19th century
Matabeleland and Mashonaland
The Moffat Treaty was the agreement signed by Lobengula on 11 February 1888 that subordinated Ndebele foreign relations and territorial concessions to British oversight. Presented as a renewal of an earlier Anglo-Ndebele treaty, it required prior British knowledge and sanction for dealings with foreign powers and for the alienation of Ndebele land. The treaty placed Matabeleland and Mashonaland within the British sphere of influence and helped enable subsequent occupation.
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The Story
The treaty emerged from a British effort to channel Lobengula's diplomatic strategy toward exclusive reliance on Britain. Reverend John Smith Moffat advised him to ally with the British rather than with the Afrikaners, Portuguese, or Germans. Moffat also led Lobengula to believe that the proposed agreement merely renewed the Anglo-Ndebele treaty concluded in 1836 between Mzilikazi and Sir Benjamin D'Urban.
Lobengula signed the treaty on 11 February 1888. Its terms required him to refrain from correspondence or treaties with foreign states or powers without the prior knowledge and sanction of the British High Commissioner for South Africa. The same restriction applied to selling, alienating, or ceding all or part of the land he controlled.
The treaty transformed Ndebele diplomacy. Under the late nineteenth-century European international order described in the extract, the Ndebele could thereafter deal only with Britain. Their former ability to play European powers against one another was terminated, while Matabeleland and Mashonaland were placed squarely within the British sphere of influence.
19th century
Matabeleland and Mashonaland
The Moffat Treaty was the agreement signed by Lobengula on 11 February 1888 that subordinated Ndebele foreign relations and territorial concessions to British oversight. Presented as a renewal of an earlier Anglo-Ndebele treaty, it required prior British knowledge and sanction for dealings with foreign powers and for the alienation of Ndebele land. The treaty placed Matabeleland and Mashonaland within the British sphere of influence and helped enable subsequent occupation.
Continue exploring
The Story
The treaty emerged from a British effort to channel Lobengula's diplomatic strategy toward exclusive reliance on Britain. Reverend John Smith Moffat advised him to ally with the British rather than with the Afrikaners, Portuguese, or Germans. Moffat also led Lobengula to believe that the proposed agreement merely renewed the Anglo-Ndebele treaty concluded in 1836 between Mzilikazi and Sir Benjamin D'Urban.
Lobengula signed the treaty on 11 February 1888. Its terms required him to refrain from correspondence or treaties with foreign states or powers without the prior knowledge and sanction of the British High Commissioner for South Africa. The same restriction applied to selling, alienating, or ceding all or part of the land he controlled.
The treaty transformed Ndebele diplomacy. Under the late nineteenth-century European international order described in the extract, the Ndebele could thereafter deal only with Britain. Their former ability to play European powers against one another was terminated, while Matabeleland and Mashonaland were placed squarely within the British sphere of influence.
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