The late 19th century was the golden age of the British Empire. Large sections of the political map of the world were painted pink, pleasing to the eye of any Englishman. London, not particularly challenging the patronage of the arts with frivolous Paris, was a concentration of wealth and power. This greatness rested on two metals - on the gold flowing generously from all corners of the earth into the insatiable belly of banks, and on the steel of the battleships and cruisers that guarded these streams. Brilliant sirs, sophisticated wits of the capital and dandies punched at the tables of fashionable restaurants, their ladies dressed in luxurious dresses rolled their eyes, fanning themselves with expensive Chinese fans, not even suspecting how many thousands of Indians, Chinese, Arabs and Africans paid for this pretentious splendor.
Rise of the South Star
Rhodes Caricature
The British lion was no longer as playful and agile as at the dawn of its hunting season, but it was still greedy and hungry. He reached out with his claws to all the nooks and crannies of his vast domains, and then those who "bear this proud burden" went to the jungles, mountains and savannahs. Yes, they themselves willingly went where it was possible to give, with luck and desire, a great plural meaning to the pound sterling. In the last quarter of the 19th century, South Africa became a fortune-making factory, taking over from an already exhausted India. The accelerated growth of the British colonial empire during the Victorian era was achieved through the combined use of finance and weapons. One of those who used this recipe most productively was Cecil Rhodes, who added fame, blood, calculating cynicism, and diamonds to British history. In 1870, the 17-year-old son of a cleric from Bishop Stortford emigrated to South Africa because he could no longer take cold lamb. The ambitious young man, filled with far from naive thoughts to put the whole world at the foot of the British throne, was striving not only for wealth. He dreamed of becoming an empire builder.
He might have become one of many whose bones, gnawed by lions and hyenas, were left to dry in the vast African savannas, if he had not had very profitable and useful acquaintances from the City of London. Among these useful acquaintances was one the most needed gentleman. Someone Lord Rothschild, the owner of "factories, newspapers, ships" and in the appendage of a huge banking empire. When Rhodes arrived at the Kimberley diamond mines, more than a hundred different firms and firms were operating there, developing the four main pipes and simultaneously buying, selling and reselling diamonds. In 1882, Rothschild's agent visited Kimberley and recommended to Rhodes, who represented the interests of the banking house, to enlarge. The young man very carefully fulfilled the wishes of his patron from London - after four years there were only three companies left. And then all this diamond mining business was transformed into the impressive De Beers company. Officially, it was owned by Rhodes, but in fact, Rothschild remained the main shareholder and, therefore, the "target designator".
Diamonds alone could not satisfy Rhodes' imperial ambitions. For the dynamic development of British expansion in southern Africa, he needed a powerful and at the same time flexible mechanism, generously oiled by full-weight pounds sterling. And he was created. In 1889-1890, the "imperial seer" and "the robber baron", as he was called in certain circles, with the closest support of the Rothschild Bank, creates the British South African Company (BYUAC), a joint-stock company whose purpose was actually monopoly exploration and development of mineral resources, mining and, accordingly, the necessary territorial expansion. The company had its own flag and charter and had its own military: mercenaries recruited from different parts of the British Empire. Rhodes, backed by the ever-growing strength of the company, was ambitious. Not only the acquisition of land north of British South Africa, but also the strengthening of British rule on the continent through the construction of the Cairo-Cape Town trans-African railway and the telegraph line of the same name. Such truly cyclopean plans had one very small snag, which noble gentlemen for the time being did not pay attention to, like the dust under their feet. In addition to them, the population itself also lived in Africa, which had its own African, popular, opinion on British colonial policy.
Local
In the territories of interest to Rhodes and his companions to the north of the then British possessions, where the present Zimbabwe is located, at that time the Matabele people of the Bantu people lived, which was at the stage of the tribal system. Of course, in comparison with the civilized English, who read the fascinating novels of Scott and Dickens in between the swift devastation of Hindu temples and Chinese pagodas, the local population did not shine with culture. They were simple pastoralists and could not hold a conversation about Shakespeare. The Matabeles were not at all like the touching Stevenson mead babies that the evil Scottish king had come to exterminate. Except for one little thing - they lived on their own land. And they did not favor those who began to challenge this right.
