", had made the discovery on Colesberg Kopje after he had been sent there to dig as punishment.

Rawstorne had taken the news to the nearby diggings of the De Beer brothers—his arrival there sparking off the famous "New Rush" which, as historian Brian Roberts puts it, was practically a stampede.

Within a month, eight hundred claims had been cut into the hillock, which are worked frenetically by two to three thousand men.

As the land is lowered, the hillock becomes a mine—in time, the world renowned Kimberley Mine. (Kimberley, turbulent city by Brian Roberts, pp.45-49 (1976, published by David Phillip & Historical Society of Kimberley and the Northern Cape))

The Cape Colony, Transvaal, Orange Free State and the Griqua leader Nikolaas Waterboer all lay claim to the diamond fields.

The Free State Boers in particular want the area, as it lies inside the natural borders created by the Orange and Vaal Rivers.

Following mediation, overseen by the governor of Natal, the Keate Award goes in favor of Waterboer, who immediately places himself under British protection.

Consequently, the territory known as Griqualand West is proclaimed on October 27, 1871.

Colonial Commissioners arrive in New Rush on November 17 to exercise authority over the territory on behalf of the Cape Governor.

Kimberley is the second largest town in South Africa by 1873, with an approximate population of forty thousand.

Digger objections and minor riots had led to Governor Barkly's visit to New Rush in September 1872, when he revealed a plan instead to have Griqualand West proclaimed a Crown Colony.

Richard Southey had arrived as Lieutenant-Governor of the intended Crown Colony in January 1873.

Months had passed, however, without any sign of the proclamation or of the promised new constitution and provision for representative government.

The delay was in London, where Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Kimberley, insistsed that before electoral divisions could be defined, the places had to receive "decent and intelligible names. His Lordship has declined to be in any way connected with such a vulgarism as New Rush and as for the Dutch name, Vooruitzigt … he could neither spell nor pronounce it." (Kimberley, turbulent city by Brian Roberts, p. 115 (1976, published by David Phillip & Historical Society of Kimberley and the Northern Cape))]

The matter had been passed to Southey who had given it to his Colonial Secretary J.B. Currey.

Roberts writes that "when it came to renaming New Rush, [Currey] proved himself a worthy diplomat. He made quite sure that Lord Kimberley would be able both to spell and pronounce the name of the main electoral division by, as he says, calling it 'after His Lordship'."

New Rush becomes Kimberley, by Proclamation dated 5 July 1873.

Digger sentiment is expressed in an editorial in the Diamond Field newspaper when it states, "we went to sleep in New Rush and waked up in Kimberley, and so our dream was gone." (Roberts, Brian. 1976. Kimberley, turbulent city. Cape Town: David Philip, p 115)

A set of epic struggles to create a single unified state dominates the southern part of the African continent in the nineteenth century.

British expansion into southern Africa is fueled by three prime factors: first, the desire to control the trade routes to India that pass around the Cape; second, the discovery in 1868 of huge mineral deposits of diamonds around Kimberley on the joint borders of the South African Republic (called the Transvaal by the British), Orange Free State and the Cape Colony, and thereafter in 1886 in the Transvaal of a major gold find, all of which offer enormous wealth and power; and thirdly the race against other European colonial powers, as part of a general colonial expansion in Africa.

Other potential colonizers include Portugal, who already control West Africa (modern day Angola) and East Africa (modern day Mozambique), Germany (modern day Namibia), and further north, Belgium (modern day Democratic Republic of the Congo) and France (West and Equatorial Africa, and Madagascar).

The two Boer republics, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, are squeezed between the British-ruled Cape Colony to the south and west, Zululand to the east and Matabeleland and Bechuanaland to the north.

There had been a series of skirmishes within the Transvaal between the Boers and indigenous local tribes during the 1870s.

In particular, intensifying struggles between Boers and the Pedi, a Northern Sotho group led by Sekhukune I, over land and labor results in the war of 1876, in which the attacking Boers are defeated, in part because of the firepower bought with proceeds of early Pedi labor migration to the Kimberley diamond fields.

There are also serious tensions between the Transvaal Republic and the Zulus led by King Cetshwayo.

The Zulus occupy a kingdom located to the southeast, bordered on the one side by the Transvaal Republic and on the other by British Natal.

Cetshwayo, a son of Zulu king Mpande and Queen Ngqumbazi, half-nephew of the famous Zulu king Shaka and grandson of Senzangakhona kaJama, had in 1856 defeated and killed in battle his younger brother Mbuyazi, Mpande's favorite, and become the effective ruler of the Zulu people.

He did not ascend to the throne, however, as his father was still alive.

Stories from that time regarding his huge size vary, saying he stood at least between six feet six inches tall (one hundred and ninety-eight) and six feet eight inches tall (two hundred and three centimeters) and weighed close to twenty-five stone (one hundred and fifty-eight kilograms).

His other brother, Umtonga, was still a potential rival.

In 1861, Umtonga had fled to the Boers' side of the border and Cetshwayo had had to make deals with the Boers to get him back.

In 1865, Umtonga did the same thing, apparently making Cetshwayo believe that Umtonga would organize help from the Boers against him, the same way his father had overthrown his predecessor, Dingaan.

Mpande died in 1873 and Cetshwayo had become king on September 1.

As was customary, he has created a new capital for the nation and called it Ulundi (the high place).

Cetshwayo had expanded his army and reintroduced many of the paramilitary practices of Shaka.

He had also started equipping his impis with firearms, although this is a gradual process and the majority have only shields, clubs (knobkerries) and spears (throwing spears and the famous assegais).

Over forty thousand strong, disciplined, motivated and confident Zulu warriors are a formidable force on their own home ground, their lack of modern weaponry notwithstanding.

