South Africa In The Late 1800s

Before the mid 1800 South Africa was mostly land for farming. The population was low and eventually, due to colonization, the population increased as South Africa is a midpoint between Eurasia and America and people needed to rest so a town on the coast was created to serve all the travelers who would be travelling from Europe to America and vice versa. More people migrated further upwards for farming. People migrated to places that were close to water sources as crops and their living stock would need water and that’s the reason why many farmers migrated along the Orange River. Families migrated there and rural areas were formed. In 1867 children were playing along the river and found an unusual, yellow, bright stone and sold this stone to
2 years later another diamond rock was found by a medicine man and when Van Niekirk heard about this he sold everything he had for the rock. This rock was eighty three carat and was later considered to be the Star of Africa. London Jewelers came to Africa to see the findings and eventually many people from all over the world came to Africa to come search for some fortune. The farmer started getting furious about this matter as uninvited people invaded their farms and started digging all over their property. Diamonds were later found on land and the first diamonds to be found on land were in walls of a famer’s house. People started bidding for the land and the farmers sold their farms and some of the buyers of the land were the De Beer brothers. The land owners made tent towns and called on miners to come to Africa and start digging. Population increased drastically and thousands of people were occupying the land. Due to the population increasing demand for food and other necessities increased and more people came to provide goods and services. This was how towns were created and the beginning of the industrialization of South
With gold being discovered 20 years after the discovery of gold, mining has been growing South Africa’s wealth drastically. In fact mining is the industry that has the biggest employees in South Africa. Mining has its direct benefits but it also has its indirect benefits. Mining plays an important role in the forex exchange in South Africa as it receives a lot of its income because of the exporting of the minerals and gold being the biggest exports and diamond mining being the fourth largest industry in the world. These indirect benefits include the increase in employment. This means more people will have jobs and there will be less poverty which also means fewer crimes less deaths and injuries due to crimes. This will also be a positive outcome for the government as the GDP of the country will increase and more taxes will be paid. In fact research done by Lorraine Keaney shows that R17.1 billion in tax was paid in 2012 due to mining. which means our services will be improved. However there are some negatives of mining. Many years have passed and technology has improved but the conditions underground still being an issue. Miners have to go many kilometers underground where its hot and still dangerous and they risk their lives just to feed their families making mining the most dangerous labour industry. Stories have been told about miners stuck in mines for weeks and many deaths occur