South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa, its coastline stretching more than 2,500 kilometres (1,600 miles) from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic (western) coast southwards around the tip of Africa and then northeast to the border with Mozambique on the Indian Ocean. The low-lying coastal zone is narrow for much of that distance, soon giving way to a mountainous escarpment (Great Escarpment) that separates the coast from the high inland plateau. In some places, notably the province of KwaZulu-Natal in the east, a greater distance separates the coast from the escarpment. Although most of the country is classified as semi-arid, it has considerable variation in climate as well as topography.
South African central plateau contains only two major rivers:
the Limpopo (a stretch of which is shared with Zimbabwe)
the Orange (with its tributary, the Vaal) which runs with a variable flow across the central landscape from east to west, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at the Namibian border
The eastern and southern coastal regions are drained by numerous shorter rivers. There are very few coastal rivers along the arid west coast north of 31°30′S.
In such a dry country, dams and irrigation are extremely important: the largest dam is the Gariep on the Orange River.
Topographical divisions

Like much of the African continent south of the Sahara, South Africa’s landscape is dominated by a high Central Plateau surrounded by coastal lowlands. This plateau is rimmed by the Great Escarpment which extends northwards to about 10°south of the Equator (i.e. into Angola in the west, and the Muchinga Escarpment in Zambia in the east.[1])
Great Escarpment

In South Africa the plateau is at its highest in the east where its edge varies in altitude between 2,000m and 3,300m. This edge of the plateau, as the land drops sharply to the coastal plain,  forms a very high, steep escarpment known as the Drakensberg Mountains. The southern and western extents of the escarpment are not as high as Drakensberg, but are also known by a wide variety of local names, all termed “mountains” (or “berge” in Afrikaans), in spite of being parts of an escarpment whose top is the central plateau. From the coastal plain the escarpment does, however, look like a range of mountains, hence the names.

The portion of the Great Escarpment that could be designated a “mountain” is where it forms the international border between KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. The Lesotho Highlands form a localized high spot on the Central Plateau. This is because it is capped by a 1400m thick layer of erosion resistant lava[2] which welled up and spread across most of Southern Africa when it was still part of Gondwana.[3] Most of this lava has eroded away together with a layer of Karoo sedimentary rocks several kilometres thick on top of which the lava was poured out 182million years ago. Only a small patch of this lava remains and covers much of Lesotho. It has been deeply eroded by the tributaries of the Orange River which drain these highlands towards the south-west (i.e. away from the Escarpment). This gives this high region its very rugged, mountainous appearance. ;-;
Central plateau

The central plateau (apart from the Lesotho Highlands) forms a largely flat, tilted surface which, as indicated above, is highest in the east, sloping gently downwards to the west (at about 1000m above sea level). The downward slope to the south is less pronounced (the southern and south-western edges of the plateau are at about 1600 to 1900m above sea level). The plateau also slopes downwards, northwards from about the 25°30'S line of latitude, into a 150‑million-year-old failed rift valley which cuts into the central plateau and locally obliterates the Great Escarpment,[3][4] forming what is today known as the Limpopo Lowveld at less than 500m above sea level. The rivers which drain the plateau therefore run west, ultimately, via the Orange River, into the Atlantic Ocean. North of the Witwatersrand, where the land starts to slope down towards the north, the drainage is into the Limpopo River and from there into the Indian Ocean.
Coastal plain
The coastal plain, which varies in width from about 60km in the north-west to over 250km in the north-east, generally slopes gently downwards from the foot of the escarpment to the coast. Numerous relatively small rivers drain the area, being more numerous in the KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Midlands regions, where they arise on the well watered slopes of the high escarpment, than elsewhere. In the west there are very few such rivers because of the aridity of the region.
Cape Fold Mountains

In the south and south-west the coastal plain contains a series of mountain ranges that run parallel to the coastline. These are the Cape Fold Mountains, whose rocks were laid down 510 – 350million years ago, and were then crumpled into a series of parallel folds by the collision of the Falkland Plateau into the south of what was to become Africa when it was part of Gondwana. These series of parallel folds are in the form of an “L”, with the western section running north-south, and the eastern section running east-west, for a total length of about 800km. The right angle of the “L” occurs in the south-western corner of the country, just inland from the Cape Peninsula and Cape Town. These folds lie along the coastline in the south and are not much more than 100km wide in total along most of their length. In the west they are separated from the coast by a pronounced coastal plain (see map above, right).
The floors of the long valleys between the parallel mountains ranges consist of fertile soils composed of weathered mudstones belonging to the Bokkeveld Group of the Cape Supergroup,[3] as opposed to the nutrient-poor, sandy soils on the quartzitic sandstone mountains, on either side of the valleys. However, the rainfall is, in general, low, bordering on the semiarid (or frankly semiarid in, for instance, the Little Karoo). Agriculture, which includes viniculture and fruit-growing, therefore depends on irrigation from rivers with sources in the mountains, which are frequently covered in snow during winter. The Little Karoo is famous for its ostrich farming, initially, in the late 1800s, for their feathers, but today includes ostrich leather and ostrich meat, which is very lean and particularly tasty.
The Cape Fold Mountains are separated from the Great Escarpment by an approximately 100–150km wide plain known as the Lower Karoo (not to be confused with the "Little Karoo") at an altitude of about 600–800m above sea level. Geologically and geographically the Cape Fold Mountains and the Great Escarpment are quite different and independent entities.
Coastline
South Africa’s coastline is remarkably smooth, with very few natural harbours. The reason is that Southern Africa has been continuously uplifted for the past 180million years, and especially so during the past 20million years.[3] The present coastline was therefore once part of the underwater continental shelf, which contains very few deep ravines or gorges. (In contrast, a subsiding coastline, like Norway’s, tends to become deeply indented where the sea has flooded old river gorges and glacial valleys.)
Regional divisions
Highveld

The Central Plateau is divided into several distinctly different regions (though with very vague boundaries), largely as a result of the rainfall distribution across South Africa: wet in the east and increasingly drier and more arid in the west. The wettest and most fertile portion of the Central Plateau is the Highveld, which occupies the central eastern portion of the Plateau. It is generally between 1500 – 2100m above sea level, highest on the edge of the Escarpment to the east (the Mpumalanga Drakensberg), and sloping downwards to the south and west. Its southern boundary is often taken to be the Orange River, from where the continuation of the plateau is known as the Great Karoo, except for a small strip just south of Lesotho which is often included in the Highveld. To the west the Highveld fades into the dry savannah of Griqualand West, beyond which lies the Kalahari desert. This boundary is very vague. The Highveld therefore encompasses the entire Free State, and an adjoining strip of the Provinces to the north of it. It receives between 400 and 1200mm of rain annually, and is largely a flat grassland plain. Much of the area is devoted to commercial farming, but it also contains South Africa’s largest conurbation in Gauteng Province, the centre of the gold mining industry. But there are also important coal mines on the Highveld which are associated with South Africa’s major electricity generating power stations.
The land is generally flat or gently undulating. Only a few rocky ridges protrude from this flatness: the Vredefort Dome, the Witwatersrand Ridge and the Magaliesberg just north of Pretoria, from where the Highveld gives way to the Bushveld to the north.
Lowveld