This people was ruled by the Inkosi (chieftain, military leader) Lobengula. He was an extraordinary person who won the right to be called a leader in the civil war after the death of his father. In 1870 Lobengula became the ruler of his people. For a long time, he was able to diplomatically curb the expansion of the British, Portuguese and the Germans who appeared in the 1880s in the territories between the Zambezi and Limpopo. The clever leader did not appreciate the discovery in 1886 of gold deposits in the Witwatersrand mountain range (in present-day South Africa) and the importance of this for the increasingly pressing whites. In February 1888, by various methods, he was forced to sign a treaty of "friendship" with the British Empire, which was no more appropriate than the tiger's promise not to hunt antelope, and at the end of the same year granted Cecil Rhodes the right to concession mining on its territory … Rhodes personally knew the leader - his doctor treated Lobengula for gout. Needless to say, this agreement was beneficial to only one side - the British South African Company. Noble gentlemen promised the Matabele people their patronage, suspiciously reminiscent of the relations between brothers and merchants in the dashing 90s.
In the footsteps of gold
Rhodes was in a hurry. The lands of Africa were rich, and there were more and more people who wanted to taste these riches. The German Kaiserreich began to build its own colonial empire, the French were jealously watching the success of the British, the Portuguese were tossing and turning in nearby Mozambique. There were persistent rumors, which by the way did not come true, about the possible appearance of Russians on the Black Continent. Rhodes had no illusions about the Matabele, how the owner of the house, for the time being, puts up with the presence of flies in it. Lobengula was nothing more than a step that had to be stepped on to climb the ladder of building the colonial system. In a letter to his companion, patron and simply a wealthy man, Sir Rothschild, Rhodes called the leader "the only obstacle in Central Africa" and argued that as soon as we seize his territory, the rest will not be difficult.
It should be noted that in the inevitable future conflict, for which it was only necessary to choose a convenient time and place, the energetic empire builder did not at all need to turn to the colonial administration to provide soldiers. The British South African Company was wealthy enough to have and maintain its own armed forces, consisting of a contingent that was then hanging out in abundance in places rich in gold - adventurers, desperate people. In modern terminology, it was a hybrid of a business consortium and a private military corporation.
Rightly believing that the deal signed with Lobengula is as shaky and fragile as a chair in a cheap London pub under a drunkard on a spree, Rhodes is taking steps to strengthen the British presence in Matabeleland. He decided to send a group of colonists there, who were to occupy certain plots of land and establish settlements there. That these territories were controlled by Lobengula was little more than a minor misunderstanding. For the upcoming operation, which went down in history as the "Column of Pioneers", Rhodes threw a cry to attract volunteers. There were enough people who wanted to go to the lands where, according to rumors, there was plenty of gold - about two thousand people, of whom Rhodes rejected more than half as coming from wealthy families. The fact is that he was afraid of unnecessary noise that could arise if suddenly Lobengul's "friend" became indignant because of the unauthorized resettlement and his soldiers would shoot some local "major". Each colonist was promised a piece of land of 3,000 acres (12 sq. Km). Finally, on June 28, 1890, a convoy of 180 civilian colonists, 62 wagons, 200 armed volunteers left Bechwaland. The column was led by 23-year-old adventurer Frank Johnson (they grew up quickly in Africa). The already legendary Frederick Selous, who became the prototype of Allan Quarteyman in the novels of Henry Haggard, took part in the operation as a guide. A little later, a few more colonists joined the column. After walking more than 650 km, they finally reached a flat marshy meadow with a rocky hill. Here on September 12, 1890, the flag of the United Kingdom was solemnly raised. On this place the city of Salisbury (Harare), the capital of the future Rhodesia, will arise. This day will become the national holiday of Rhodesia. Selous will be named after one of the most effective special forces in the world - the legendary Rhodesian Selous Scouts.
Lobengula, who found himself, to put it mildly, perplexed by the ease with which white people stagger through his lands and found fortified settlements, began to "suspect something." The leader was not the foolish and primitive savage that the natives used to think of in the fashionable salons of the United Kingdom. He understood that the encounter with the white aliens was a matter of time. To express his bewilderment, Lobengula had impressive capabilities: 8 thousand infantry, mainly spearmen, and 2 thousand riflemen, some of whom were armed with a modern Martini-Peabody rifle of 11.43 mm caliber. Lobengula kept up with the times, rightly believing that it would be difficult to fight with whites with cold weapons alone. However, a large number of riflemen in the Matabele army were leveled out by their low rifle training, inability to fire volleys and aiming.
And the white people, cunning and good at inventions, also had something in store up their sleeves.
