In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck established a small colony on the Cape of Good Hope as a refreshment station for the Dutch East India Company. The station soon became a town as Dutch settlers, attracted by the area’s climate that made the cultivation of European crops possible, continued to arrive.
Who were the first settlers in South Africa?
European contact
The first European settlement in southern Africa was established by the Dutch East India Company in Table Bay (Cape Town) in 1652. Created to supply passing ships with fresh produce, the colony grew rapidly as Dutch farmers settled to grow crops.
Who was living at the Cape in 1652?
Jan van Riebeeck, in full Jan Anthoniszoon Van Riebeeck, (born April 21, 1619, Culemborg, Netherlands—died January 18, 1677, Batavia, Dutch East Indies [now Jakarta, Indonesia]), Dutch colonial administrator who founded (1652) Cape Town and thus opened Southern Africa for white settlement.
Who was the first person to settle in the Cape in 1652?
A Dutch East India Company expedition of 90 Calvinist settlers, under the command of Jan van Riebeeck, founded the first permanent settlement near the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.
Why did the Dutch settle in the Cape in 1652?
Cape Town was founded by the Dutch East India Company or the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) in 1652 as a refreshment outpost. The outpost was intended to supply VOC ships on their way to Asia with fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and to enable sailors wearied by the sea to recuperate.
What was South Africa called before 1652?
The South African Republic (Dutch: Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek or ZAR, not to be confused with the much later Republic of South Africa), is often referred to as The Transvaal and sometimes as the Republic of Transvaal.
What was South Africa called before?
Name. The name “South Africa” is derived from the country’s geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation, the country was named the Union of South Africa in English and Unie van Zuid-Afrika in Dutch, reflecting its origin from the unification of four formerly separate British colonies.
Who is the first white person to arrive in South Africa?
The history of White settlement in South Africa started in 1652 with the settlement of the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) under Jan van Riebeeck.
Who lived in Cape Town first?
The first Europeans to reach the Cape were the Portuguese. Bartholomeu Dias arrived in 1488 after journeying south along the west coast of Africa.
Why did CAPE TOWN develop in this particular area?
Located on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town, as the oldest urban area in the Western Cape, it was developed by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a supply station for Dutch ships sailing to East Africa, India, and the Far East.
Did the Dutch invade South Africa?
Increased European encroachment ultimately led to the colonisation and occupation of South Africa by the Dutch. The Cape Colony remained under Dutch rule until 1795 before it fell to the British Crown, before reverting back to Dutch Rule in 1803 and again to British occupation in 1806.
Did the Dutch rule South Africa?
The Cape Colony (Dutch: Kaapkolonie) was a Dutch United East India Company (VOC) Colony in Southern Africa, centered on the Cape of Good Hope, where it derived its name from. The original colony and its successive states that the colony was incorporated into occupied much of modern South Africa.
When did the Dutch invade South Africa?
With colonialism, which began in South Africa in 1652, came the Slavery and Forced Labour Model. This was the original model of colonialism brought by the Dutch in 1652, and subsequently exported from the Western Cape to the Afrikaner Republics of the Orange Free State and the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek.
What was the conflict between Britain and the Dutch over South Africa called?
Name. The conflict is commonly referred to as the Boer War, since the First Boer War (December 1880 to March 1881) was a much smaller conflict. Boer (meaning “farmer”) is the common term for Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans descended from the Dutch East India Company’s original settlers at the Cape of Good Hope.
Why did the Dutch import slaves to the Cape?
Under Riebeeck’s leadership, slaves were imported from colonies in Indonesia and Madagascar to fill a labour shortage left by what the Dutch slavers described as the “uncooperative” nature of the local Khoisan groups, who refused to be subjugated and went on to lead numerous uprisings against the colonial powers.
What was the name given to the Dutch settlers of South Africa?
Boer, (Dutch: “husbandman,” or “farmer”), a South African of Dutch, German, or Huguenot descent, especially one of the early settlers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. … Today, descendants of the Boers are commonly referred to as Afrikaners.