South Africa History

History
In the 17th century, the southernmost point of Africa where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet became a desirable half-way haven for the Dutch East India Company which was trading with India. By order of that company in 1652, a few Dutch settlers at the Cape of Good Hope to established this half-way station so that fresh vegetables and fruits could be provided to prevent scurvy among the Company’s sailors. Emigrants from Holland were then encouraged to settle and colonize, but they were soon joined by settlers from other countries.

Even with this melting pot of nationalities, Dutch prevailed as the language of the Cape of Good Hope but it was tempered by the French and others into the more simplified speech that became refined into Afrikaans. Not only was this agrarian society bound by this more localized speech, but also by religion; with strong Protestant roots, they fellow shipped together under the banner of the Dutch Reformed Church.

From 1795 onward there were a few British residents at the Cape, many of whom were military personnel, but it was not until 1814 that Britain eventually gained formal possession of the Cape. Factors that prompted a substantial emigration of British settlers to South Africa 1819-1820, the most serious of which was the economic crisis in Britain following the Napoleonic wars which made emigration with promise of land and opportunity very attractive. Another was to settle the disputed eastern frontier of the Cape of Good Hope with a farming community to discourage the Xhosa tribe from crossing the colonial boundary. The British government also wanted to increase the English-speaking population of a recently acquired colony that was predominantly Dutch in its language and customs.

Hostility between British and Dutch settlers, known as Boers or Afrikaners, led to the Great Trek of 1835-43, a migration of Boers from the Cape who founded Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal. Britain seized Natal in 1843 but the other two territories became Boer republics. After the Anglo-Boer Wars in 1880-81 and 1899-1902 the British and former Boer territories were combined as the Union of South Africa in 1910. Then in 1961 South Africa became an independent republic and withdrew from the British Commonwealth. 

Timeline
1487 -A Portuguese explore led the first European voyage to land in southern Africa 1652 -The Dutch East India Company established a victualling station at the Cape of Good Hope, at what would become Cape Town

Websites
Listen to the tutorial on "The South African Empire" by Dr. Anne Samson.


 * Wikipedia History of South Africa
 * Mother Earth Travel History of South Africa from the early European Settlement through the 1990s.
 * SAHO South African History on Line
 * Encyclopaedia Britannica Southern Africa 1899-1945
 * Every Culture Culture of South Africa
 * The Commonwealth South Africa History
 * WCUPA Jones, Jim; South Africa in the 19th Century
 * Info Please South Africa
 * South Africa - general history of Africa collection