NSSCO History 6138 flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Jonker Afrikaner

Oorlam leader who established a powerful base at Windhoek in the 1840s, controlling trade routes and raiding cattle, and whose influence shaped southern Namibian politics until his death in 1861.

Oorlam migration

Movement of Khoikhoi and mixed-descent groups north from the Cape frontier after 1800, bringing horses, guns and new trade networks that reshaped power in southern Namibia.

Walvis Bay annexation

Britain annexed Walvis Bay in 1878, giving the Cape Colony a coastal foothold; it remained a South African enclave until its transfer to Namibia in 1994.

Berlin Conference

1884-85 meeting of European powers that set rules for claiming African territory based on 'effective occupation', accelerating the partition of Africa including German South West Africa.

Rhenish Missionary Society

German Protestant mission active in Namibia from 1842, establishing stations, schools and churches, and mediating between African societies and colonial authorities.

Herero-Nama wars

Series of conflicts from about 1863 to 1870 over cattle and trade routes, ending with a mediated peace at Okahandja after Jonker Afrikaner's death.

Schutztruppe

German colonial military force in South West Africa, used to suppress African resistance and enforce colonial rule from the 1890s onward.

Rinderpest 1897

Cattle plague that killed most herds in Namibia, destroying Herero and Nama economic independence and forcing dependence on wage labour and trader credit.

Herero and Nama genocide

1904-1908 German campaign of extermination and concentration camps after the Herero and Nama uprisings, killing tens of thousands and dispossessing survivors.

Battle of Waterberg

1904 battle in which German forces under von Trotha defeated the Herero, followed by an extermination order driving survivors into the Omaheke desert.

Shark Island camp

Concentration camp near Lüderitz where Nama and other prisoners were held in brutal conditions during the 1904-1908 genocide.

League of Nations mandate

1920 arrangement granting South Africa administrative authority over South West Africa as a 'sacred trust', without sovereignty, subject to international oversight.

Bondelswarts Rebellion

1922 uprising against South African taxation and dog-control measures, crushed by aerial bombing, symbolising resistance to mandate rule.

SWAPO

South West Africa People's Organisation, founded in 1960 under Sam Nujoma, which led the nationalist and armed struggle for Namibian independence.

UN Resolution 435

1978 Security Council resolution setting out a UN-supervised transition plan for Namibian independence, implemented in 1989 after the Tripartite Accord.

UNTAG

United Nations Transition Assistance Group, deployed in 1989-90 to supervise elections and the transition to Namibian independence.

Tripartite Accord 1988

Agreement between Angola, Cuba and South Africa linking Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola to implementation of Resolution 435 and Namibian independence.

PLAN

People's Liberation Army of Namibia, SWAPO's armed wing, which conducted guerrilla operations against South African forces from bases in Angola and Zambia.

Turnhalle Conference

1975-77 South African-sponsored constitutional talks in Windhoek aimed at an internal settlement, boycotted by SWAPO and rejected internationally.

Effective occupation

Principle adopted at the Berlin Conference that a colonial power must actually administer a claimed territory to have its claim recognised by other powers.

Indirect rule

British colonial system of governing through existing chiefs and local institutions, used in colonies such as Nigeria and Tanganyika.

Maji Maji rebellion

1905-07 uprising in German East Africa against forced cotton cultivation and colonial taxation, suppressed with mass casualties.

Year of Africa

1960, when seventeen African countries gained independence from European colonial rule, marking the height of decolonisation.

Bandung Conference

1955 meeting of Asian and African states in Indonesia that promoted anti-colonialism, sovereignty and non-alignment in the Cold War.

Neocolonialism

Kwame Nkrumah's concept that former colonies remained economically dependent on former rulers despite formal political independence.

Treaty of Versailles

1919 settlement ending WWI, imposing reparations and war guilt on Germany and creating the League of Nations mandate system.

Truman Doctrine

1947 US policy of containing communism by supporting states threatened by Soviet expansion, marking the start of the Cold War.

Cuban Missile Crisis

1962 confrontation over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, the closest the Cold War came to nuclear war, leading to détente measures.

Non-Aligned Movement

Organisation of states formed from the 1961 Belgrade summit that refused alignment with either Cold War superpower bloc.

OPVL

Origin, purpose, value and limitations: a framework for evaluating historical sources by asking who made them, why, and what they can and cannot show.

Primary source

Evidence produced at the time of the event by a participant or witness, such as letters, official records, photographs or oral testimony.

Historical causation

Analysis distinguishing long-term structural causes from short-term triggers, and recognising multiple, interacting causes rather than single explanations.