Editing Cape Colony (section)

===Responsible government===
In 1872, after a long political battle, the Cape of Good Hope achieved [[responsible government]] under its first Prime Minister, [[John Charles Molteno|John Molteno]]. Henceforth, an elected Prime Minister and his cabinet had total responsibility for the affairs of the country. A period of strong economic growth and social development ensued, and the [[Eastern Cape Separatist League|eastern-western division]] was largely laid to rest. The system of multi-racial franchise also began a slow and fragile growth in political inclusiveness, and ethnic tensions subsided.{{sfn|Parsons|1993|p=}} In 1877, the state expanded by annexing [[Griqualand West]] and [[Griqualand East]]{{sfn|Dugard|2006|p=136}} – that is, the Mount Currie district ([[Kokstad, KwaZulu-Natal|Kokstad]]). The emergence of two Boer mini-republics along the Missionary Road resulted in 1885 in the Warren Expedition, sent to annex the republics of [[Stellaland]] and [[Goshen (South Africa)|Goshen]] (lands annexed to [[British Bechuanaland]]). Major-General [[Charles Warren]] annexed the land south of the Molopo River as the colony of British Bechuanaland and proclaimed a protectorate over the land lying to the North of the river. [[Vryburg, North West|Vryburg]], the capital of Stellaland, became capital of British Bechuanaland, while [[Siege of Mafeking|Mafeking]] (now [[Mahikeng]]), although situated south of the protectorate border, became the protectorate's administrative centre. The border between the protectorate and the colony ran along the Molopo and Nossob rivers. In 1895, British Bechuanaland became part of the Cape Colony.

However, the discovery of diamonds around [[Kimberley, Northern Cape|Kimberley]] and gold in the [[South African Republic|Transvaal]] led to a return to instability, particularly because they fuelled the rise to power of the ambitious imperialist [[Cecil Rhodes]]. On becoming the Cape's Prime Minister in 1890, he instigated a rapid expansion of British influence into the hinterland. In particular, he sought to engineer the conquest of the Transvaal, and although his ill-fated [[Jameson Raid]] failed and brought down his government, it led to the [[Second Boer War]] and British conquest at the turn of the century. The politics of the colony consequently came to be increasingly dominated by tensions between the British colonists and the Boers. Rhodes also brought in the first formal restrictions on the political rights of the Cape of Good Hope's black African citizens.{{sfn|Ziegler|2008|p=}}

The Cape of Good Hope remained nominally under British rule until the formation of the [[Union of South Africa]] in 1910, when it became the province of the Cape of Good Hope, better known as the [[Cape Province]].