Pioneer Column

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kopje overlooking Fort Salisbury on the morning of 13 September 1890. The day of the column's arrival, 12 September, was a national holiday
between 1920 and 1979.

The Pioneer Column was a force raised by Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company in 1890 and used in his efforts to annex the territory of Mashonaland, later part of Zimbabwe (once Southern Rhodesia).

Background

Rhodes was anxious to secure Matabeleland and Mashonaland before the Germans, Portuguese or Boers did. His first step was to persuade the Ndebele King Lobengula, in 1888, to sign a treaty giving him rights to mining and administration (but not settlement as such) in the area of Mashonaland which was not under direct Ndebele rule.[1] Using this Rudd Concession (so called because Rhodes's business partner, Charles Rudd, was instrumental in securing the signature) between Rhodes' British South Africa Company (allegedly on behalf of Queen Victoria though without any official knowledge or authority) and Lobengula, he then sought and obtained a charter from the British government allowing him to act, essentially although in a limited way, with the government's consent. The next step was to occupy the territory.

Column assembly

Officers of the Pioneer Corps, c. 1890

Rhodes's military advisers estimated that it would take 2,500 men and about one million pounds to win the war that would, they thought, inevitably result when Lobengula realised that Rhodes meant not only to mine but also to occupy his land.

Maxim machine guns
, as well as an electric searchlight (which they later used to good effect to intimidate Matabele warriors shadowing the column).

Occupation

The route began at Macloutsie in

Bechuanaland on 28 June 1890. On 11 July, it crossed the river Tuli into Matabeleland. It proceeded north-east and then north over a distance of about 650 kilometres (400 mi) intending to terminate at an open area explored by Selous a few years earlier that he called Mount Hampden. However, the column halted about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) before that at a naturally flat and marshy meadow bounded by a steep rocky hill; (today's Harare Kopje) on 12 September (later celebrated as a Rhodesian public holiday
). The British union flag was hoisted on the following day, 13 September, in Fort Salisbury.

Three towns were founded; the first in early August at the head of a gentle route that led up from the low altitude area known as the Lowveld (named Providential Pass), called Fort Victoria (renamed Masvingo in 1982); the second at Fort Charter on a plateau halfway to the terminus of the column at the originally named Fort Salisbury.[3]

The Pioneer Corps was officially disbanded on 1 October 1890 and each member was granted land on which to farm.

Consequences

The occupation of Mashonaland by the Pioneer Column lead to the start of Company rule in Rhodesia. The BSAC would expand its rule across the Zambezi in 1891, and over Matabeleland through the First Matabele War in 1893-1894.

Campaign medal

In 1927, the government of Southern Rhodesia issued a new British South Africa Company Medal to commemorate the earlier 1890 Pioneer Column. This medal was identical to the prior British South Africa Company Medals issued for the First Matabele War and Second Matabele War, except that it was struck without any campaign details on the reverse.[4]

See also

References

  1. .
  2. ^ *Bridger, Peter Anthony; House, M., eds. (1973). Encyclopaedia Rhodesia. College Press.
  3. . R. Ward and Company.
  4. ^ "BSA CM". angloboerwar.com. Archived from the original on 22 January 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2009.