The 1903 Southern African Customs Union Agreement was a

multilateral treaty A multilateral treaty is a treaty to which two or more sovereign states are parties. Each party owes the same obligations to all other parties, except to the extent that they have stated reservations. Examples of multilateral treaties include the ...

between the

British colonies A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Coun ...

and

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over most of its int ...

s in

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...

that created a

customs union A customs union is generally defined as a type of trade bloc which is composed of a free trade area with a common external tariff.GATTArticle 24 s. 8 (a) Customs unions are established through trade pacts where the participant countries set up ...

between the territories. After the British victory in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

, movements began to unify and consolidate British holdings in Southern Africa. The 1903 Customs Union Agreement was signed by the parties to the Agreement over the course of a month in several different locations. The dates on which it was signed were 6, 12, and 25 May and 3 June 1903, and signings took place in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

, Pietermaritzburg,

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking *Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...

, and

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

. The Agreement was signed by the governments of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

, the

Colony of Natal 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 Natalia Republic, Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three o ...

, the

Orange River Colony The Orange River Colony was the British colony created after Britain first occupied (1900) and then annexed (1902) the independent Orange Free State in the Second Boer War. The colony ceased to exist in 1910, when it was absorbed into the Unio ...

, the

Transvaal Colony The Transvaal Colony () was the name used to refer to the Transvaal region during the period of direct British rule and military occupation between the end of the Second Boer War in 1902 when the South African Republic was dissolved, and the ...

, and

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kno ...

. The Governor of the Cape Colony, who was the

High Commissioner for Southern Africa The British office of high commissioner for Southern Africa was responsible for governing British possessions in Southern Africa, latterly the protectorates of Basutoland (now Lesotho), the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana) and Swaziland ...

, also signed on behalf of Basutoland and the

Bechuanaland Protectorate The Bechuanaland Protectorate () was a protectorate established on 31 March 1885, by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (later the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) in Southern Africa. It became the Republi ...

. Swaziland was admitted to the union in a supplementary protocol that was agreed to in 1904, while

North-western Rhodesia North-Western Rhodesia, in south central Africa, was a territory administered from 1891 until 1899 under charter by the British South Africa Company. In 1890 the British South Africa Company signed a treaty with King Lewanika of the Barotse, one ...

was admitted in 1905. The Agreement established a customs union area with free trade amongst the parties. The success of the customs union encouraged some British residents to seek political unification, which ultimately resulted in the creation of the

Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Tran ...

in 1910. (Basutoland, Southern Rhodesia, and Swaziland did not join the political union.) In 1910, the

Southern African Customs Union The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is a customs union among five countries of Southern Africa: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. Its headquarters are in the Namibian capital, Windhoek. It was established in 1910. His ...

was created as the successor to the 1903 union; however, Southern Rhodesia did not join the 1910 customs union.

References

*Jean Van Der Poel, ''Railways and Customs Policies in South Africa, 1885–1910'' (London: Longmans, Green, 1933) *Clive Parry (ed), ''

Consolidated Treaty Series The ''Consolidated Treaty Series'' (CTS) is a collection of multilateral and bilateral treaties signed between 1648 (Peace of Westphalia) and 1918 (end of World War I) inclusive. It contains 243 volumes published between 1969 and 1980 by Oceana Pub ...

'' (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana, 1969) vol. 193, p. 126 (text of treaty). {{DEFAULTSORT:Southern Africa Customs Union Agreement, 1903 1903 in South Africa 1903 in Southern Rhodesia British colonisation in Africa Customs treaties Treaties concluded in 1903 Treaties entered into force in 1903 Treaties of Basutoland Treaties of the Bechuanaland Protectorate Treaties of the Cape Colony Treaties of the Colony of Natal Treaties of the Orange River Colony Treaties of Southern Rhodesia Treaties of Eswatini Treaties of the Transvaal Colony 1903 in South African law 1903 in Africa