essay history grade 10

• Written Essays

How to write source-based history essays

The biggest assessment task you will be required to complete is a written research essay which develops an argument and uses a range of sources.

All types of assessment tasks will need you to use essay-writing skills in some form, but their fundamental structure and purpose remains the same.

Therefore, learning how to write essays well is central to achieving high marks in History.

What is an 'essay'?

A History essay is a structured argument that provides historical evidence to substantiate its points. 

To achieve the correct structure for your argument, it is crucial to understand the separate parts that make up a written essay. 

If you understand how each part works and fits into the overall essay, you are well on the way to creating a great assessment piece.

Most essays will require you to write:

• 1 Introduction Paragraph
• 3 Body Paragraphs
• 1 Concluding Paragraph

Explanations for how to structure and write each of these paragraphs can be found below, along with examples of each: 

Essay paragraph writing advice

How to write an Introductory Paragraph

This page explains the purpose of an introduction, how to structure one and provides examples for you to read.

How to write Body Paragraphs

This page explains the purpose of body paragraphs, how to structure them and provides examples for you to read.

How to write a Conclusion

This page explains the purpose of conclusions, how to structure them and provides examples for you to read.

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The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

• The 19th Century Sotho Kingdom

The Thaba Bosiu Experience

Cited works.

Trade was the major economic activity that brought groups of people together during the time the Basotho people arrived in their present homeland. In fact, by the beginning of 19 th century, white traders, the Voortrekkers inhabited what is now called the Basutoland. With this conglomeration of different groups of people, there emerged extreme pressure on the environment for resettlement.

Meanwhile, the Zulu state, led by Shaka was expanding and with it a series of violence across the entire southern Africa. The violence that was witnessed throughout this region threatened the extinction of many groups of people but not the organized Sotho society.

The survival of this group of people is attributed to the strong leadership of their king Moshoeshoe the Great that was necessitated by frequent cattle raids. The paper investigates the validity of the postulate that the Basotho people survived because of cattle raids, which made their leader to seek refuge in Thaba Bosiu.

The 19 th Century Sotho Kingdom

In the 19 th century, a violent explosion erupted annihilating the South African chiefdoms border today’s Lesotho. Those who did survive the annihilation either were dispersed or were incorporated into larger chiefdoms that were stronger and well reorganized.

The leaders of these new chiefdoms were capable of defending their subjects; and Moshoeshoe was one such leader. The political situation in the east of Drakensberg Mountains was characterized by increasing competition over trade links, arable land for cultivation, cattle raids, among other factors (Stokes 102).

Owing to the political and economic instability of the region courtesy of Shaka Zulu’s autocracy, food scarcity and famine struck the region thereby according dominant chiefdoms the opportunity to increase their wealth and power. Consequently, the leader who promised wealth and security obtained from agricultural and pastoral production as well as from trade commanded greater support and following.

Cattle raiding and agricultural production became the silver bullet to the peoples’ problems, a policy that was pursued religiously by leaders. It is little wonder then, that conflicts resulting from food shortage interrupted food production hindered economic growth, and starvation punctuated the disruptions caused by migrating chiefdoms that sought a place to settle (Eldredge 2).

From 1822 throughout the century, raids were common phenomena in this region of southern Africa. For example, destitute immigrants crossed the Drakensberg Mountains from the east and executed their raids on the population around Highveld and upper Caledon River Valley to get crops and cattle (Eldredge 2).

These raids conjured up survival instincts of the young Sotho leader, Moshoeshoe l to forge alliances with their neighbors, the Sesotho group, and move to the mountains for protection. He, therefore, sent his scouts to find a good place in the mountains that could act as a fortress against their would-be raiders notwithstanding the risk that he was exposing them to. A large flat-topped mountain was located south of the territory.

In 1824, Moshoeshoe led his subjects in a three-day trek to occupy this new residence with natural bulwarks against the raiders. However, the weather was terribly cold and some people died as a result; and according to oral tradition, desperation led to their bodies being eaten up by the starving groups.

Nevertheless, the move proved to be an act of ingenuity of the Moshoeshoe l, thus earning him credit for having saved his people from extermination in the hands of marauding neighbors. This mountain fortress was called Thaba Bosiu, which literally translates to the “mountain of the night”. It was almost an invulnerable site for the Basotho people could now protect themselves, their cattle, and crops (McKenna 93).

Moshoeshoe l is hailed as a leader of remarkable political and diplomatic ace who expanded his hegemony by incorporating many chiefdoms into his own lineage. As a shrewd leader, he acknowledged the crucial role played by such skills as farming, hunting, adventuring, among others that his neighboring community in the south had mastered.

As a result, he welcomed missionaries to inform him about the events of the rest of the world and to import these skills into his chiefdom. Actually, that is how the Boer trekkers trickled into his kingdom to later wreck havoc.

After a protracted period of war occasioned by chronic hunger and frequent famine, the Basotho grew weary of being marooned in the Thaba Bosiu and wanted to resettle on their ancestral lands to expand agricultural production.

Eventually, they managed to resettle in these lands and built up their stores of food, which in turn expanded their economy so rapidly that they supplied their African and European neighbors with surplus food.

During this time, the Boers who resided in the Cape Colony were increasingly becoming frustrated with the British rule that had imposed strict policies on land tenure, prohibited slavery, and restricted continued expansion eastwards. Consequently, in the early 1830s this discontent caused the Great Boer Trek where about fifteen thousand Boers together with their households migrated across the Orange River.

Many of them settled “along the southwestern fringes of lands which had belonged to the forefathers of the Basotho” (Eldredge 3). The earliest settlers in this region did acknowledge the authority of Moshoeshoe over this territory and therefore, sought his permission to settle.

