Colony of Natal

Colony of Natal
Colony of Natal
1843–1910
	Flag Coat of arms
	Anthem: God Save the Queen (1843–1901) ; God Save the King (1901–1910)
Status	British colony
Capital	Pietermaritzburg
Common languages	Dutch, Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Gujarati, Hindi-Urdu, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Tamil, Telugu, Chinese, and others
Ethnic groups (1904)	81.53% Black; 9.10% Asian; 8.75% White; 0.60% Coloured;
Religion	Anglican, Dutch Reformed, Hindu, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Islam
Government	Constitutional monarchy
Monarch
• 1843–1901	Victoria
• 1901–10	Edward VII
Governor
• 1843-1844	Henry Cloete
• 1910	Paul Methuen, 3rd Baron Methuen
Historical era	Imperialism
• Established	4 May 1843
• Annexed Zululand	1897
• Merged into Union of South Africa as Natal Province	31 May 1910
Area
1904	91,610 km2 (35,370 sq mi)
Population
• 1904	1,108,754
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Natalia Republic
	Zulu Kingdom
Union of South Africa
Today part of	South Africa

The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa, as one of its provinces.^[3] It is now the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.^[4]

It was originally only about half the size of the present province, with the north-eastern boundaries being formed by the Tugela and Buffalo rivers beyond which lay the independent Kingdom of Zululand (kwaZulu in the Zulu language).^[3]

Fierce conflict with the Zulu population led to the evacuation of Durban, and eventually, the Boers accepted British annexation in 1844 under military pressure. A British governor was appointed to the region and many settlers emigrated from Europe and the Cape Colony. The British established a sugar cane industry in the 1860s. Farm owners had a difficult time attracting Zulu labourers to work on their plantations, so the British brought thousands of indentured labourers from India.^[3] As a result of the importation of Indian labourers, Durban became the home to the largest concentration of Indians outside India.^[5]

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