The British declaration of Bechuanaland protectorate

The Bechuanaland Protectorate was a protectorate established in 1885, by the

United Kingdom of Great Britain to prevent the Germans from expanding
eastwards to link up with the Boers. This happened at the height of the scramble
for control of African territory by European powers that had intensified after the
Berlin Conference of 1884, where the continent had effectively been divided
between European countries with imperial ambitions. At first most Batswana
chiefs except Khama III of the Ngwato who had asked for British protection in
1870, resisted and were suspicious of British protection.The declaration was
reluctantly accepted by local rulers as preferable to direct rule by either the
Germans or Boers. The Bechuanaland Protectorate was technically a protectorate
rather than a colony.

Originally the local Tswana rulers were left in power, and British administration
was limited to the police force to protect Bechuanaland's borders against other
European colonial ventures. They had very little interest in the territory and left
the Chiefs ruling their people much as they had done before. Matters of foreign
affairs, defence, and court cases involving white people were the responsibility of
the Protectorate Government; the Chiefs were allowed to try cases involving
Africans only.

The northern territory remained under direct administration and is today's

Botswana, while the southern territory became a portion of the Cape Colony and
is now part of the northwest province of South Africa; the majority of Setswana-
speaking people today live in South Africa.

Factors that led the British to declare Bechuanaland protectorate

★ Scramble for Africa

★ Strategic position of Bechuanaland
★ Threats to 'the road to the north'
★ Missionary pressure
★ Terms of the Berlin Conference of 1884
Plans to transfer of Bechuanaland Protectorate to British South Africa Company
(BSAC) and the Union of South Africa

The British imperialist, Cecil Rhodes, wanted to bring Botswana under the political
and economic control of his British South Africa Company, which between 1890-
93 had brutally occupied Zimbabwe. During the colonial period various attempts
were made to incorporate Botswana into Rhodes' colony of Southern Rhodesia in
1895, and later into the Union of South Africa. To stop this in 1895 three of the
leading Batswana rulers - Bathoen I, Khama III and Sebele I - went to Britain to
lobby in favor of Botswana remaining a Protectorate. After being told that the
decision to transfer them to Rhodes' Company had already been made, the three
launched a nationwide campaign to bring Botswana’s case before the British
people. With the assistance of London Missionary Church, they drew so much
public support that the British Government changed its mind and agreed to
continue to administer the territory as a Protectorate.