The Red Horse

By 1910 taxation not only contributed to the local economy’s loss of the surplus value of its domestic labour but also deprived the territory of revenue that could have contributed to internal development.

Notwithstanding its negative impact on local livelihoods there is little evidence of Protectorate Batswana having ever contemplated active, as opposed to passive, resistance. This acquiescence may be best understood in the context of the fate that befell other communities in the region that had been pushed into open resistance to colonial authority.