The South African portion of the coastal strip between the Limpopo and Mpumalanga Drakensberg and the ocean, together with the Limpopo River valley, is called the Lowveld.[5]  These lowlands, below about 500m (1,640ft) altitude, form South Africa's northern border with Botswana and Zimbabwe, where a 180‑million-year-old failed rift valley cuts into Southern Africa's central plateau and locally obliterates the Great Escarpment.[3][4] The Limpopo and Save rivers run from the central African highlands via the Lowveld into the Indian Ocean to the east. The Limpopo Lowveld extends southwards, east of the Drakensberg escarpment through Mpumalanga Province and ultimately into eastern Swaziland. This southern limb of the Lowveld is  bounded by South Africa's border with Mozambique to the east, and the north-eastern part of the Drakensberg to the west.[5] This region is generally hotter and less intensely cultivated than the Highveld.
The Lowveld used to be known as  "fever country" because malaria, carried by mosquitoes, was endemic to almost the entire area. Before the middle of the 20th century, the Lowveld was also home to the tsetse fly, which transmits sleeping sickness to humans and nagana to animals, especially the horses of the travelers trying to reach the Highveld and Witwatersrand Gold Fields from Maputo.[6]
The Lowveld is known for its high concentration of big game, including the larger animals, like African elephants, rhino, African buffalo, the big cats (lions, leopards, and cheetahs), the Plains zebra, and a wide variety of antelope, while the slow-flowing streams and wetlands of the Lowveld are a haven for the hippos and crocodiles. The bird life is also astoundingly abundant and varied. This wildlife is particularly concentrated in the Kruger National Park located in the eastern Lowveld areas of Mpumalanga and Limpopo Provinces, along almost the entire border with Mozambique.[7] But many private game farms and game reserves can also be found in elsewhere in the Lowveld.
Bushveld

The Lowveld partly overlaps with a dry savanna ecoregion known as the Bushveld, a basin characterized by open grasslands with scattered trees and bushes. Elevation varies between 600 metres and about 900 metres above sea level. The Bushveld is one of the largest and best known layered igneous mineral complexes in the world. Covering an area roughly 350 kilometres by 150 kilometres, the Bushveld has extensive deposits of platinum and chromium and significant reserves of copper, fluorspar, gold, nickel, and iron.
The northern edge of the Bushveld, where the plains rise to a series of high plateaus and low mountain ranges, form the southern edge of the Lowveld and the Limpopo River Valley in Northern Province. These mountains include the Waterberg, and the Soutpansberg Range. The Soutpansberg Range reaches an elevation of 1,700 meters before dropping off into the Limpopo River Valley and the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. West of the Bushveld, Highveld, and Lowveld is the southern basin of the Kalahari Desert, which borders Namibia and Botswana at an elevation of 600 meters to 900 meters.
Karoo

The western section of South Africa on the inland side of the Cape Fold Mountains is dominated by the Great Karoo, a semi-desert region that is divided by the Great Escarpment into the Upper Karoo (at an elevation of 1100–1600 m) and the Lower Karoo (at an elevation of 600–800 m). Separated from the Great Karoo by the Swartberg mountain range is the Little Karoo.

In the southwest, running parallel to the coastline, the mountains of the Cape Fold Belt form a series of ranges that run in the form of an "L" by a series running north-south, and another set running east-west, with the junction between the two at the Cape Peninsula. The north-south ranges, paralleling the Atlantic coastline, include the Cederberg and the Groot Winterhoek and have peaks close to 2,000 metres high. The east-west ranges, paralleling the southern coastline, include the Swartberg and the Langeberg with peaks exceeding 2,200 metres. The mountains of the Cape Fold Belt form the southern and western boundaries of the Great Karoo. The other boundaries of the Great Karoo are arbitrary and ill-defined. To the north the Karoo grades into even more arid Bushmanland. To the north-east, the Orange River is often regarded as the boundary between Karoo and the Highveld. To the east the Karoo fades into the grasslands of the Eastern Midlands.
The town of Sutherland is located in the Roggeveld region of the Upper Karoo, with midwinter temperatures as low as −15°C, and is thought to be the coldest inhabited place in South Africa.
The Little Karoo is separated from the Great Karoo by the Swartberg mountain range. It lies in a 290km long, narrow (40–60km wide) valley in of the Cape Fold Mountains, with the Swartberg range to the north and the Langeberg-Outeniqua range to the south. It is as arid as the Great Karoo, except along the foothills of the Swartberg, which are well-watered by streams that cascade down the mountains. The Little Karoo is the centre of the Ostrich farming industry, especially around the town of Oudtshoorn.
 KwaZulu-Natal

KwaZulu-Natal is a South African Province that lies entirely below the Great Escarpment, which forms its western and south-western boundaries. It therefore constitutes part of the South African “Coastal Belt”, which is, over much of this region, more than 220km wide. The region can be subdivided into three distinct geographic areas. The lowland region along the Indian Ocean coast is extremely narrow in the south, widening in the northern part of the province, while the central Natal Midlands consist of an undulating hilly, 1000m high plateau, rising to 1500m towards the west, at the foot of the Great Escarpment. The Great Escarpment, known here as the Drakensberg, together with the Lebombo Mountains in the north form the mountainous regions of the province.

The coastal regions are typically covered with subtropical thickets, while the deeper ravines and steep slopes of the river valleys host Afromontane Forest. The midlands are covered in moist grasslands with isolated pockets of Afromontane Forest. The north consists, in the main, of moist savanna habitat, whilst the Drakensberg region hosts mostly alpine grassland.
Most of the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg are at an altitude of 2000m, but where they form the border with Lesotho they rise to over 3000m. The Lebombo mountains are a long narrow range, not much higher than 700m, that runs along Mozambique’s border with South Africa and Swaziland. From Swaziland the range continues south-eastwards for about 40km into KwaZulu-Natal.
A great number of rivers arise in the Drakensberg. These have cut fairly deep valleys, and occasionally gorges, into the KwaZulu-Natal landscape giving the province a very hilly appearance. The Valley of a Thousand Hills, between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, is particularly spectacular. The largest of the rivers is the Tugela, portion of whose waters are pumped over the Escarpment on to the Highveld to supplement  the water supply to the large industrial cities of Gauteng.
The province contains rich areas of biodiversity of a range of flora and fauna. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park and the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park, along with uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park and Ndumo, are wetlands of international importance for migratory species, and are designated as RAMSAR sites. South Africa signed the 1971 RAMSAR Convention to try to conserve and protect important wetlands because of their importance to habitats and numerous species.

