Napoleon the first was born in 1769.
In 1798 he led an expedition to Ottoman ruled Egypt. His fleet was destroyed by Horatio Nelson that left him stranded. Undaunted he reformed the Egyptian Government and law. He abolished serfdom and feudalism guaranteeing basic rights for the peoples. The French scholars he took with him began scientific studies of ancient Egyptian history.
In a coup d’etat 1799 he seized power and established a new regime. He defeated the Austrians at Marengo and then negotiated a general European peace that established the Rhine river as the eastern border of France.
In France the administration was reorganized, the court system was simplified and all schools were put under centralized control.
French law was standardized in the civil code and six other codes. They guaranteed the rights and liberties won in the revolution; equality before the law and freedom of religion.
In April 1803 Britain resumed war with France on the seas. Two years later Russia and Austria joined the British in a new coalition. Instead of invading England Napoleon turned his armies against the Austrian and Russian forces and defeated them at the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805. It was turmoil for Europe. In 1809, still at war, he beat the Austrians at Wagram. In all the new kingdoms created by the Emperor the code Napoleon was established as law. Free public schools were envisioned and higher education was opened to all who qualified, regardless of class or religion. Every state had an academy for the promotion of the arts and sciences.
In 1812 Napoleon landed his disastrous invasion of Russia that ended in his abdication and he was exiled to the Island of Elba. In March 1815 he escaped from Elba and made a dramatic comeback. Back in Paris he presented a new and more democratic constitution.
On June 18, 1815 his campaign into Belgium ended in his defeat at Waterloo. He fled and surrendered to the captain of the British battleship Bellerophon. Consequently he was
exiled to Saint Helena where he lived until his death on May 5, 1821.
We travelled in soothing comfort on our big ocean going hotel and life on board continued in its holiday mood. We sailed now along Southwest Africa the last country before our next step into Cape Town.
Still along the west coast of Africa where so much unhappiness for so many African people had occurred. Even if those atrocities had happened centuries ago, one of the last bastions of slavery in the so-called civilized world were the southern states of the USA. In 1727 the Quakers, a religious group of people tried to start to verso slavery. In 1865 slavery was abolished in the USA after the Confederates in 1863 lost their war to keep their way of life that included slavery.
I was greatly affected by the suffering of the slaves and the inhumanity of it when as a child I read the most forceful novel of its kind in American history, Uncle Toms Cabin by Harriet Beecher – Stowe, a writer and abolitionist born in 1811 and died in 1890.
From 1530 until the abolition of the slave trade in 1870, ten million Africans were brought by force to the Americas. 47% were brought to the Caribbean Islands and the Guiana’s; 38% to Brazil, 6% to mainland Spanish America, about 4.5% went to North America and about the same proportion to Europe.
We arrive in Cape Town
We were happy to set foot once more on land after the long haul from Tenerife to South Africa.
It was spring, the air was balmy and the glorious Jacaranda trees shed their petals to spread a mauve carpet to welcome us.
We walked in the city and changed some Swiss Francs into South African Rands. We had a rest in a small park in the middle of the city. The bench we sat on was reserved for whites only, other benches were for blacks it said on small signs that were screwed to the back of the benches. It was quite an odd feeling to sit on a bench that was reserved for white people. I was wondering if sometimes at night when nobody was around the goblins would come out and change the signs around so the black seats would be white and vice versa the next morning, just to defy this awful system of apartheid. A small boy approached us with a tray full of little paper bags filled with peanuts. We bought one to feed the numerous squirrels that hovered around us. When we left the little boy followed us and we bought one more little bag; satisfied, he gave us a brilliant smile and waved us goodbye.
Table mountain stood out , a dramatic backdrop to the city of Cape Town. On this day the top didn't wear a tablecloth as there were no clouds. One day I would like to go back and explore the wildflowers growing on table mountain.
