Land Policy in Southern Africa during the Nineteenth Century

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Periodical article

Title:	Land Policy in Southern Africa during the Nineteenth Century
Author:	Christopher, Anthony J.
Year:	1971
Periodical:	Zambezia
Volume:	2
Issue:	1
Period:	December
Pages:	1-9
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	settlement schemes colonial policy land History and Exploration Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment colonialism
External link:	https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/AJA03790622_650
Abstract:	Describes two systems of land policy, the British Imperial system and the Cape Dutch system; their relevance to the settlement of southern Africa; and the reasons behind their failure. The two approaches of the British, in the Cape as well as in Natal, based firstly on planned settlement from 1849 to 1851, and afterwards on the granting of extensive holdings on low rentals, proved to be unsuccessful, owing to the unsaleability of the mediocre inaccessible land. Therefore the system, which was highly dominated by government intervention, was abandoned in the Cape in 1860, after which the land policy was liberalized according to the principles of the American Homestead Act. The Cape Dutch system, with its strong reliance on the settlement of free empty land, came to an end when the intensification of settlements was carried through. Land policy in this period, which was intended to form the basis of immigration schemes, failed to fulfil its main task: to populate the country with a good number of agricultural colonists. Ref.