DIAMONDS.GOLD.AND BRITISHIMPERIALISM
cooperate. De Beers thus acquired a monopoly of the diamond production
of the area.
Politics had affected this outcome. Four authorities initially claimed
sovereignty over the diamond
fields: the two Afrikaner republics (the
Transvaal and the Orange Free State), the southernmost Tswana chiefdom,
and the Griqua chiefdom of Nicholas, son of Andries Waterboer. The
strongest white claim to the dry diggings was that of the Orange Free State,
since the area included farms that had been recognized not only by the
Orange Free State government but also, in some cases, by the British
officials who had ruled the area between 1848 and 1854. Nevertheless, in
187 I the British high commissioner proclaimed the annexation
of the
territory which became known as Griqualand
West, after a British ar-
bitrator had ruled in favor of Waterboer and Waterboer had been per-
suaded to request British protection. The British government failed to
provide for an efficient local administration, however, and thus its officials
depended on the cooperation of the local white population: first the dig-
gers' committees and later the major industrialists. The industrialists' grip
tightened after 188o, when Griqualand West was incorporated in the Cape