I was always on the lookout for interesting plants. On our strolls through the city I saw the entrance to a small park. We went in and it was an amazing place full of Aloes, a succulent plant with fleshy leaves, striped or mottled or just different hues of green. Very attractive with big towers of reddish hued bells. Small pathways were on both sides crowded by these beautiful, stately plants. I made a mental note that I would like to include them in my future garden. We explore a little of the city and we end up in a park with a playground for the children and a restaurant were we had lunch. The landscape is very dramatic with this big lump of a mountain watching over the city.
Cape Town was founded in 1652 as a supply base for the Dutch East India Company.
Discrimination against Non-Whites was inherent in South African society from the earliest days.
Indian leader M.K.Gandhi led the struggle to assure civil rights for Indian residents before world war one. Despite some concessions the Indian population retained second-class status after the war. South African blacks, the real owners of the place, had an even lower status. They lived in segregated areas and could not hold office; technical and administrative positions were closed to them.
Louis Botha a former South African commander became Prime Minister in 1910. One of the first acts of the new parliament was to pass the native land act. This prevented black people from buying land outside the so-called reserves. The limited amount of land available to the black people ensured a migratory, cheap labour force that was available for the mines and industries.
In 1914 J.B.M. Herzog founded the National Party. In 1918 a secret organization “The Broederbund” was established to further the white Afrikaner cause and interests.
At the heart of the National Party’s legislative agenda was apartheid. Every fundamental right was abandoned and violated. Communism equated to any struggle for change and was used by the NP as an excuse to arrest government opponents.
A group areas act was passed in 1950. Separate areas were reserved for Whites, Blacks, Coloureds and Asians.
Stringent pass laws were implemented in 1952. They restricted and controlled black peoples access to white areas.
Blacks without passes who remained in urban areas for more than 72 hours were
imprisoned. Millions were arrested for such violations.
Marriage between white and blacks was outlawed. In the 1950s the black population was divided into ethnic groups; each group was assigned to a so-called homeland. Ten territories were established.
In 1954 legal obstacles were removed to further implementation of apartheid. To support the program the Supreme Court was filled with six judges sympathetic to apartheid.
In 1959 the government passed the promotion of Bantu Self–Government Act. This was an attempt to diffuse international criticism of apartheid by offering Blacks the right to participate in a political process within their homelands.
The economic advantage of this policy for the government was that it would relieve them of welfare obligations to millions of black people without losing the benefit of an abundant supply of cheap labour.
Blacks opposed this policy vigorously as it was a further erosion of their rights because it
forced them to accept citizenship in remote underdeveloped homelands.
In the 1970s all of the homelands were nominally self-governing. They were in fact entirely dependent on the national government. They were not able to sustain 75 % of the country’s population. Most Blacks continued to live in white areas, and the vast majority who lived in the homelands commuted to white areas as an enormous migrant labour force.
Apartheid a system of racial segregation was still in place when we were there in 1974. When we went into the post office to send away our postcards, there were also two long counters on each side separated from each other one for whites and one for blacks, one was not even in the post office allowed to use any counter, because we didn’t notice the signs and went first to the wrong side. We were quickly reminded to use the side for whites only.
The people who used the buses were separated too to blacks and whites only. We watched the buses arrive and depart and even if a bus that was destined for white people was half empty the black people were not allowed to use it. I only had a short impression how apartheid worked but it was not a pleasant experience.
Under apartheid a person’s race influences occupation, place of residence, education, choice of partner, freedom of movement, use of facilities and amenities.
Apartheid is a doctrine of white supremacy, legalized white economic exploitation, political domination and social advantage.
Segregation an inequality between races has existed and practised in South Africa as a matter of custom. After 1948 laws were applied to protect the doctrines of apartheid.
It was also reinforced with a harsh and intrusive security system, separate and unequal education, job discrimination and residential segregation.
Soon the Galileo was on her way ploughing the waters of the Indian Ocean. By now people knew each other more or less, rumours and stories went around about this one and that one and tempers got slowly frayed at the edges. We were very much looking forward to arrive in Australia. We were usually in the company of two other families. One young family came from Austria with two small children. The other family came from Argentina with three small children. Both families told me a lot about themselves and their circumstances, which were completely different from ours but in the end we all had one wish to arrive safely in Australia.