The region has a varied yet verdant climate thanks to its diverse, complex topography. Generally, the coast is subtropical with inland regions becoming progressively cooler in winter, but hotter in summer (except on the Escarpment).  Durban on the coast has an average annual rainfall of 1010mm. The average midday temperature during summer (January - March) is 28°C, with the minimum temperatures in the early morning averaging 21°C. In winter (June – August) the average maximum temperature is 23°C, and the minimum is 11°C. The summer temperatures in Pietermaritzburg are similar to those in Durban, but it is considerably cooler in winter. The temperature in Ladysmith, further inland, in the Tugela River Valley, reaches 30°C in the summer, but may drop below freezing point on winter evenings. The Drakensberg can experience heavy winter snow, with light snow occasionally experienced on the highest peaks in summer. The Zululand coastal region, in the north of the province, has a tropical climate with high humidities, supporting many sugar cane farms.
Beaches of KwaZulu-Natal are of world-class quality. The warm coastal climate means that visitors are attracted to them all year round. Some of the visitors, however, come for the annual late-autumn or early-winter "sardine run" along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline, south of Durban. Referred to as "the greatest shoal on earth", the sardine run occurs when millions of sardines migrate from their spawning grounds south of the southern tip of Africa northward along the Eastern Cape coastline toward KwaZulu-Natal. They follow a route close inshore, often resulting in many fish washing up on beaches. The huge shoal of tiny fish can stretch for many kilometres; it is preyed upon by thousands of predators, including game fish, sharks, dolphins and seabirds. Usually the shoals break up and the fish disappear into deeper water around Durban. Scientists have been unable to answer many questions surrounding this exceptional seasonal event.
Bushmanland

Bushmanland is an arid area inland from Namaqualand (see below). Its northern boundary is the Orange River beyond which lies Namibia. In the south it grades into the north-western part of the Great Karoo. To the west lies Griqualand West. It is probably the most inhospitable area in South Africa, because of its aridity, infertile soil and highly saline groundwater. Together with the Kalahari Desert to the north-east, its rainfall is the most highly variable (in percentage deviation from the annual average), and its temperature range the greatest (difference between the average temperature in January and in July) in South Africa.[10] Its wildlife however, both fauna and flora, though sparse, is full of interest. Although the veld is too arid to bloom like that of the West Coast of Namaqualand, even when there is some spring rain, what does appear is highly unusual and often hauntingly beautiful.
A highly productive base metal mine on the Aggeneys Farm close to the N14 highway between Uppington and Springbok exploits an ore rich in zinc, lead, copper and silver since 1977. Close by, to the east, is Ghaamsberg which has very large zinc deposits, but the ore is low-grade and, therefore, at present, unprofitable to large scale mining.[11]
Vaalputs, a nuclear waste repository, has been sited between Bushmanland and the north-west of the Great Karoo, and acts as a de facto nature reserve.
Namaqualand

This is the arid region along the north-western coastline (northwards from approximately the 31°S line of latitude) of South Africa, partly above and partly below the Great Escarpment. The region extends into Namibia, north of the Orange River, where it is known as “Great Namaqualand”, or “Namaland”. The South African portion of Namaqualand is known as “Little Namaqualand”, and falls within the Northern Cape Province.  The region is sparsely populated, mainly by Afrikaans speaking people of Nama, and Khoikhoi descent. The original Nama and Khoikhoi languages are spoken in only a few remote areas. The main economic activities are mining, and fishing along the coast.
Some of the more prominent towns in this area are Springbok, being the capital of this region, as well as Kleinzee and Koiingnaas, both private mining towns owned by De Beers Diamond Mines.  This area is rich in alluvial diamonds, deposited along the coast by the Orange River. Oranjemund is another mining town along this coast, situated in Namibia, but very much on the border. As the name suggests, it is at the mouth of the Orange River which forms the border between South Africa and Namibia. The town of Alexander Bay is located on the opposite side of the river mouth (i.e. in South Africa) and is linked to Oranjemund by the Ernest Oppenheimer Bridge. Other links crossing the river further upstream are a reintroduced pontoon at Sendelingsdrift in the Richtersveld National Park, and road bridges at Vioolsdrif (the main border crossing between the two countries) and at the remote border crossing of Onseepkans.
A vibrant fishing industry is found along this stretch of the South African west coast, especially in Port Nolloth, which is also a major resort town for people living in the interior of South Africa (e.g. Gauteng), and Hondeklipbaai, (or Dogstonebay), so called because of a large boulder outside the town which, when viewed correctly, looks vaguely like a dog sitting down.
The copper bangles worn by the Khoikhoi aroused the interests of the Dutch officials of the Dutch settlement established by Jan van Riebeeck in the Cape in 1652. Several expeditions were consequently mounted to find the source of this copper. A mineshaft was dug in the "Copper Mountains" in northern Namaqualand  in 1685, which can still be seen near the disused Carolusberg mine a few kilometers east of Springbok. However commercial mining was only started in 1859, and over the next 140 years vast quantities of ore have been extracted from 23 mines in the area. Springbok and its surrounding towns (Nababeep and Okiep) were the center of this mining activity. But, in the early 2000s the last mine was closed.[12] However, about 115km further inland, in Bushmanland (see above), a large new mine is extracting  copper, lead, zinc, and silver from the "Black Mountain" (originally "Swartberg") deposits at Aggeneys since 1977.[11] High grade granite is mined in several places (e.g. near Kamieskroon, and Concordia) in this granite-rich landscape.
Namaqualand is popular with both local and international tourists during early springtime (August - September), when for a short period this normally arid area becomes covered with a kaleidoscope of colour during the flowering season. This is known throughout South Africa as the Namaqualand daisy season, when orange and white daisies, as well as hundreds of other flowering species, spring up from a previously barren landscape.[12] A part of Little Namaqualand, known as the Richtersveld, is a national park and a World Heritage Site, while the often-visited Namaqua National Park and the Goegap Nature Reserve are located short distances from Kamieskroon and Springbok, respectively.
Surrounding oceans

