Cape frontier · 1652-1879

The Cape frontier and the Xhosa wars

A Dutch supply station at the Cape grew into a colony that pushed east onto the lands of the Khoikhoi, San and Xhosa. Students follow a hundred years of frontier wars from the side of the people who resisted.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1715 to AD 1880
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

A Dutch supply station at the Cape grew into a colony that pushed east onto the lands of the Khoikhoi, San and Xhosa. Students follow a hundred years of frontier wars from the side of the people who resisted.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Cape Town, the Great Fish River frontier and Xhosa lands.
  • Explain how the colony expanded and how the Khoikhoi and Xhosa responded.
  • Describe the cattle-killing of 1856-1857 and its causes and consequences.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1715

A supply station

Open the map in 1715 and find the Cape Colony at the southern tip of Africa. How big is it? Who lived on the land around it?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1800

The frontier

Move to 1800. Find the Cape Colony and the Xhosa. Where do they meet? This frontier saw nine wars between 1779 and 1879.

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The Dutch came to the Cape in 1652 to grow food for passing ships. How did a supply station grow into a colony that took Khoikhoi land?
  2. The Xhosa and the colonists both depended on cattle. Why would cattle cause conflict on a frontier?
  3. The frontier wars lasted for a hundred years. Why could neither side win quickly?
  4. In 1856-1857 many Xhosa killed their cattle after a prophecy promised the colonists would be driven out. Why might people in a desperate situation trust such a prophecy?
  5. The city of Grahamstown is now called Makhanda, after the Xhosa leader who attacked it in 1819. Why do countries rename places?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Napoleon Bonaparte, whose wars led Britain to take over the Cape for good in 1806. Then compare with the Xhosa leaders Makhanda and Maqoma: how did events in Europe change life on an African frontier?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.