NSSCO History 6138 key terms

The rapid competition among European powers between about 1880 and 1914 to annex African territory, driven by industrial demand for raw materials, national prestige, strategic rivalry and missionary pressure.

The 1884–1885 meeting of European powers in Berlin that set rules for claiming African territory, including effective occupation, and recognised the Congo Free State under King Leopold II.

The principle agreed at Berlin that a European power could claim African land only if it actually administered it, by treaties, troops or officials, rather than merely exploring or announcing possession.

The extension of a state's power over other peoples and territories, whether through formal colonial rule or informal economic and political control, often justified by ideas of racial or cultural superiority.

A territory whose local ruler keeps some authority but whose foreign affairs and defence are controlled by a stronger state, a formula Britain and Germany used to claim Namibian communities' land.

An agreement, often in translation and of doubtful meaning to the African signatories, in which a local leader accepted German or British 'protection' and thereby surrendered sovereignty over land and foreign relations.

Agreements from 1885 onwards in which Herero leaders such as Maharero granted Germany trading and settlement rights; later disputes over their meaning helped trigger the 1904 war.

The 1904–1908 campaign by German colonial forces under Lothar von Trotha that killed most Herero and many Nama through battle, thirst, concentration camps and forced labour.

Von Trotha's October 1904 proclamation driving the Herero into the Omaheke desert and ordering that they be shot or refused water, a document central to debates about genocide.

A camp at Lüderitz where Nama prisoners, including women and children, were held in lethal conditions from 1905, with a high death toll from disease and exposure.

Paramount chief of the Herero who led the uprising against German rule in January 1904 and later escaped to Bechuanaland, becoming a symbol of anti-colonial resistance.

Leader of the ǀKhowesin (Witbooi) Nama who fought German rule in two wars, in 1893–1894 and from 1904, and whose letters articulate Nama sovereignty and resistance.

Armed opposition by Nama communities, notably under Hendrik Witbooi and Jakob Morenga, to German land seizure and taxation, continuing until about 1908.

A camp where civilians or prisoners are confined without trial, used by Germany in Namibia at Swakopmund, Windhoek and Shark Island, where overcrowding and neglect caused mass deaths.

German commander in German South West Africa from 1904 who ordered the destruction of the Herero and directed the genocidal campaign against Herero and Nama communities.

The dry sandveld east of the central plateau into which Herero families were driven in 1904, where thousands died of thirst while German patrols blocked escape to the east.

The colony Germany claimed over present-day Namibia from 1884 until South African conquest in 1915, administered from Windhoek with land alienation and forced labour at its core.

The League of Nations mandate conferred on South Africa in 1920 to administer the former German colony, which South Africa treated as annexation despite international obligation.

The League of Nations body that supervised mandatory powers through annual reports and petitions; it criticised South Africa's rule but lacked power to enforce change.

SWAPO, founded in 1960 from Ovamboland migrant workers' organisation, which led the armed and diplomatic struggle for Namibian independence and has governed since 1990.

PLAN, SWAPO's armed wing, which began guerrilla operations from Zambia and Angola in 1966 and fought South African forces until the 1989 ceasefire.

Founding president of SWAPO and first president of independent Namibia, who led the liberation movement in exile and negotiated the transition to independence.

A South African airborne raid on a SWAPO camp at Cassinga in Angola in May 1978 that killed hundreds, many of them civilians, and became a symbol of the struggle.

The 1978 resolution setting out a plan for free elections under UN supervision in Namibia and South African withdrawal, implemented only in 1989.

UNTAG, the UN peacekeeping mission deployed in 1989–1990 to supervise the ceasefire, the return of exiles and the elections that led to Namibian independence.

The body elected in November 1989 under UN supervision that drafted Namibia's constitution, adopted in February 1990, before independence on 21 March 1990.

A 1975–1977 constitutional talks process in Windhoek sponsored by South Africa that excluded SWAPO and produced an internal settlement rejected internationally.

The densely populated northern region under a South African 'homeland' administration, source of most migrant labour and of strong SWAPO recruitment.