The vast majority of South Africa's border consists of the ocean—or two oceans, which, according to the International Hydrographic Organization, officially meet at Cape Agulhas, the most southern point of Africa.[13][14] Its territory includes Marion and Prince Edward Islands, nearly 2,000km (1,243mi) south of Cape Town in the sub-antarctic Indian Ocean.
The cold Benguela current is a mineral-rich upwelling current, which flows away to the north along the western coastline, after having come up from the cold depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Plankton grow in these fertile waters, and support large numbers of fish, and therefore a prosperous (in the past) fishing industry. Over-fishing has, however, reduced the importance of this fishing industry both for the local as well as the country's economy. The east coast has the north-to-south Mozambique/Agulhas Current, which provides warm waters. These two currents have a major effect on the country's climate, the ready evaporation of the eastern seas providing generous rainfall while the Benguela current retains its moisture to cause desert conditions in the west.
Several small rivers run into the sea along the coastline (see the "Topographical Divisions (The Coastline)" section above), but none is navigable and none provides useful natural harbours. The coastline itself, being fairly smooth, provides only one good natural harbour at Saldanha Bay north of Cape Town. A lack of fresh water, however, prevented permanent settlement here until relatively recently. The Bay of Natal looks, on the map, like a good natural harbour, but, in its natural state, it was dry at low tide.[15] Nevertheless, busy harbours now exist at Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban in the Bay of Natal, and Richards Bay. Saldanha Bay is today an important harbour at the end of the Sishen–Saldanha railway line for the export of Iron ore from the interior.
Climate

South Africa is largely a dry country, with most of its western regions being semi-desert. The rainfall increases in the east, (the Highveld, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Midlands), and falls primarily in summer. The narrow southern coastal strip receives all-year rainfall in the east (the Garden Route), and winter rainfall in the west (on the Cape Peninsula and its surrounds). The summers are warm to hot, while the winter temperatures can vary, depending on locality from bitterly cold to cool. Thus the Karoo, which occupies a large part of the western Central Plateau, has a climate which is extremely hot in summer and bitterly cold in winter. In contrast, the eastern coastline on the Indian Ocean is lush, well watered and warmed by the Mozambique Current; patches of Southern Africa mangroves grow along this coast.
The southern coast, part of which is known as the Garden Route, is temperate and green. The Cape Peninsula and surrounds have a Mediterranean climate, with cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers (becoming hotter in interior valleys). Snow commonly falls in winter on the higher ground of the Cape Fold Mountains, during winter. The Cape Peninsula has a reputation for its wind: the dry "South-Easter" which blows almost incessantly in summer (December–February), and the "North-Wester" which accompanies the cold fronts that roll in from the Atlantic during winter (June–August). The vegetation of the Cape area consists of fynbos, some grassland and Albany thickets.
The eastern section of the Karoo does not extend as far north as the western part, giving way to the flat landscape of the Free State, which – though still semi-arid – receives somewhat more rain. North of the Vaal River the Highveld is better watered, with an annual rainfall of 760mm (29.9in) and a high altitude (around 1,750m (5,741ft)) which mitigates against the extreme of heat of an inland area at this latitude. Winters are cold, though snow is rare.
Further north and to the east, especially where a drop in altitude beyond the escarpment gives the Lowveld its name, the temperature rises. The Tropic of Capricorn slices through the extreme north. Here one finds the typical South African Bushveld.
There is skiing in winter in the high mountainous regions: the Drakensberg mountains that form the eastern escarpment along the KwaZulu-Natal/Lesotho border, and on the Hex River Mountains of the Cape Fold Belt, but the coldest place in the country is Sutherland in the western Roggeveld region of the Upper Karoo, with minimum midwinter temperatures as low as −15°C. The deep interior provides the hottest temperatures: in 1948 the mercury hit 51.7°C (125.06°F) in the Northern Cape Kalahari near Upington.
Environmental issues
South Africa has lost a large area of natural habitat in the last four decades, primarily due to overpopulation, sprawling development patterns and deforestation during the 19th century. South Africa is one of the worst affected countries in the world when it comes to invasion by alien species with many (e.g. black wattle, Port Jackson willow, Hakea, Lantana and Jacaranda) posing a significant threat to the native biodiversity and the already scarce water resources. The original temperate forest found by the first European settlers was exploited ruthlessly until only small patches remained. Currently, South African hardwood trees like real yellowwood (Podocarpus latifolius), stinkwood (Ocotea bullata), and South African black ironwood (Olea laurifolia) are under government protection. Statistics from the South African Environmental Affairs department show a record 1215 rhinos have been killed in 2014.[16]
Climate change is expected to bring considerable warming and drying to much of this already semi-arid region, with greater frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, flooding and drought. According to computer generated climate modelling produced by the South African National Biodiversity Institute[17] parts of southern Africa will see an increase in temperature by about one degree Celsius along the coast to more than four degrees Celsius in the already hot hinterland such as the Northern Cape in late spring and summertime by 2050. The Cape Floral Kingdom, identified as one of the global biodiversity hotspots, is predicted to be hit very hard by climate change. Drought, increased intensity and frequency of fire and climbing temperatures are expected to push many rare species towards extinction.
Multiple entities are working to combat the effects of degradation and drought. In the Port Elizabeth region, national NGO Living Lands had in cooperation with an agricultural insurance company, planted 3.7 million trees as of late 2015, in order to restore the water catchment system and halt erosion.[18]
Extreme points

This is a list of the extreme points of South Africa, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location in the country.
Including the Prince Edward Islands
Northernmost Point: Over Vlakte farm, Limpopo Province ()
Southernmost Point: Marion Island, Prince Edward Islands ()
Westernmost Point: Orange River Mouth (near Alexander Bay), Northern Cape ()
Easternmost Point: Prince Edward Island, Prince Edward Islands ()
South African mainland
Northernmost Point: Over Vlakte farm, Limpopo Province
Southernmost Point: Cape Agulhas, Western Cape ()
Westernmost Point: Orange River Mouth, Northern Cape
Easternmost Point: beach below Monte Ouro (near Kosi Bay), KwaZulu-Natal ()
South-Westernmost Point: Cape of Good Hope, Western Cape ()[19]
South Easternmost Point: Shebeen Point, Eastern Cape ()
See also

Provinces of South Africa
Districts of South Africa
Municipalities of South Africa
List of mountains in South Africa
List of rivers of South Africa
Summary of South Africa's Geography

Some material in this article is adapted from the World Factbook 2006.

