Soccer / World Cup A short history of the Dutch in South Africa, 1652-2010 Posted by Thad Williamson @ThadWilliamson on Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 9:10 AM Laurence Griffiths Holland's Dirk Kuyt, seen against Uruguay in the semifinal RICHMOND, VA—The Dutch East India Company established a small settlement at what is now Cape Town in 1652. The initial purpose of the settlement was to provide a rest stop and supply station for trading vessels making the long journey from Europe, around the cape of southern Africa, and on to India and other points eastward. Slavery (of Africans, but also of some Asians) was a feature of the new colony almost from day one, as was the process of subjugating the local indigenous population.

Academic historians commonly refer to the events of the 17th century and 18th century in South Africa as the “white invasion” or “conquest.” The first violent conflicts between the Dutch community and natives dates from 1659; over the next 50 years, the settlers took advantage of superior weaponry to gradually gain control of more land and more resources (livestock) formerly controlled or occupied by native Africans. A devastating small pox outbreak in the late 17th century further decimated the Khoikhoi ("Hottentot") native population. Also significant for South Africa’s subsequent history is the fact that the white colonial settlement had sharp “gradations of status and wealth,” as historian Leonard Thompson puts it. Colony administrators and a few wealthy farmers controlled land and resources, but many other white settlers were landless. This was the strata from which the first “trekkers” emerged—those white colonialists who over the course of the 18th century branched out from the Cape Town base and began expanding white presence in southern Africa, to the north and the east. The trekkers had only limited contact with Dutch colonial culture during this process.

Government beyond the Cape Town region was extremely limited, and the trekkers in effect made their own laws, particularly in dealing with native Africans. Over much of the 18th century, there were no formal schools for these settlers, and little organized religion; contact with the home colony base consisted of long, arduous trade trips. These colonialists of Dutch descent had an increasingly marginal relationship with Cape Town, much less Holland itself and the intellectual and political developments of 18th-century Europe. Many trekkers owned slaves, and the trekkers formed “commando” units for military defense—and aggression—against native Africans. Periodic warfare with the Xhosa was a fact of life in the late 18th century, and the trekkers believed they received inadequate support from Cape Town. It was common practice among the trekkers to kill all adults in conflicts with hunter-gatherers and other natives, while keeping the children to use as laborers. This is not to say that the trekkers lived luxuriously, in the style of 19th-century plantation owners in the American South—indeed, they were almost all simply eking out a subsistence existence.

Meanwhile, back in Cape Town, a slave society continued to develop—almost two-thirds of Cape Town residents in 1795 were slaves. Thompson and other historians judge slavery in the Cape in this period to be more brutal than that prevailing in North America at the time. These events were probably almost entirely unknown to leaders in Holland in the late 18th century, let alone the average Dutch person—although they were in many ways a predictable consequence of both the colonial impulse and the European ideologies of racism then prevailing. But unlike in the case of the American colonies and England, the Cape settlement was not a major political topic or concern for Holland over this time period. Most Europeans still regarded the settlement as a pit stop. Indeed, it is estimated that by 1793, the colony as a whole (including trekkers) totaled just 15,000 whites. In 1795, England took control of the colony for the first time, a move made permanent in 1806. English settlers in substantial numbers first entered South African in 1820s as part of a government program to relieve poverty at home.

British colonial rule was often just as brutal towards native Africans as the Dutch had been, especially in military conflicts. But humanitarian pressure and changing views on slavery led to legislation establishing legal rights and equality before the law for the Khoikhoi in the Cape colony in 1828, with all slaves to be fully freed by 1838. These changes were not well-received by the Dutch-speaking colonists, who were also disappointed at Britain's refusal to annex more land and what they felt was a low rate of compensation paid to former slave owners. Resentment against English rule led some colonists of Dutch descent to embark on the "Great Trek" of the 1820s and 30s—a sustained effort, much larger in scale than the 18th-century trek, to achieve both white control over African land and autonomy from the English. In this process, the trekkers began forging a new, distinct national and cultural identity, distinct from the Dutch and in opposition both to indigenous Africans and the English—Afrikaner nationalism. The building blocks of this identity were a new and distinct language (Afrikaans) and much myth-making regarding the exploits of the trekkers.

