Grade 8: Senior Phase History Term 1

Topic:

The Industrial Revolution in Britain

and Southern Africa from 1860

Suggested contact time:

One term/15 hours

Background: The Mineral Revolution in South Africa began took place after the discovery of diamonds in Kimberley in 1867
and continued with the discovery of deep-level gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886. The British were already colonising parts of
Southern Africa at the time of the discovery of diamonds, and the Industrial Revolution in Britain made it a more powerful and
determined colonising power. The new diamond wealth in South Africa gradually pulled the British into controlling the whole of
South Africa.

FOCUS: Changes during the Industrial Revolution in Britain, and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in
South Africa brought about by diamond mining and Britains increasing interests in South Africa.
.CONTENT & CONCEPTS:

Changes during the Industrial Revolution in Britain

6 hours

Wealth from slave trade

Economy before the Industrial Revolution: farming economy, cottage industries
What the Industrial Revolution was
Social changes during the Industrial Revolution
Urbanisation and changing living conditions lives of the working class, including overcrowded
housing, poverty and workhouses
The mines and factories - child labour in mills and mines
Labour, resistance, the trade union movement and working class organisations
Swing Riots (agriculture); Luddites (industry)
Grand National Consolidated Trades Union (1833)
Increased power and wealth of Britain and Western European economies

Southern Africa by 1860

3 hours

Map and brief description of political settlement

Indentured labour from India to work on sugar plantations in British colony of Natal

India as a British colony

Reasons why labour was imported: Zulu kingdom was still independent
Reasons for demand for sugar in Britain
Conditions under which indentured labourers lived and worked
Passenger Indians 1869 onwards

Diamond mining in Kimberley 1867 onwards

3 hours

Why diamonds are valuable

British take-over of diamond-rich land in Griqualand West
Diamond-mining and the development of a monopoly: one person one claim; what happened to black
claimholders; problems related to digging deeper; the formation of companies; Cecil John Rhodes and
Barney Barnato; the formation of De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited; regulating supply and the
price of diamonds
REVISION ASSESSMENT (formal and informal) and feedback should be done on an ongoing basis
3 hours
Learners should read and write for part of every lesson.
Evidence of learners work, including assessments, should be kept in the learners notebook.
This content must be integrated with the historical aims and skills and the associated concepts listed in Section 2 Background.