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The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Guinea, but also found in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Samoa and Tonga, and the islands to the north and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea. Bali, on the other side of the Wallace Line, has a single species.[2][3]
In total there are 187 species in 50 genera, roughly half of them native to Australia, many of the remainder occupying New Guinea.[4] With their closest relatives, the Maluridae (Australian fairy-wrens), Pardalotidae (pardalotes), and Acanthizidae (thornbills, Australian warblers, scrubwrens, etc.), they comprise the superfamily Meliphagoidea and originated early in the evolutionary history of the oscine passerine radiation.[5] Although honeyeaters look and behave very much like other nectar-feeding passerines around the world (such as the sunbirds and flowerpeckers), they are unrelated, and the similarities are the consequence of convergent evolution.
The extent of the evolutionary partnership between honeyeaters and Australasian flowering plants is unknown, but probably substantial. A great many Australian plants are fertilised by honeyeaters, particularly the Proteaceae, Myrtaceae, and Epacridaceae. It is known that the honeyeaters are important in New Zealand as well, and assumed that the same applies in other areas.
Description

Honeyeaters can be either nectarivorous, insectivorous, frugivorous, or a combination of nectar- and insect-eating.[6] Unlike the hummingbirds of America, honeyeaters do not have extensive adaptations for hovering flight, though smaller members of the family do hover hummingbird-style to collect nectar from time to time. In general, honeyeaters prefer to flit quickly from perch to perch in the outer foliage, stretching up or sideways or hanging upside down at need. Many genera have a highly developed brush-tipped tongue, frayed and fringed with bristles which soak up liquids readily. The tongue is flicked rapidly and repeatedly into a flower, the upper mandible then compressing any liquid out when the bill is closed.
In addition to nectar, all or nearly all honeyeaters take insects and other small creatures, usually by hawking, sometimes by gleaning. A few of the larger species, notably the white-eared honeyeater, and the strong-billed honeyeater of Tasmania, probe under bark for insects and other morsels. Many species supplement their diets with a little fruit, and a small number eat considerable amounts of fruit,[7] particularly in tropical rainforests and, oddly, in semi-arid scrubland. The painted honeyeater is a mistletoe specialist. Most, however, exist on a diet of nectar supplemented by varying quantities of insects. In general, the honeyeaters with long, fine bills are more nectarivorous, the shorter-billed species less so, but even specialised nectar eaters like the spinebills take extra insects to add protein to their diet when breeding.
The movements of honeyeaters are poorly understood. Most are at least partially mobile but many movements seem to be local, possibly between favourite haunts as the conditions change. Fluctuations in local abundance are common, but the small number of definitely migratory honeyeater species aside, the reasons are yet to be discovered. Many follow the flowering of favourite food plants. Arid zone species appear to travel further and less predictably than those of the more fertile areas. It seems probable that no single explanation will emerge: the general rule for honeyeater movements is that there is no general rule.
Taxonomy and systematics

The genera Cleptornis (golden honeyeater) and Apalopteron (Bonin honeyeater), formerly treated in the Meliphagidae, have recently been transferred to the Zosteropidae on genetic evidence. The genus Notiomystis (New Zealand stitchbird), formerly classified in the Meliphagidae, has recently been removed to the newly erected Notiomystidae of which it is the only member.[8] The "Macgregor's bird-of-paradise," historically considered a bird-of-paradise (Paradisaeidae), was recently found to be a honeyeater.[9] It is now known as "MacGregor's honeyeater" and is classified in the Meliphagidae.
The wattled smoky honeyeater (Melipotes carolae), described in 2007, had been discovered in December 2005 in the Foja Mountains of Papua, Indonesia.[10]
In 2008, a study that included molecular phylogenetic analysis of museum specimens in the genera Moho and Chaetoptila, both extinct genera endemic to the Hawaiian islands, argued that these five species were not members of the Meliphagidae and instead belong to their own distinct family, the Mohoidae.[11]

Further reading

 on the Internet Bird Collection
 - Highlighting relationships of Maluridae on Tree Of Life Web Project


The Irish Confederate Wars, also called the Eleven Years' War (derived from the Irish language name Cogadh na hAon Bhliana Déag), took place in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. It was the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms – a series of civil wars in the kingdoms of Ireland, England and Scotland (all ruled by Charles I). The conflict in Ireland essentially started by pitting the native Irish Catholics against English and Scottish Protestant colonists and their supporters, and ended with Royalists, Irish Catholics and Scottish Presbyterians fighting the ultimate winners, the English Parliament. It was both a religious and an ethnic conflict – fought over who would govern Ireland, whether it would be governed from England, which ethnic and religious group would own most of the land, and which religion would predominate in the country. It was the most destructive conflict in Irish history.[2]
Overview
The war in Ireland began with the Rebellion of 1641 in Ulster in October, during which many Scots and English Protestant settlers were killed. The rebellion spread throughout the country and at Kilkenny in 1642 the Association of The Confederate Catholics of Ireland was formed to organise the Catholic war effort. The Confederation was essentially an independent state and was a coalition of all shades of Irish Catholic society, both Gaelic and Old English. The Irish Confederates professed to side with the English Cavaliers during the ensuing civil wars, but mostly fought their own war in defence of the Catholic landed class's interests.
The Confederates ruled much of Ireland as a de facto sovereign state until 1649, and proclaimed their loyalty to Charles I. From 1642 to 1649, the Confederates fought against Scottish Covenanter and English Parliamentarian armies in Ireland. The Confederates, in the context of the English Civil War, were loosely allied with the English Royalists, but were divided over whether to send military help to them in the war there. Ultimately, they never sent troops to England, but did send an expedition to help the Scottish Royalists, sparking the Scottish Civil War.
The wars produced an extremely fractured array of forces in Ireland. The Protestant forces were split into three main factions (English Royalist, English Parliamentarian and Scottish Covenanter) as a result of the civil wars in England and Scotland. The Catholic Confederates themselves split on more than one occasion over the issue of whether their first loyalty was to the Catholic religion or to King Charles I (see the principal factions in the war).
The wars ended in the defeat of the Confederates. They and their English Royalist allies were defeated during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland by the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell in 1649–53.[3] The wars following the 1641 revolt caused massive loss of life in Ireland, comparable in the country's history only with the Great Famine of the 1840s. The ultimate winner, the English parliament, arranged for the mass confiscation of land owned by Irish Catholics as punishment for the rebellion and to pay for the war. Although some of this land was returned after 1660 on the Restoration of the monarchy in England, the period marked the effective end of the old Catholic landed class.
The plot, October 1641