Central among those exploits were brutal battles with the Zulus and other groups, such as an 1838 battle that killed 3,000 Zulus in a single day. The original trekkers had set out with the stated aim of preserving "proper relations between master and servant." As Thompson puts it, the aim was to "recreate the social and economic structure of the Cape colony," one based on the subordination of nonwhites as laborers for whites. The Afrikaners succeeded in this aim. When the discovery of diamonds and gold in the southern African interior in the late 19th century began transforming the country economically, the system of racial segregation was well-entrenched, and the mines were organized on the same principle. Native Africans were recruited to work in the mines at low pay, segregated from whites and separated from women, and subjected to body parts searches to prevent any theft of diamonds. Ongoing conflict between the English and the Afrikaners in the region led to the South African War (Boer War) at the end of the turn of the 20th century, which I will not detail here.

Suffice it to say that while the British succeeded in their aims of establishing unitary rule through southern Africa, they did not come close to succeeding in the stated goal of destroying Afrkaner nationalism—indeed, the war strengthened Afrikaner ethnic identity. The constitution sent to Parliament (and there approved) establishing modern South Africa in 1910 enshrined racial distinctions, and paved the way for white rule in governments predominated by Afrikaner leaders The key point is there is direct historic continuity between the original Dutch settlements and the emergence of an Afrikaner national identity predicated on racial domination, and the subsequent adoption of the policies and ideologies of Apartheid. Why does any of this matter, as the world awaits Holland’s attempt to win a World Cup for the very first time on Sunday against Spain? Let me specify two ways I don't think it matters. First, I don’t think history should make anyone root against Holland on Sunday. Indeed, more recently Holland was a major center of anti-apartheid activism, beginning in the mid-1950s; some of this history is detailed here .

Second, the point is not to condemn the present Dutch nation for the sins of the past, as if these were unique world historical events. The history of almost all powerful nations contain major crimes and injustices (including of course the United States). Instead, I want to suggest three things. First, this history matters for its own sake—forgetting history is rarely a good idea. Second, knowing this history helps make sense of the continued inequalities and under-development that haunt sub-Saharan Africa. Third, placing this history front and center reminds those of us in the developed world, especially those of us of European descent, of both our historic linkages to colonial oppression and our ongoing collective responsibility—here and now— to address the devastating legacies of that oppression. Sources: Leonard Thompson, A History of South Africa (Yale, 2001); Nigel Worden, The Making of Modern South Africa (Blackwell, 2007). Historical Flags of Our Ancestors - South Africa Flags Batavian Republic Naval Jack The Batavian Republic 1803�1806 The First British Occupation of the Cape ended in 1803 with the Peace of Amiens in terms of which the Cape was returned to the Dutch.

The Dutch East India Company had been liquidated in 1796 and the Dutch state, under the influence of the French, was now known as the Batavian Republic. The Constitution of 1798 made determined that the Batavian Republic would possess a centralized government patterned after that of the Directory in France and bound the newly formed Republic to France by alliance. Under Napoleon the system of government and the Batavian Republic was renamed the Batavian Commonwealth, and executive power put into the hands of a ruling council. In 1806, the Batavian Commonwealth was replaced by the Kingdom of Holland under Napoleon�s brother Louis which lasted until 1810, when the northern Dutch provinces were incorporated into the French Empire. The flag of the new republic was the Dutch tricolor of red, white and blue with the Hollandsche Maagd (Dutch Maiden) added to the canton. The Dutch Maiden was a seated woman, facing a reclining lion, holding a shield and a staff crowned by the Cap of Liberty. The "Hollandsche Maagd" on a white field was also used as the Batavian Republic Naval Jack.

At the Cape she became known as the Bataafsche Maagd (Batavian Maid) and later, the Lady of Good Hope, appearing in the crest of the Arms of the Cape Colony and in the shield of the South African coat of arms used between 1910 and 2000. British Union Flag after 1801 The Second British Occupation 1806�1815 The Batavian flag had a short history at the Cape, being replaced in 1806 when the Netherlands, then controlled by the French, declared war on the British and the British again occupied the Cape. The Second British Occupation lasted until 1815, when the new Dutch kingdom ceded the Cape permanently to Britain in a treaty following the Napoleonic Wars. The Cape Colony 1815�1876 Although a formal British colony since 1815, the Cape continued to fly an underfaced British Union Flag until the adoption of a distinctive colonial ensign in 1876.