The system recruiting Ovambo men on fixed contracts for mines and farms, separating them from families and controlling their movement, which fuelled grievance and political organisation.

The movement of workers, mainly men, to mines, farms and towns on temporary contracts, a central feature of Namibia's colonial economy that disrupted rural society.

Regulations requiring Africans to carry documents permitting travel or residence in certain areas, used in South West Africa to control labour and movement under South African rule.

Areas set aside for African communities under colonial and South African rule, usually the poorest land, intended to separate groups and supply labour to white farms and mines.

The loss of African land through sale, treaty, deception or force to settlers and companies, which by the early twentieth century left most Herero and Nama land in German hands.

The 1962–1964 South African commission whose report recommended dividing Namibia into ethnic homelands, implemented from 1968 and strongly opposed by SWAPO and the UN.

The international organisation founded in 1920 after the First World War, which created the mandate system and was replaced by the United Nations in 1946.

The global organisation founded in 1945 that declared South Africa's continued rule over Namibia illegal and recognised SWAPO as the people's representative.

The global rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union from about 1947 to 1991, which shaped southern African conflicts through proxy support and superpower bargaining.

Namibia's northern neighbour, independent from Portugal in 1975, whose civil war and Cuban and South African intervention provided the frontline for Namibia's liberation struggle.

The deployment of Cuban troops from 1975 to support the MPLA government, later a bargaining issue in talks linking Cuban withdrawal to Namibian independence.

The December 1988 accord among Angola, Cuba and South Africa, brokered with US and Soviet involvement, linking Cuban troop withdrawal to implementation of Resolution 435.

Evidence produced at the time of the events studied, such as letters, treaties, photographs, oral testimony or official reports, which historians interpret in context.

An account written after the events by someone who was not present, such as a textbook or later history, which interprets primary evidence and reflects the author's own context.

A slant in a source arising from the author's purpose, position or audience; it does not make evidence useless but must be identified and weighed against other sources.

The extent to which a source can be trusted for a particular question, judged by its origin, purpose, audience, corroboration and the knowledge of its author.

The study of how history has been written, including changing interpretations, schools of thought and debates such as those over the Namibian genocide and colonial motives.

The re-examination of accepted historical accounts in the light of new evidence or perspectives, for example revised estimates of deaths in the 1904–1908 genocide.

The arrangement of events in the order they occurred, a basic skill for placing causes before consequences and for spotting gaps or contradictions in a narrative.

The analysis of why events happened, distinguishing long-term underlying causes from short-term triggers and separating necessary from sufficient conditions.

The 1919 peace settlement ending the First World War with Germany, which stripped Germany of its colonies, including South West Africa, and imposed reparations and disarmament.

The 1914–1918 conflict between the Allied and Central powers, in which South African forces conquered German South West Africa in 1915 and African troops and carriers served in Europe.

The 1939–1945 global conflict whose outcome weakened European empires and helped shift international opinion towards decolonisation and self-determination.

The process by which colonies gained political independence, accelerating after 1945 through nationalist movements, international pressure and the weakening of European powers.

A political movement seeking self-rule and a shared identity for a people, expressed in Namibia through petitions, strikes, exile politics and armed struggle against South African rule.

The principle that peoples have the right to choose their own government and political status, invoked repeatedly in UN resolutions and court rulings on Namibia.

Armed struggle by small mobile units avoiding pitched battles, using local knowledge and cross-border sanctuaries, as PLAN did from Angola against South African forces.

Herero paramount chief from 1861 to 1890 who built alliances and traded with Europeans while resisting settler land claims, an example of pre-colonial diplomacy.

Leader of the Oorlam Afrikaners who dominated central Namibia in the mid-nineteenth century through trade, raids and control of the route to Walvis Bay.

Communities of mixed Khoikhoi and European or slave descent, such as the Afrikaners and Witboois, who migrated north with horses and guns and reshaped Namibian politics.

Paths linking inland communities to coastal and southern markets, carrying cattle, ivory, copper, guns and alcohol, which shaped political power and European penetration.

The movement of people, whether seasonal herders, traders, labourers or refugees, which spread ideas, goods and languages across Namibia and its borders.