New technologies - new weapons
In 1873, the American inventor Hiram Stevens Maxim invented a device that he called a machine gun. This was the first example of automatic small arms. Invented and … postponed for 10 years, because Maxim was a versatile person and was interested in many things. Subsequently, having made some changes to the design, the inventor tried to draw the attention of the US government to his product, but it remained indifferent to the machine gun. Maxim moved to England, where in a workshop in Hatton Garden he again modernized his brainchild, after which he sent out invitations to many influential persons to his presentation. Among those who accepted the invitation were the Duke of Cambridge (then Commander-in-Chief), the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Devonshire, the Duke of Saterland and the Duke of Kent. And also some other imposing gentlemen, among whom Baron Nathan Rothschild modestly tapped with a cane.
Having appreciated the gizmo that spews an avalanche of lead, the distinguished guests, however, expressed some doubts about its usefulness. “You shouldn't buy it right now,” the Duke of Cambridge expressed the general opinion. The military are conservative people. Here are some Russian "historians" ascribe the paucity of thinking and cudgel-headedness exclusively to the Russian and Soviet generals. The fact that in other countries, when accepting the latest models of weapons, a similar thing happened: the British disdained machine guns, their colleagues from the Admiralty reacted contemptuously to submarines, the Prussian military bone scowled disdainfully when seeing the drawings of the first tanks - democratic researchers prefer not to notice.
But while the big lords thoughtfully fiddled with their beards, Baron Rothschild instantly appreciated the merits of Maxim's invention. He provided him with funding and in 1884, when the Maxim company was founded, Rothschild became one of its managers. In the machine gun, this know-how of science to kill, he saw an excellent means of countering African tribes, accustomed to operate in dense battle formations.
Shotguns and Assegai
The situation in Africa was unfolding in a spiral. At first, both Lobengula and Rhodes, each on their part, tried not to exacerbate the situation. The Matabele leader, knowing about the effectiveness of white weapons and obviously wishing to better prepare himself, refrained from any hostile actions against white settlers throughout 1891 and 1892. Rhodes wanted the pioneers to settle more densely in new places, to put down roots. An unstable balance persisted until 1893, when the leader of one of the vassal Lobengule tribes, located in the area of the newly founded Fort Victoria, refused to pay tribute to his overlord. The vassal believed that since he lives next to the settlers, he is under the protection of their white law, therefore, no tribute should be paid to the “center”. Lobengula could no longer tolerate such outright disobedience and "separatism" - the question of his reputation was at stake, and she was an irreplaceable resource in Africa. It was obtained by personal participation in battles and wise government, but it was lost very quickly. In July 1893, the Inkosi sent a detachment of several thousand people to deal with the hotbed of disobedience in the state. The village, which had fallen into all sorts of liberties, was occupied by Matabele warriors and brought to obedience. Now the question was about the prestige of the white man - whether his word has weight or not. And any word is well weighted not only with gold, but also with lead and steel. Representatives of the British South African Company in a harsh manner demanded that the Matabele clean up the occupied village. The demand was denied. In the ensuing skirmish, a number of soldiers were killed, the rest left the captured village. Now the Maxim machine gun had to perform its debut solo.
Both sides spent the entire August and September preparing. This time the energetic Rhodes, then prime minister of the Cape Colony, and his assistant, Linder Jameson, spent the gathering and equipping of the expeditionary force. The British could have fielded about 750 people from the so-called South African police, funded by the BUAC, and a number of volunteers from the local population. In his enterprise, Rhodes could also count on the help of the warriors of the Bamangwato tribe of the Tswana people, who had their own, local accounts with Lobengula.
On October 16, 1893, the British set out from Salisbury in a main force of 700 under the command of Major Patrick Forbes, accompanied by a large wagon train. As a means of fire reinforcement, the detachment had five Maxim machine guns (thanks to Baron Rothschild), one, clearly inferior to them, Gardner's double-barreled machine gun, and a 42-mm Hotchkiss mountain gun. The company's plan was simple enough. A quick march to the capital of Lobengula - Bulawayo, in fact a large village. Despite the huge numerical superiority of the natives, the British felt confident enough due to the overwhelming firepower and, naturally, the fact that they were British and behind them "God, Queen and England".
Lobengula also did not doubt the intentions of the enemy and decided to stop their advance with a preemptive strike - to carry out an attack on the march.