Kruisvlag Flag Kruisvlag (Cross Flag) 1836�1840 The first group of Voortrekkers under Hendrik Potgieter adopted a blue flag bearing a red saltire which became known as the Kruisvlag (Cross flag). Some historians have argued that this flag was based on the saltire of Burgundy. However, the Voortrekkers kept few written records and the circumstances which led to this design are clouded in obscurity. Flag of Natalia Republic of Natalia 1839�1843 A party of Voortrekkers reached what is now KwaZulu-Natal and established a republic there which they named Natalia. Initially a Dutch tricolor was used, but a flag of Natalia was hoisted on 24 December 1839. This was based on the Dutch colours, with the central stripe becoming a triangle, extending from the centre of the hoist, to occupy the full length of the fly. This flag flew until 26 July 1843 when the British forced the Boers to withdraw and annexed the territory as the Colony of Natal.

Orange Free State Flag Republic of the Orange Free State 1854�1902 In the area between the Orange and Vaal Rivers the Voortrekkers established the Republiek den Oranje Vrijstaat (Republic of the Orange Free State). When the new state came into being on 23 February 1854 it possessed neither arms nor a flag and the flag of the Batavian Republic was initially used. On 15 May 1854 the Orange Free State (OFS) Government Secretary wrote to the Republic's Consul in the Netherlands and asked whether King William III would be willing to grant the OFS arms and a flag. This was followed by a personal letter to the King from President Hoffman on 15 October 1854. The request for arms and a flag was eventually granted and on 12 January 1856 the King's special envoy arrived in Bloemfontein (the capital) with the royal gifts and the flag was formally adopted on 28 February 1856. The flag consisted of seven equal alternating horizontal stripes of white and orange with the Dutch flag in the canton.

Both the arms and flag remained in use until the OFS came to an end following the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging marking the end of the Anglo-Boer South African War on 31 May 1902. The Republic of the Orange Free State then became the British controlled Orange River Colony. South African Republic Flag South African Republic (Transvaal) 1858�1874 When the various Voortrekker parties crossed over the Vaal River they were divided into four independent minded entities of Potchefstroom, Lydenburg, Zoutpansberg and Utrecht. Except for the latter, each also had a different flag. Potchefstroom, under the leadership of Andries Pretorius, used the flag of Natalia. In the Zoutpansberg, under the leadership of the Hendrik Potgieter, the Kruisvlag (Cross flag) was used while in Lydenberg, under Frans Joubert, a Dutch tricolor with a light blue stripe at the bottom was used. Utrecht later united with Lydenberg, so it is presumed that it also used the Lydenberg flag.

A flag for the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic) was adopted by the Volksraad (Parliament) on 18 February 1858. The flag was the Dutch tricolour with a green vertical stripe (for liberty and youth) at the hoist and become popularly known as the Vierkleur (four colour). The "Burgers" Flag South African Republic 1874-1875 Thomas Francois Burgers became President of the South African Republic in 1872 and was not in favour of the Vierkleur flag and wanted to restore the old Kruisvlag. In order to conform with heraldic rules, with which the President was acquainted, a white fimbriation was added to the red saltire. The new design was discussed by the Volksraad (Parliament) and the flag was adopted on 24 October 1874 as the new flag of the South African Republic. This decision immediately encountered widespread opposition, particularly in Potchefstroom where the Vierkleur had been designed and first hoisted.

Opposition to the new flag continued grow until, during the absence of President Burgers on a trip to Europe, the Volksraad reversed its decision and reinstated the Vierkleur on 10 May 1875. The so-called "Burgers flag" was designated as the President's flag, to fly alongside the Vierkleur whenever the President was present. On his return, Burgers rejected the concept of a personal flag for the President and the flag was abolished. Initial flag of Stellaland Third flag of Stellaland Republic of Stellaland 1882-1885 Stellaland arose from the internecine warfare amongst the Tswana clans on the western border of the South African Republic, which was then still largely undetermined. Civil war between the Koranna and Rolong tribes broke out in 1882 and Boer volunteers were invited by both sides to assist in the war. Their payment would be in the form of land. A peace treaty between the contending chiefs was concluded in 1882 which ceded a substantial portion of territory to the volunteers.