The rebellion was intended to be a swift and mainly bloodless seizure of power in Ireland by a small group of conspirators led by Phelim O’Neill. Small bands of the plotter’s kin and dependents were mobilised in Dublin, Wicklow and Ulster, to take strategic buildings like Dublin Castle. Since there were only a small number of English soldiers stationed in Ireland, this had a reasonable chance of succeeding. Had it done so, the remaining English garrisons could well have surrendered, leaving Irish Catholics in a position of strength to negotiate their demands for civil reform, religious toleration and Irish self-government. However, the plot was betrayed at the last minute and as a result, the rebellion degenerated into chaotic violence. Following the outbreak of hostilities, the resentment of the native Irish Catholic population against the British Protestant settlers exploded into violence. Shortly after the outbreak of the rebellion, O'Neill issued the Proclamation of Dungannon which offered justification for the rising. He claimed that he was acting on the orders of Charles I.
The Rebellion, 1641–42
From 1641 to early 1642, the fighting in Ireland was characterised by small bands, raised by local lords or among local people, attacking civilians of opposing ethnic and religious groups. At first, Irish Catholic bands, particularly from Ulster, took the opportunity given them by the collapse of law and order, to settle scores with Protestant settlers who had occupied Irish land in the plantations of Ireland. Initially, the Irish Catholic gentry raised militia forces to try and contain the violence[4] but afterwards, when it was clear that the government in Dublin intended to punish all Catholics for the rebellion,[5] participated in the attacks on Protestants and fought English troops sent to put down the rebellion. In areas where British settlers were concentrated, around Cork, Dublin, Carrickfergus and Derry, they raised their own militia in self-defence and managed to hold off the rebel forces. All sides displayed extreme cruelty in this phase of the war. Around 4,000 Protestants were massacred and a further 12,000 may have died of privation after being driven from their homes.[6][7] In one notorious incident, the Protestant inhabitants of Portadown were taken captive and then massacred on the bridge in the town.[8] The settlers responded in kind, as did the Government in Dublin, with attacks on the Irish civilian population. Massacres of Catholic civilians occurred at Rathlin Island and elsewhere.[9] The rebels from Ulster defeated a government force at Julianstown, but failed to take nearby Drogheda and were scattered when they advanced on Dublin.
By early 1642, there were four main concentrations of rebel forces; in Ulster under Phelim O'Neill, in the Pale around Dublin led by Viscount Gormanstown, in the south-east, led by the Butler family – in particular Lord Mountgarret and in the south-west, led by Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry.
The Confederates' war, 1642–48

King Charles I sent a large army to Ireland in 1642 to put down the rebellion, as did the Scottish Covenanters. The Scottish army quickly drove the Irish rebels out of Ulster and the English force drove them back from around Dublin. In self-defence, Irish Catholics formed their own government, the Catholic Confederation, with its capital at Kilkenny and raised their own armies. The Confederates also held important port towns at Waterford and Wexford through which they could receive aid from Catholic powers in Europe.
The Confederates controlled two thirds of Ireland and commanded the allegiance of most Irish Catholics, with the enthusiastic support of the Catholic clergy. However, their support was weakest among the Catholic upper classes, who were often reluctant to disobey Royal authority and who feared losing their own lands if the plantation settlements were overturned. Some of them fought against the Confederation, while others like the Earl of Clanricarde, stayed neutral.[10]
For armed forces, the Confederates had available to them only the militias and lords' private levies, commanded by aristocratic amateurs like Lord Mountgarret. These were defeated in a series of encounters with English and Scottish troops at Liscarroll, Kilrush, New Ross and Glenmaquinn.
However, they were saved from defeat by the outbreak of the English Civil War. Most of the English troops in Ireland were recalled to fight on the Royalist side in the civil war.
In mid-1642 Charles signed the Adventurers Acts into law, whereby loans raised in London would eventually be paid off by the sale of Irish rebels' lands. This gave an extra impetus for the Confederate armies to succeed, but the Confederates also took advantage of Charles' weakening position in England after 1643 to try to negotiate with him.
The Irish Confederates mopped up the remaining garrisons within their territory, leaving only Ulster, Dublin and Cork in Scottish and English hands. Garret Barry, a returned Irish mercenary soldier, took Limerick in 1642, while the townspeople of Galway forced the surrender of the English garrison there in 1643. The remaining British forces were disunited by the events in England. The garrison of Cork, commanded by Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin, sided with the English Parliament, as did the Protestant settler army around Derry, whereas the troops on Ireland’s east coast, commanded by Earl of Ormonde, sided with the King. The Scottish Covenanter army, based around Carrickfergus, pursued the agenda of the Edinburgh based Scottish government, allied with the English Parliament up to 1647.
Stalemate
This gave the Confederates breathing space they needed to create regular, full-time armies. They supplied these by creating an extensive system of taxation throughout the country, centred on their capital at Kilkenny. They also received modest subsidies of arms and money from France, Spain and the Papacy. The Confederate armies were commanded mainly by professional Irish soldiers such as Thomas Preston and Owen Roe O'Neill, who had served in the Spanish army in the Eighty Years' War and Thirty Years' War. In total, the Confederates managed to put around 60,000 men into the field in different armies in the course of the war.
The Confederates arguably squandered the military opportunity presented to them by the English Civil War to conquer and reorganise all of Ireland. They signed a truce with the Royalists that was effective from 15 September 1643 (known then as the "cessation"), and spent the next three years in abortive negotiations with them. It was not until 1646 that they launched a determined offensive on the Protestant enclaves in Ireland. Between 1642 and 1646, the war in Ireland was dominated by raids and skirmishes. All sides tried to starve their enemies by burning the crops and supplies in their territory. This fighting caused great loss of life, particularly among the civilian population, but saw no significant battles between 1643 and 1646. The Confederates mounted an expedition against the Scots in Ulster in 1644, but failed to capture any significant territory.
In the south of the country, the Confederates took some territory around Cork in 1644–45, for example the town of Bandon, constricting the territory held by the English Parliamentarian force there, but failed to eliminate Inchiquin's garrison. Their major success of this period was Thomas Preston’s siege of Duncannon in January 1645, which took the town (on Ireland's southern coast) from its Parliamentarian garrison. However, an attempt by a combined Munster and Leinster force, commanded by Preston and Castlehaven, to follow up this success by besieging Youghal ended in failure. Youghal was held by a much stronger Parliamentarian force than Duncannon and problems of supply and money meant that the Confederates' siege broke up in March 1645.[11]
Refugees
The opening years of the war saw widespread displacement of civilians – both sides practising what would now be called ethnic cleansing. In the initial phase of the rebellion in 1641, the vulnerable Protestant settler population fled to walled towns such as Dublin, Cork and Derry for protection. Others fled to England. When Ulster was occupied by Scottish Covenanter troops in 1642, they retaliated for the attacks on settlers by attacks on the Irish Catholic civilian population. As a result, it has been estimated that up to 30,000 people fled Ulster in 1642, to live in Confederate held territory. Many of them became camp followers of Owen Roe O'Neill's Ulster Army, living in clan-based groupings called "creaghts" and driving their herds of cattle around with the army. Outside of Ulster, the treatment of civilians was less harsh, although the "no-mans-land" in between Confederate and British held territory in Leinster and Munster was repeatedly raided and burned, with the result that it too became de-populated.
Victory and defeat for the Confederates