King Cetshwayo has banished European missionaries from his land, and there are suggestions that he might also have become involved in inciting other native African peoples to rebel against the Boers in the Transvaal.

The Transvaal Boers become increasingly concerned, but King Cetshwayo's policy is to maintain good relations with the British in Natal in an effort to counter the Boer threat.

Griqualand West is annexed to the Cape Colony in 1877 following agreement by the British government on compensation to the Orange Free State for its competing land claims.

The Cape Prime Minister John Molteno had had serious initial doubts about annexing the heavily indebted region, but, after striking a deal with the Home Government and receiving assurances that the local population would be consulted in the process, he passes the Griqualand West Annexation Act on July 27, 1877.

Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the British Secretary for Native Affairs in Natal, annexes the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic), for Britain using a special warrant.

The annexation, partly spurred by the Boers' failure to subjugate the Pedi, is a convenient way of resolving the border dispute between the Boers and the Zulus.

This also saves the Transvaal from financial ruin, as its government has little money.

The Transvaal Boers object, but as long as the Zulu threat remains, they fear that if they take up arms to resist the British annexation actively, King Cetshwayo and the Zulus would take the opportunity to attack.

They also fear a war on two fronts, namely that the local tribes would seize the opportunity to rebel and the simmering unrest in the Transvaal would be re-ignited.he British annexation nevertheless results in resentment against the British occupation and a growing nationalism.

The Transvaal Boers led by Vice President Paul Kruger will hereafter elect to deal first with the perceived Zulu threat to the status quo, and local issues, before directly opposing the British annexation.

Kruger makes two visits to London for direct talks with the British government.

Kruger, whose family was of German descent, was born at Bulhoek, on his grandfather's farm, which was approximately fifteen kilometers west of the town of Steynsburg and one hundred kilometers to the north of Cradock in the Eastern Cape Province, and he had grown up on the farm Vaalbank.

He had received only three months of formal education but from life on the veld had become proficient in hunting and horse riding.

Kruger's father, Casper Kruger, had joined the trek party of Hendrik Potgieter when the Great Trek started in 1835.

The trekkers had crossed the Vaal River in 1838, and had at first stayed in the area that is known today as Potchefstroom.

The trekkers had taken advantage of the political vacuum left after the Zulu wars and their aftermath, and had easily overcome the indigenous peoples.

Kruger's father had later decided to settle in the district now known as Rustenburg.

At the age of sixteen, Kruger had been entitled to choose a farm for himself at the foot of the Magaliesberg, where he had settled in 1841.

The following year, he had married Anna Maria Etresia du Plessis (1826-1846), and they had gone together with Paul Kruger's father to live in the Eastern Transvaal.

After the family had returned to Rustenburg, Kruger's wife and infant died in January, 1846.

He then married his second wife, Gezina Susanna Fredrika Wilhelmina du Plessis (1831-1901) in 1847, with whom he will remain until her death in 1901.

The couple will have seven daughters and nine sons, some dying in infancy.

A deeply religious man, Kruger claims to have only read one book, the Bible.

He also claims to know most of it by heart.

He is a founding member of the Reformed Church in South Africa.

He had begun his military service as a field cornet in the commandos and eventually became Commandant-General of the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek (South African Republic), or ZAR.

He was appointed member of a commission of the Volksraad, the republican parliament that was to draw up a constitution.

People had begun to take notice of the young man, who had played a prominent part in ending the quarrel between the Transvaal leader, Stephanus Schoeman, and M.W. Pretorius.

Kruger had been present at the Sand River Convention in 1852.

Kruger had resigned as Commandant-General, and for a time had held no office and retired to his farm, Boekenhoutfontein.

However, he had been elected as a member of the Executive Council in 1874 and shortly after became the Vice-President of the Transvaal.

Bartle Frere sends the British No. 3 Column under Lord Chelmsford to invade Zululand on January 11, with about seven thousand regular troops, a similar number of black African "levees" and a thousand white volunteers.

This results in the Battle of Isandlwana on January 22, 1879, which though a disaster for the British, does not end the war.

With the decisive defeat of Chelmsford's central column, the entire invasion of Zululand collapses and will have to be restaged.

Not only are there heavy manpower casualties to the Main Column, but most of the supplies, ammunition and draft animals have been lost.

As King Cetshwayo had feared, the embarrassment of the defeat will force the policy makers in London, who to this point had not supported the war, to rally to the support of the pro-war contingent in the Natal government and commit whatever resources are needed to defeat the Zulus.

Despite local numerical superiority, the Zulus do not have manpower, technological resources or logistical capacity to match the British in another, more extended, campaign.

The Zulus miss a tremendous opportunity to exploit their victory and possibly win the war this day on their own territory.

The reconnaissance force under Chelmsford, more vulnerable to being defeated by an attack than the camp is strung out and somewhat scattered, it had marched with limited rations and ammunition it cannot now replace, and it is panicky and demoralized by the defeat at Isandlwana.

Near the end of the battle, about four thousand Zulu warriors of the unengaged reserve Undi impi, after cutting off the retreat of the survivors to the Buffalo River southwest of Isandlwana, cross the river and attack the fortified mission station at Rorke's Drift.

The station is defended by only one hundred and thirty-nine British soldiers, who nonetheless inflict considerable casualties and repel the attack.

Elsewhere, the left and right flanks of the invading forces are now isolated and without support.

The No. 1 column under the command of Charles Pearson will be besieged for two months by a Zulu force at Eshowe, while the No. 4 column under Evelyn Wood halts its advance and will spend most of the next two months skirmishing in the northwest around Tinta's Kraal.