It has over 1,500 miles of coastline along two oceans: the Indian Ocean on the south and east, and the Atlantic on the West. Most of the interior is almost flat plateau surrounded by what is known as the Great Escarpment, a steep slope or cliff that separates two areas of differing elevation (Works n.d.). In the east are coastal lowlands and Cape Mountain in the far south. South Africa has two large deserts, Namib Desert runs along the west coast and the Kalahari Desert covers much of the Northwest interior (reporter, South Africa 's geography 2012). The country is richly furnished with natural resources including gold, diamonds, metals and minerals. The biodiversity in South African is astounding and includes many of the typical animals you’d expect to find in Africa, lions, rhinoceros, giraffes and hippopotami. Along with the great variety of animals, South African has more than 20,000 different plants, or about 10% of all the known species of plants on Earth (Wikipedia, South Africa …show more content…
The town of Cape of Good Hope (later Cape Town) was established by the Dutch East Indian Company in 1652. As the Dutch settlers expanded east they encountered the Xhosa people and a series of wars were fought over land and livestock interests (Wikipedia, South Africa n.d.). The British however, wanted control of the area for a waylay station for their colonies in India and Australia, and took over in 1795 while the Dutch were distracted in their war with France. Conflicts naturally arose between the originally Dutch and German settlers (known as the Boers) and the new British colonists. As the two groups competed for land to settle they encountered the Zulu’s and their warrior king Shaka. At each engagement, the Zulu warriors proved to be brave soldiers but were no match against the guns of the colonists; leading to a devastating depopulation of the inlands by the 1820’s (Wikipedia, South Africa n.d.).The Zulu nation was then broken up and some Zulus assisted both the Boers and the English during the Boer War of 1899 - 1902. Promises of emancipation made to them by the British were not honored and a growing resentment grew during the years between union (1910) and the advent of the Afrikaner Nationalists in 1948 (reporter, Short history of South Africa 2012). After secession from the Commonwealth in 1960, the Zulus joined