They formed a Volksraad and established the Republic of Stellaland in July 1882 with Vryburg as its capital. The Dutch in South Africa, 1652-1795 1802-1806 - Colonial Voyage Castle of Good Hope (Kasteel de Goede Hoop), Cape Town, South Africa. Author and Copyright Marco Ramerini The Dutch in South Africa, 1652-1795 1802-1806 in Dutch Colonialism , South Africa 21,954 Views Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. The Dutch settlement history in South Africa began in March 1647 with the shipwreck of the Dutch ship Nieuwe Haarlem. The shipwreck victims built a small fort named “Sand Fort of the Cape of Good Hope”. They stayed for nearly one year at the Cape. Finally they were rescued by a fleet of 12 ships under the command of W.G. de Jong. On one of these ships was Jan van Riebeeck, too.

After their return to Holland a part of the shipwrecked tried to persuade the Dutch East India Company to open a trading center at the Cape. In 1652 a Dutch expedition of 90 Calvinist settlers under the command of Jan Van Riebeeck founded the first permanent settlement near the Cape of Good Hope. They arrived in the bay of today’s Cape Town – later named Table Bay/Tafelbaai – on 6 April 1652 on board of five ships: the “Reijger”, the “Oliphant”, the “Goede Hoop”, the “Walvisch” and the “Drommedaris”. A square wooden fort with four bastions was quickly built on the left bank of the Salt River, where is now the Central Post Office, and later were built also two redoubts near the shore. They were named “Kyckuit” and “Duinhoop”. In 1666 the first stone was laid on 2 January and the original fort was replaced by a new stone fort named Castle of Good Hope/Kasteel de Goede Hoop, a massive pentagonal fortress with a moat and bastions at each corner.

The bastions were named: “Nassau”, “Leerdam”, “Oranje”, “Catzenellenbogen” and “Buuren”. Paarl, South Africa. Author and Copyright Marco Ramerini As Prof. Ch. R. Boxer wrote in his book “The Dutch seaborne Empire”, “the Cape developed into a colony, which was something unique, save for the short-lived New Netherland, in the possesion of the Dutch East and West India Companies. It had a healthy, subtropical and partly fertile hinterland, which was virtually unoccupied. White colonisation was as feasible here as it had been in New Netherland, with the additional advantage that there was no rival European nation close at hand.” On 3 June 1652 the first child was born. The development of a community of free-burghers was the main secret of the success of the settlement. From the beginning the first trades with the Hottentots were started being residents of the zone, but the relationship with these tribes were often problematic. In 1655 the first coast vessel made of Cape timber was lauched.

In 1657 two groups of farmers settled about three miles from the castle at Groenevelt (or Dutch Garden) and Rondebosch. In 1658 the population of the whole Cape Colony consisted of 162 persons, slaves included. In 1659 wine was pressed from Cape grapes for the first time. Stellenbosch, South Africa. Author and Copyright Marco Ramerini. During the first years the natives were the most persistent problem of the colony. They frequently stole cattle. To solve the problem it was decided to build a strong fence around the farms to protect the cattle. These defences were extended from Blaauwberg across the bay to Salt River and then through Groote Schuur to the hill of Wynberg. Three watch-houses were also built. The whole settlement was thus protected from Hottentot incursion. Saldanha Bay, Dassen Island and Robben Island were developed as outposts of trade and stock raising. In 1660 a Dutch ship with 150 slaves from Angola arrived at the Cape. Later the same year another ship arrived with more slaves. Thus the number of slaves in the settlement rose to 187.

A school was opened to teach Dutch and religion to the children of the white settlers and to the Mulattos and Hottentots, too. When Jan van Riebeeck laid down his office in May 1662, there were 39 free farmers, of whom 15 were married. Free labourers employed on the farms amounted to 54. The whole farming community was of some 130 persons, besides the servants and the officials of the VOC. After the departure of Jan van Riebeeck a period of confusion began in the colony: During the first ten years 4 governors were appointed and after this started the war with France. Castle of Good Hope (Kasteel de Goede Hoop), Cape Town, South Africa. Author and Copyright Marco On 2 Janaury 1666 during the government of Wagenaer was laid the foundation stone of the Castle of Good Hope, which was completed in 1674 during the government of Isbrand Goske. In 1672 the white population was less than 600 souls, of whom only 64 were male free-burghers.