On October 26, near the Shangani River, the Matabele made the first attempt to attack the British by forces estimated by Forbes at at least 3 thousand people. The natives, armed mainly with melee weapons, attacked in a dense mass, trying to reach the length of the spear throw. Machine guns were successfully used against the attackers: having lost about 1,000 soldiers, they retreated. The whites lost only a few people killed.
Campaign officers
A larger clash took place in an open area near the Bembezi River on November 1, 1893, when more impressive forces were attracted to attack the British: 2 thousand riflemen and 4 thousand spearmen. Unfortunately for the natives, they had little idea of what a classic Wagenburg, moreover, assembled from large heavy vans was. Reconnaissance reported to Forbes in time about the approach of the enemy, and the column took up a defensive position within the perimeter formed by the carts. The first to attack were the most experienced warriors of the junior leaders Imbezu and Ingubu. Again, the natives did not follow special tactics and attacked in a large, disorganized crowd. The guns, which they had in abundance, they used extremely illiterate - the British appreciated their shooting as chaotic. The live wave of Matabele was met by dense and accurate fire from British soldiers and volunteers, of whom there were about 700 in the camp. In the center of the positions were installed "Maxims", which poured down on the attackers an avalanche of lead. Such a technologically advanced weapon caused a real devastation in the ranks of the enemy - dozens of the best warriors fell to the ground, slain by machine guns. According to an English eyewitness, they "entrusted their fate to Providence and Maxim's machine gun." The attack of the Africans, as expected, bogged down, the elite detachments were actually defeated. According to British estimates, about 2,500 killed natives remained in front of Wagenburg. The main forces, watching the battle from an ambush, did not dare to join the battle. White's own losses can be characterized as trifling against the background of damage to the enemy - four killed. Baron Rothschild was an extremely profitable investment. The London Times, not without malice, noted that the Matabela “attributed our victory to witchcraft, believing“Maxim”to be the product of evil spirits. They call it "skokakoka" because of the specific noise it makes when shooting."
Warrior matabele
Having put themselves in order after the battle, to which the word massacre is more applicable, the British command decided to accelerate in the direction of the capital Matabele, rightly deciding that its capture and the possible capture of Lobengula himself would speed up the denouement. From the west, the Bamangwato loyal to the British advanced towards Bulawayo, in the amount of 700 soldiers under the command of Khama III, who, back in 1885, asked for protection from the whites. As it once did in America, the beads and whiskey politics paid off. The British skillfully manipulated the African tribes, using them for their own purposes, as they did with the Indians.
Learning about the defeat at Bembezi, Lobengula decides to leave his capital. The fire superiority of the British and huge losses in manpower - the exchange of one Englishman for a thousand of their soldiers - did not work in the best way on the leader. He set fire to and partially destroyed Bulawayo, which consisted mostly of adobe huts. An ammunition depot was blown up, all food storage facilities were also destroyed. On November 2, horse reconnaissance led by Selous found the city devastated and abandoned. On November 3, the main forces of the British entered the capital of Matabele.
Lobengula retreated with the remnants of his army to the Zambezi River. At this stage of the conflict, the "gentlemen" decided to play a game of nobility and sent the leader several courteous messages with a proposal to return to Bulawayo, that is, to actually surrender. But Lobengula knew too well what Rhodes and his company were capable of and did not believe them.
Having failed in the diplomatic field, On November 13, Forbes ordered the pursuit of Lobengula, which was greatly complicated by bad weather and difficult terrain. For a long time, it was not possible to detect the main forces of the Matabele. On December 3, 1893, Forbes camped on the southern bank of the Shangani River, 40 km from the village of Lupane. The next day, Major Allan Wilson's squad of a dozen scouts crossed over to the other side. This was the beginning of an event that went down in British and Rhodesian colonial history as "the Shangani watch". Wilson soon met the women and children of the Matabele, who told him where the king was supposed to be. Frederick Berchem, a scout from Wilson's squad, advised the major not to believe this information, believing that they were being lured into a trap. However, Wilson ordered to move on. They soon discovered the main forces of the natives. A request for help was sent to Forbes, but he did not dare to cross the river at night with all his might, but sent Captain Henry Borrow with 20 men to reinforce the reconnaissance. This handful of Englishmen were surrounded at dawn by several thousand warriors under the command of the king's brother Gandang. Wilson managed to send three men from among his scouts to Forbes for help, but, crossing the river and reaching the camp, they found themselves in battle again, as the Matabele organized an attack on the main forces of the British. Scout Berchem, not without reason, told Forbes "that they are the last survivors from the other side." The events taking place on the northern side of the river were restored in full only after some time, since none of the 32 Englishmen from Wilson's detachment survived.