The events that shaped the survival mechanisms of the Basotho people such as economics and politics are best explained from the perspective of the pursuit of security. These dynamics of the 19 th century can only be interpreted within the context of security structures rather than blatant physical survival.

The reason being, security denotes recognition that extracting resources for purposes of satisfying peoples’ material needs was governed by social structure that puts a limit to the abilities of people to exploit others. Moreover, the pursuit of security expedites the explanation of the motivations underlying the acceptability of the authority of Moshoeshoe by subordinate groups (S.A.H.S. 113).

Such groups had a strong belief that physical survival presupposed the achievement of security in the political front, which guaranteed their protection and access to productive resources therewith.

Not surprisingly then, that individuals as well as groups that were weary of the regional politics sought clientship under Moshoeshoe, the Basotho leader, but not other chiefs in the region owing to their despotic bent and lamentable lack of generosity.

The Basotho was a dominant group in the southern African region in the 19 th century and unlike any other group of its caliber, it was shaped by the pursuit of holistic security.

With violent struggles reverberating across the region, beginning among Africans in the 1820s before Europeans followed suit, it will be a great misrepresentation of fact to reduce the motivation of this group to a craving for exploiting subordinate groups in their society.

Many chiefs within the neighborhood copied the leadership style of Moshoeshoe and endeavored to achieve security by attracting outsiders and consolidating their authorities over a greater population of subjects.

The key to this strategy was to accumulate vast resources and reallocating it to people in a way that would win their support. Briefly, dominant as well as subordinate groups strived to achieve a degree of security by midwifing clientship relations (Eldredge 4).

It can be said with confidence that the survival of the Basotho people in the 19 th century was occasioned by the political and economic instability in the southern African region. The repercussions of this hapless situation bred a habit of cattle raiding by groups that were considered dominant.

In order to spare his group from this disastrous attack, Moshoeshoe mooted a security plan to whisk his people in a mountain fortress called Thaba Bosiu with virtually impenetrable frontiers. While safely marooned in their new residence, Basotho could cultivate their crops and keep their cattle undisturbed.

Moshoeshoe was also endowed with excellent diplomatic skills besides good leadership and this enabled him to have clientship relations with many individuals and groups that were incorporated in his society.

Eldredge, Elizabeth A. A South African Kingdom: The pursuit of security in nineteenth-century Lesotho. New York; NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

McKenna, Amy. The History of Southern Africa. New York, NY: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2011.

S.A.H.S. (South African Historical Society). South African historical journal, Issue 30. Cape Town, South African Historical Society, 1994.

Stokes, Jamie. Encyclopedia of the People of Africa and the Middle East, Volume 1. New York, NY: InfoBase Publishing, 2009.

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IvyPanda. (2019, April 30). The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-survival-of-the-sotho-under-moshoeshoe-essay/

"The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe." IvyPanda , 30 Apr. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/the-survival-of-the-sotho-under-moshoeshoe-essay/.

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IvyPanda . 2019. "The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe." April 30, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-survival-of-the-sotho-under-moshoeshoe-essay/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe." April 30, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-survival-of-the-sotho-under-moshoeshoe-essay/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe." April 30, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-survival-of-the-sotho-under-moshoeshoe-essay/.

Grade 10 - Topic 6: The South African War and Union

This topic investigates the ways in which the politics and culture of the Boer Republics clashed with the modernising thrust of the Uitlanders on the rapidly growing Reef in the late 19th century. Study on the South African War from 1899 to 1902 needs to reflect recent research. The topic ends with the Union settlement in 1910. The Union laid the foundation for white co-operation at the expense of black South Africans (in terms of franchise and land). It resulted in the consolidation of white rule, and thereby paved the way for a system of racial capitalism. The Land Act was the precursor (forerunner) to Apartheid land settlement, which resulted in forced removals, with their social and economic consequences.

In 1910 various colonies and Republics were declared a single entity, the Union of South Africa. Until then, these political units were locked in a stiff competition for resources, for advantage and for wealth. Even the various Boer Republics were sometimes at odds with each other, and they were at odds with the British colonies most of the time.

Long before union, the British saw the existence of Boer Republics as a threat to imperial ambitions, and tried to forge a confederation. After the South African War, the second war waged by the British against the Afrikaners, the British finally held sway over the entire country.

The discovery of diamonds and then gold, and the emergence of powerful Capitalist blocs in mining and agriculture united the Brits and the Boers in their need to secure cheap labour. So despite their differences, the Brits and the Boers agreed on certain principles: that the country needed to put in place laws to limit black access to political power, and when Union came blacks were effectively kept off the voters' rolls, despite the 'colour-blind' franchise in the Cape. By 1936, even Cape Africans were stripped of the vote.

The African response to Union was the creation in 1912 of the South African Native National Congress, the first incarnation of the African National Congress. But the new state was on the offensive, and enacted the 1913 Natives' Land Act to dispossess Blacks of land they owned in the 'white areas', and to limit their presence and influence in the Union. The offensive gathered steam and a slew of laws set the scene for segregation and apartheid, and the history of 20th century South Africa is the history of the conflict between whites and the various black groups that eventually culminated in the first non-racial democratic election in 1994.

The following is to be covered in this topic:

• South Africa before and in the build up to 1899 , or the background to the South African War, with a focus on mining capitalism
• The South African War, 1899-1902
• The Union of South Africa, 1910

‘South African War (a.k.a. the Anglo-Boer War) remains the most terrible and destructive modern armed conflict in South Africa’s history. It was an event that in many ways shaped the history of 20th Century South Africa. The end of the war marked the end of the long process of British conquest of South African societies, both Black and White'. - Gilliomee and Mbenga (2007).

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