page_title: Xhosa Wars
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Xhosa Wars / Background
caption_attribution_description: Afrikaans: Engelstalige kaart van die Kaapkolonie, 1809 English: Map of Cape Colony in Southern Africa
context_page_description: The Xhosa Wars were a series of nine wars or flare-ups between the Xhosa Kingdom and European settlers in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. These events were the longest-running military action in the history of African colonialism.
  The reality of the conflicts between the Europeans and Xhosa involves a balance of tension. At times, tensions existed between the various Europeans in the Cape region, tensions between Empire administration and colonial governments, and tensions within the Xhosa Kingdom, e.g. chiefs rivalling each other, which usually led to Europeans taking advantage of the situation to meddle in Xhosa politics. A perfect example of this is the case of chief Ngqika and his uncle, chief Ndlambe.
context_section_description: The first European settlers in the Cape were the Dutch, who established a small supply station in 1652 at present-day Cape Town for their trading ships to stop for supplies en route to and from the East Indies and Nagasaki of Japan . European settlement in and around Cape Town later spread into the valleys. By the second half of the 18th century, Europeans, predominantly trekboers, moved eastward up the coast and encountered the Xhosa in the region of the Great Fish River. The Xhosa were already established in the area and herded cattle. Competition for land ensued, particularly after the arrival of several groups of British settlers in 1820.
  The Europeans invaded using force when land, they had originally seized, restricted them from expanding their stock farming activities. The Dutch East India Company, which was responsible for what is referred to as "founding" several urban areas, like towns and cities in already populated areas of the west of South Africa, continually changed the boundaries in the Cape Colony, establishing the Great Fish River as the eastern frontier in 1778.
caption: Map of the Cape Colony in 1809, showing its eastward expansion
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