Shangani Patrol
Conflict Map
Wilson's squad took up a position in open terrain, with well-shot space in front of them. As a shelter, boxes of cartridges, horses, and then their bodies were used. Emitting shrill war cries, encouraging themselves with the drums of war, the Matabele attacked over and over again and, bearing losses, rolled back. Gandang really wanted to present his royal brother with a victory that would have turned out to be a bright spot against the background of previous crushing defeats. Even not very well-aimed African fire caused damage - after each attack, the number of wounded and killed among the British grew. The level of the Shangani River rose, and it was no longer possible to send reinforcements to the dying detachment, besides, the main column of the British was tied up in battle. By the afternoon, the wounded Whislon survived and continued to fire with Scottish composure. Several of his wounded comrades were loading guns for him. Finally, when the ammunition load was completely used up, the British, leaning on their guns, got up and sang "God Save the Queen" until they were practically finished off at close range. The sons of Britain in the 19th century, who firmly believed that with the bayonets and machine guns of Maxim they bring the light of enlightenment to wild tribes, were capable of such actions. And Wilson and his people had personal courage. True, they died heroically, not repelling the enemy landing on Foggy Albion, but in a colonial war against the people who defended their land.
Fight with the natives
Matabele's private success at Shangani could not seriously affect the entire course of the conflict. The natives retreated deeper and deeper into their territory. In January 1894, under rather mysterious circumstances, Lobengula died. Perhaps the top of the tribe, tuned in to "constructive dialogue with English partners," simply got rid of their king. After the death of the leader, negotiations began between the South African Company and the leaders of the (Izindun) Matabele. The company received the entire Motabeleland under royal decree control. In the House of Commons, some political forces tried to condemn the BUAC, accusing it of deliberately provoking a war. Such parliamentary quarrels were caused not by philanthropic sympathy for the "poor natives", but by the usual feuds between Labor and Conservatives. However, Rhodes had his people everywhere, and his friend, the Minister of Colonies, Marquis Ripon, turned the matter towards justifying the actions of BYUAC and its rehabilitation.
True, in the course of the investigation, some interesting details were revealed. A few days before the tragedy at Shangani, Major Forbes sent Lobengula another letter with a proposal to admit his mistakes, return to Bulawayo, and everyone (well, almost everyone) would forgive him. Forbes did not receive a response. It turned out that the leader nevertheless sent a response letter of conciliatory content along with bags of golden sand, the value of which was determined at more than 1,000 pounds, with two messengers. Obviously, having staggered through the jungle, the no longer young Lobengula was tired of the nomadic life and was ready for negotiations. The messengers gave the letters and gold to two soldiers of the British vanguard, who, after consulting, decided to keep the gold for themselves. Because of this, hostilities continued. Both combiners received 14 years of hard labor, but, however, were released after several months in prison.
White man's footprint
Britain's colonial policy in Africa is rife with conflict and war. Neither the government, nor public opinion, nor those who personally embodied the ambitions of London among the savannah and jungle, did not doubt the correctness of their actions. Domestic "democratic historians", sticking out their tongues from their efforts, vigorously criticizing Russia and the USSR, accusing them of colonialism and imperial ambitions, obviously, out of sheer absent-mindedness, do not notice on what mountains of bones and rivers of blood the "enlightened navigators" built the buildings of their empires. Cecile Rhodes died in 1902 near Cape Town and is buried there. The British colony of Southern Rhodesia was named after him, the history of which requires a separate article. In the colonial wars and the advance of the white man deep into uncharted spots on the map, English youth and elite were raised. In many ways, it was a misanthropic ideology that prioritized the interests of the "British race". This policy forged the Rhodes and others like him - fearless, deeply cynical, self-righteous individuals - who did not distinguish between killing a Bengal tiger and a Zulu warrior, since they sincerely believed that they were just different types of wild animals. For the British elite, born in the fields of Hastings, matured in the Crusades and on the blood of Agincourt and Crécy, moved to the bridges of pirate ships, and later found a place among those who made their way through the mountains, jungles and deserts, the interests of their own country were on first place. And these interests were fueled by ambition, greed, a sense of their own superiority and cruelty. It should not be forgotten that other peoples and countries by the mentioned gentlemen were seen as hindrances to these interests, extending far beyond the borders of the island of Great Britain. And they have not changed their interests. Still.