However, the stalemate in Ireland was broken in 1646, with the end of the first English Civil War.
The Confederates, after their military ousted the Confederate Supreme Council who had signed a peace Treaty with the Royalists, abandoned further negotiations with the defeated Royalists and tried to re-take all of Ireland before the English Parliament could launch an invasion of the country. They were bolstered by the arrival in Ireland of the Papal Nuncio, Rinuccini, who brought with him large amounts of money and arms. They managed to capture a Parliamentarian stronghold at Bunratty castle in Clare and to smash the Scottish Covenanter army at the battle of Benburb and also take Sligo town. Late in the year, the Ulster and Leinster Confederate armies under Owen Roe O'Neill and Thomas Preston (a total of 18,000 men) laid siege to Dublin, trying to take the city from Ormonde’s Royalist garrison. However Ormonde had devastated the land around the capital and the Confederates, unable to supply their troops, had to lift the siege. In hindsight, this was the high tide for the Irish Confederates. Ormonde, who said that he "preferred English rebels to Irish ones", left Dublin and handed it over to a Parliamentarian army sent from England under Michael Jones. Further Parliamentarian reinforcements were sent to Cork in southern Ireland.
In 1647, these Parliamentarian forces inflicted a shattering series of defeats on the Confederates, ultimately forcing them to join a Royalist coalition to try to hold off a Parliamentarian invasion. Firstly, in August 1647, when it tried to march on Dublin, Thomas Preston's Leinster army was annihilated at the battle of Dungans Hill by Jones’ Parliamentarian army. This was the best trained and best equipped Confederate army and the loss of its manpower and equipment was a body blow to the Confederation. Secondly, the Parliamentarians based in Cork devastated the Confederates' territory in Munster, provoking famine among the civilian population. In September, they stormed Cashel, not only taking the town but also massacring its garrison and inhabitants, including several Catholic clerics. When the Irish Munster army brought them to battle at Knocknanauss in November, they too were crushed. Sligo also changed hands again – captured by the Ulster British settlers' army. The battles in this phase of the war were exceptionally bloody: in the battles of 1646–47, the losers had up to half of those engaged killed – most commonly in the rout after the battle was decided. In the three largest engagements of 1647, no less than 1% of the Irish male population (around 7,000–8,000 men) were killed in battle.
This string of defeats forced the Confederates to come to a deal with the Royalists, and to put their troops under their command. Amid factional fighting within their ranks over this deal, the Confederates dissolved their association in 1648 and accepted Ormonde as the commander in chief of the Royalist coalition in Ireland. Inchiquin, the Parliamentarian commander in Cork, also defected to the Royalists after the arrest of King Charles I.
The Confederates were fatally divided over this compromise. Rinuccini, the Papal Nuncio, threatened to excommunicate anyone who accepted the deal. Particularly galling for him was the alliance with Inchiquin, who had massacred Catholic civilians and clergy in Munster in 1647. There was even a brief period of civil war in 1648 between Owen Roe O'Neill's Ulster Army, as he refused to accept the Royalist alliance, and the new Royalist–Confederate coalition. O'Neill neglected to secure adequate supplies and was unable to force a change in policy on his former comrades. During this divisive period the Confederates missed a second strategic chance to reorganise while their opponents were engaged in the Second English Civil War (1648–49), which was lost by their royalist allies.
The Cromwellian War, 1649–1653

The Confederate/Royalist coalition wasted valuable months fighting with Owen Roe O'Neill and other former Confederates instead of preparing to resist the impending Parliamentarian invasion of Ireland. O'Neill later re-joined the Confederate side. Belatedly, in summer 1649, Ormonde tried to take Dublin from the Parliamentarians, and was routed by Michael Jones at the battle of Rathmines.
Oliver Cromwell landed shortly afterwards with the New Model Army. Whereas the Confederates had failed to defeat their enemies in eight years of fighting, Cromwell was able to succeed in three years in conquering the entire island of Ireland, because his troops were well supplied, well equipped (especially with artillery), and well trained. Moreover, he had a huge supply of men, money and logistics to fund the campaign.
The Cromwellian Conquest
His first action was to secure the east coast of Ireland for supplies of men and logistics from England. To this end, he took Drogheda and Wexford, perpetrating massacres of the defenders of both towns.[12][13] He also sent a force to the north to link up with the British settler army there. Those settlers who supported the Scots and Royalists were defeated by the Parliamentarians at the battle of Lisnagarvey.
Ormonde signally failed to mount a military defence of southern Ireland. He based his defences upon walled towns, which Cromwell systematically took one after the other with his ample supply of siege artillery. The Irish and Royalist field armies did not hold any strategic line of defence and instead were demoralised by a constant stream of defeats and withdrawals. Only at the siege of Clonmel did Cromwell suffer significant casualties (although disease also took a very heavy toll on his men). His losses were made good by the defection of the Royalist garrison of Cork, who had been Parliamentarians up to 1648, back to the Parliament side. Cromwell returned to England in 1650, passing his command to Henry Ireton.
In the north, the Parliamentarian/settler army met the Irish Ulster army at the battle of Scarrifholis and destroyed it. Ormonde was discredited and fled for France, to be replaced by Ulick Burke, Earl of Clanricarde. By 1651, the remaining Royalist/Irish forces were hemmed into an area west of the River Shannon, holding only the fortified cities of Limerick and Galway and an enclave in County Kerry, under Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry.
Ireton besieged Limerick while the northern Parliamentarian army under Charles Coote besieged Galway. Muskerry made an attempt to relieve Limerick, marching north from Kerry, and was routed by Roger Boyle at the battle of Knocknaclashy. Limerick and Galway were too well defended to be taken by storm, and were blockaded until hunger and disease forced them to surrender, Limerick in 1651, Galway in 1652. Waterford and Duncannon also surrendered in 1651.
Guerrilla War

