DIAMONDS, GOLD,AND BRITISHIMPERIALISM
another. In I 885 Britain annexed most of that territory, and in I 895 Britain
transferred it to the Cape Colony. Twice-in
I 878 and I 896-97-some
of
the southern Tswana rebelled against white domination, but to no avail.
Then the rinderpest struck the area. Bycentury's end, the southern Tswana
had lost most of their land and nearly all their cattle, and they were among
the most indigent and dependent people in Southern Africa.2 3
The Tswana who lived north of the Molopo River were less disastrously
disrupted. By the mid-r Ssos, British traders and missionaries and imperi-
alists such as Cecil Rhodes were urging the British government to prevent
the area from falling into the hands of the Transvaalers, which would have
given them a link with the newly annexed German colony of South West
Africa (now Namibia). Some of the Tswana chiefs, too, asked for British
protection as security against Transvaal expansion. Accordingly, in I 885
Br'itain proclaimed a protectorate, without encountering Tswana opposi-
tion. In theory, protectorate status meant that the chiefs retained control
over internal affairs. In practice, a symbiotic relationship developed be-
tween the chiefs and the British officials. The chiefs used the officials to