Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/21



The modern history of South Africa may with good reason be regarded as commencing with the year 1873. The Cape Colony, the most important section of the country, then entered upon a career of progress undreamt of before the era of self-rule. Previous to 1873 the industries of the entire land were almost entirely agricultural and pastoral, for gold mining was carried on only in a very small way at the Tati and Eersteling, copper mining was confined to the secluded district of Namaqualand, and diamond digging consisted of nothing more than excavating holes from the surface of the ground. There were poor people, it is true, but the European inhabitants were very much nearer on an equality than in any state of Western Europe, and there were no white mendicants on one side and enormously wealthy capitalists on the other. The richest man in the country did not possess a quarter of a million pounds sterling. The general aspect was thus altogether different from what it is to-day, for the old dull, easy-going, happy condition of life has given place to the struggling anxious existence that is everywhere in evidence now. In short, we have been brought under the law that impels Europeans to struggle for knowledge and power, and have fallen into line with the most energetic communities of our race.

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