Denver labor bulletin., 1917-08-04
SOME HISTORY OF
OLD CAPE COLONY

some way or other, constantly giving
prominence, dates, in its history, at
any rate as far as Europe is con-
cerned, from the end of the fifteenth
century. In 1888, Bartholomew Diaz,
the Portuguese navigator, rounded the
Cape, and some nine years later, name
ly, in 1897, Vasco de Cana, also a
Portuguese, sailed along the whole
west coast of Africa on his way to
India. The Portuguese, however, had
no eyes for South Africa. All their
efforts were concentrated on obtaining
foothold in India, and they made no
settlements on the Cape. The Dutch,
on the other hand, who were to such a
large extent the successors of the
Portuguese in the East, very early
saw the Importance of the place as a
station for the provisioning and wa
tering of their vessels, but no attempt
was made at establishing a regular
colony there until 1862. In that year
small garrison, under Jan van Rel
beck, was sent to the Cape by the
Dutch East India company, and, land
ing at Table Bay, founded Cape Town.
Progress at first was slow, and it
was not until 1871 that an attempt was
made, by purchasing land from the
Hottentots, to extend the borders of
the new colony beyond the original
limits of van Reibeek's fort. The
earliest colonists were, moreover, not
the best material out of which to form
colony, and so serious did the mat
ter become that, in 1855, commission
was sent out to inquire into the whole
question. As result, a better class
of immigrant was introduced, whilst
a further addition was made to the
European community at the Cape in
1855, when considerable number of
French refugees, who had fled from
rance on the revocation of the edict
of Nantes, arrived in the country.
The years which Immediately fol-
love- were characterized by a series
of wars with the Hottentots, which re-
suited In the wholesale destruction or
enslavement of these people. The
Hottentot wars were followed by wars
on the Bushmen to the north Of the
colony, indeed in many directions the
new colonists were beset by difficult
ties. The hostility of the natives, how
ever, was not the chief handicap. It
| was, IN fact, not nearly so great a bar
to progress as the tyrannicaI and eX-
acting methods of the Dutch East
India company. The policy of the
company was remarkable for its short
slghtedness. It closed the colony
against free immigration, kept the
whole of trade in its own hands. re-
quired the farmers to sow what it
directed them to sow, demanded from
them large part of their produce
and in many other ways employed
methods which We're directly calcu-
lated TO discourage trade and industry.
II was largely to escape these oppres-
slons that the farmers adopted that
Z policy of trekking ever farther and
farther away from the seat of gov
ernment. so characteristic of South
I African history. They were constant
" in revolt against the company.
Thus, in 1885 the heavily taxed
burghers in the frontier districts, who
were being afforded no protection
against the depredations of the Kaffirs.
rose IN rebellion against the company's
officials, expelled them, and set up an
independent government at Swollen
dam and Graaf Reinet.
That same year brought other
changes in the fortunes of the colony.
The revolutionary armies of France
had overrun Holland, and a British
force landed at Cape Town to secure
the colony for the Prince of Orange.
then refugee in England. The gov
ernor of Cape Town at first refused
to submit, but on the British proceed
ing to take forcible possession. he
capitulated. AS the result of the peace
of Amiens in 1908, the British handed
over the colony to the Batavian Repub-
lie, by which name the Netherlands
were known from May 16, 1895 TO June
s, 1906; but in 1914 the colony was
ceded outright to the British crown.
The next twenty years were filled with
wars with the kaffirs, and We're char
acterized by growing discomfort
amongst the Dutch farmers, a discon-
tent which eliminated in the great
trek
The immediate cause of this great
departure of the Dutch farmers to dis
tricts outside the jurisdiction of the
Cape government, that is, beyond the
Orange and Naal rivers. was the eman-
cipation of the slaves The slaves
were emancipated in 1886, and. two
years afterwards, the great trek be-
gan; 1t continued for four years and
in all some 1000 people left the colony
and founded communities. with re
publican form of government, beyond
the two great rivers already men,
toned. Thus they formed the nucleus
for the Orange Free State and the
Transvaal of the future. The great
trek was followed by more kaffir wars,
and it was not until the year 1870 that
modern South Africa really began to
emerge. In that year the Dutoitspan
and Bultfontein diamond mines were
discovered. and in 1871 the still richer
mines of Kimberley and De Beers, and
South Africa was fairly launched on
its career. The rest of its history is
full of events, among which are the
Boer war of 1881, the Jameson raid of
1895, the war of lS99-l902, the grant
ing of responsible government to the
Beers of the Transvaal and Orange
river colony in 1906. and the forma-
tion of the Union of South Africa in
1910. These, however, constitute