This was the end of formal Irish resistance. Because the Cromwellian surrender terms were so harsh, many small units of Irish troops fought on as guerrillas, or tories as they were called at the time. The tories, who were usually former Confederate soldiers, operated from rugged areas such as the Wicklow Mountains, attacking vulnerable groups of Parliamentarian soldiers and looting their supplies. In response, the Parliamentarians forcibly evicted the civilian populations from areas which had been helping the tories and burned their crops.
The result of this fighting was famine throughout the country, which was aggravated by an outbreak of bubonic plague. The last organised Irish troops surrendered in Cavan in April 1653, when the Cromwellians agreed to let them be transported to serve in the French army – the English Royalist Court was in exile in France. Any troops captured in this phase of the war were either executed or transported to penal colonies in the West Indies. After the formal surrender, Ireland was plagued with small scale violence for the remainder of the 1650s.
Shifting allegiances
The Irish Confederate wars was a complex conflict in which no less than four major armies fought in Ireland. These were the Royalists loyal to King Charles, the Scottish Covenanters (sent into Ulster in 1642 to protect Protestant planters after the massacres that marked the Irish rebellion of 1641 in that region), the Parliamentarian army, and the Irish Confederate army to whom most of the inhabitants of Ireland gave their allegiance.[14] During the wars, all of these forces came into conflict at one stage or another. To add to the turmoil, a brief civil war was fought between Irish Confederate factions in 1648.
The Royalists under Ormonde were in conflict with Irish Catholic forces from late 1641 to 1643. Their main enclave was in Dublin. A ceasefire with the Confederate Catholics lasted from 1643 until 1646, when the Confederates again came into conflict with the Royalists. After 1648 most of the Confederates and the Scots joined an alliance with the Royalists. This was the array of forces that was to face Cromwell's army in 1649. Ormonde's handling of the defence of Ireland was however rather inept so that by mid-1650 the defence of Ireland was conducted mainly by Irish Confederate leaders.
The Irish Confederates: formed in October 1642, the Confederation of Kilkenny was initially a rebel Irish Catholic movement, fighting against the English troops sent to put down the rebellion, though they insisted they were at war with the king's advisers and not with Charles himself. They also had to fight the Scottish army that landed in Ulster. From 1642 to 1649, the Confederates controlled most of Ireland except for east and west Ulster, Cork city and Dublin. A cessation was arranged with the Royalists in 1643 after the outbreak of civil war in England and negotiations began to bring the Confederates into the English conflict on the Royalist side. A strongly Catholic faction under the influence of the Irish Bishops and Nuncio Rinuccini emerged in 1646, which opposed signing a peace treaty that did not recognise the position of the Catholic Church in Ireland or return confiscated Catholic land. When this faction ousted the Confederate 'peace party' or pro-Royalists, the Confederates once again clashed with the English Royalists, who abandoned most of their positions in Ireland to the Parliamentarians during 1646. However, after fresh negotiations, an alliance was arranged between the Royalists and Confederates in 1648. Some Confederates (most notably the Ulster army) were however opposed to this treaty initiating a brief Irish Catholic civil war in 1648 in which the Ulster Confederate army was supported by the English Parliament.
The Scottish Covenanters arrived in Ireland in early 1642 to put down the uprising and thereby protect the lives and property of the Scottish Protestant settlers in Ulster. They held most of eastern Ulster for the duration of the war, but were badly weakened by their defeat by the Confederates at the battle of Benburb in 1646. They fought the Confederates (with the support of the English Parliament) from their arrival in Ulster in 1642 until 1648. After the English Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters' alliance broke down, the Scottish forces in Ulster joined the Confederates and Royalists in an alliance against their former allies in 1649.
The Parliamentarian Army gained a major foothold in Ireland for the first time in 1644, when Inchiquin's Cork-based Protestant force fell out with the Royalists over their ceasefire with the Confederates. The Protestant settler forces in the north west of Ireland, known as the Lagan Army (or Lagan Force), also came over to the Parliamentarians after 1644, deeming them to be the most reliably anti-Catholic of the English forces. The city of Dublin fell into Parliamentarian hands in 1646, when the Royalists surrendered it to an English Parliamentarian expeditionary force after the city was threatened by Confederate armies. In 1648 the Parliamentarians briefly gave support to Owen Roe O'Neill's Ulstermen after his fall out with the Confederates: Thus the extreme Catholic and Puritan forces were briefly allied for mutual expediency. The Ulster Catholic army however joined the Confederate-Royalist alliance after the shock of Cromwell's invasion in August 1649. The most potent Parliamentarian force was the New Model Army, which proceeded to conquer Ireland over the next four years and to enforce the Adventurers Act by conquering and selling Irish land to pay off its financial backers.
Aftermath
The death toll of the conflict was huge. William Petty, a Cromwellian who conducted the first scientific land and demographic survey of Ireland in the 1650s (the Down Survey), concluded that at least 400,000 people and maybe as many as 620,000 had died in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. The true figure may well be lower given Petty's outmoded methodology, but the lowest suggested is about 200,000. At the time, according to William Petty, the population of Ireland was only around 1.5 million inhabitants. It is estimated that about two thirds of the deaths were civilian. The Irish defeat led to the mass confiscation of Catholic owned land and the English Protestant domination of Ireland for over two centuries.[15]
The wars, especially the Cromwellian conquest, were long remembered in Irish culture. Gaelic Poetry of the post-war era laments lack of unity among Irish Catholics in the Confederation and their constant infighting, which was blamed for their failure to resist Cromwell. Other common themes include the mourning of the old Irish Catholic landed classes, which were destroyed in the wars, and the cruelty of the Parliamentarian forces. See Also Irish Poetry
See also
Soldiers: Alasdair MacColla, Hugh Dubh O'Neill, George Monck, Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, Michael Jones, Theobald Taaffe 1st Earl of Carlingford
Political figures: Patrick D'Arcy, Richard Martyn, James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven, Richard Bellings, Nicholas French, Patrick O'Neill, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, Nicholas Plunkett, Charles II
Places: Clonmel, Rathfarnham Castle, Trim Castle, Cahir Castle, Narrow Water, Ross Castle, Rock of Cashel, Charlemont Fort
Chronology of the Irish Confederate Wars
Irish Rebellion of 1641
Confederate Ireland
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
List of Irish rebellions
List of Irish battles
Notes

McKeiver Philip. A New History of Cromwell's Irish Campaign, (Advance Press), Manchester, ISBN978-0-9554663-0-4
Hull, Eleanor (1931). .
Kenyon, John & Ohlmeyer, Jane (editors). The Civil Wars, Oxford 1998.
Royle, Trevor (2004), Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1638–1660, London: Abacus, ISBN0-349-11564-8
Lenihan, Padraig, Confederate Catholics at War, Cork 2001, ISBN1-85918-244-5
McCoy, G. A. Hayes. Irish Battles, Belfast 1990, ISBN0-86281-250-X.
Plant, David. ,  Retrieved 23-09-2008
Scott-Wheeler, James. Cromwell in Ireland, Dublin 1999, ISBN978-0-7171-2884-6

How many people died in the Irish Confederate Wars?