apply sanctions against the flow of arms and ammunition. The Trans-
vaalers had tried but failed to open up an outlet to the sea on Delagoa Bay;
and victory, even had they succeeded, would have been pyrrhic, since Por-
tugal was a virtual client of Great Britain.
In 1870, South Africa was an imbroglio of peoples of disparate African,
Asian, and European origins and cultures. Unresolved conflicts over land
and labor were accentuated by different ideological assumptions. and by
contradictory
perceptions
that created tensions in each community.
Whites were dependent on the services of black laborers but (with some
exceptions in the Cape Colony) were determined to exclude Blacks from
participation in their social and political systems. Africans were striving to
preserve their freedom but were becoming dependent on manufactured
commodities and interested in Western technology and Western religion.
The imperial power was spending little money in the region but was com-
mitted to maintaining control of the sea route via the Cape of Good Hope
and to exercising some responsibility for the stability of the region. The
mineral discoveries accentuated these tensions and inaugurated a new
phase of South African history.
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