On 9 April 1678 was laid the first stone of the Dutch Reformed Church of Cape Town. This building was completed 25 years later. In 1679 the colony had 289 Europeans of whom 142 were free-burghers and 191 slaves. As in Ceylon the free-burghers in Kaapstad (Cape Town) were in most cases tavern-keepers or to a lesser extent craftsmen and shopkeepers. In this year a new governor was appointed. He was the Mauritius-born Simon van der Stel. In the first year of his government he founded Stellenbosch, the second oldest town in South Africa, and during the twenty years of his government he promoted the immigration of new families from The Netherlands, built a new hospital and thoroughly developed the colony. The Dutch settlements in South Africa 1652-1795 and 1802-1806. Author and Copyright Marco Ramerini In 1688 a group of about 200 French Huguenots arrived.

They settled in Stellenbosch, Drakenstein, Paarl and Franschhoek, developing farming and in particular vineyards. In 1691 the population of Kaapstad or “De Kaap” consisted of 1000 Europeans and 400 Slaves. In 1695 there were still only 340 free-burghers in the colony. In February 1699 Simon van der Stel handed over the government to his son Willem Adriaan van der Stel. During his administration he had several problems with the French Huguenot settlers. During the administration of Maurice de Chavonnes (1714-1724) a series of small outposts were built at strategic points in Tulbagh, Klapmuts, Groenekloof and Saldanha Baai to prevent Hottentot raids. In 1717 there were more than 5,000 souls, of whom 2,500 were Europeans in the colony (in most cases farmers and breeders) and 2,500 slaves.

The growth of the population in Dutch South Africa Year Cape Town Founded | History Today Cape Town Founded Early Modern (16th-18thC) South Africa Empire Richard Cavendish charts the founding of Cape Town, on April 7th, 1652. The first Europeans known to have climbed Table Mountain were Portuguese seamen under Antonio de Saldanha, whose ships were part of a fleet on its way to India in 1503. They had a fracas with the local people, the Khoi, nomadic cattle herders known to Europeans for centuries as ‘Hottentots’. There was a more serious skirmish in 1510, when many Portuguese were killed. Even so, European ships began putting in to Table Bay for fresh water and meat until in 1647 a Dutch ship, the Haarlem, was wrecked in the bay. The survivors returned to Holland to report that the place was fertile and suitable for growing vegetables and fruit, against scurvy, while the natives were not cannibals as reported, but friendly and, if kindly treated, could be converted to Christianity and used as servants.

In 1651 accordingly, the directors of the Dutch East India Company, the Seventeen, decided to establish an outpost at the Cape, where their ships could put in for water and supplies and the sick could be treated. Jan van Riebeek reached Table Bay on April 6th, the following year with an expedition some ninety-strong in three ships and went ashore the next day to select a place for a fort. Today’s Grand Parade in the centre of Cape Town is on the site. Van Riebeck, who had been in serious trouble with the Company four years before engaging in private trading, threw himself into this opportunity and reported that he himself worked as engineer, mason, smith, carpenter and farmer. What turned the original outpost into the first European colony in South Africa was the Company’s decision to let sailors and soldiers in its service settle at the Cape and start their own farms. In 1658 the first slaves were imported, from the East Indies and Central Africa, and when van Riebeek left for India in 1662 the little settlement had a fort, a hospital, a jetty, workshops and a granary, as well as houses.

The early settlers interbred with the Khoi and the colony's population was swelled by European immigrants who included girls from Dutch orphanages and Huguenot exiles from France, shipped out by the Company. By the 1690s the settlement of De Kaapsche Vlek (the Cape hamlet) had a couple of hundred houses and a European population of about 1,000, of whom two-thirds were Dutch and one-sixth French, with smaller numbers of Germans, Swedes, Danes and Belgians. There were also a hundred or so Africans and Asians, and almost 400 slaves. Care was taken to integrate newcomers from other European countries with the Dutch, speaking the Dutch language and conforming to the Reformed Church, and the eighteenth century saw the gradual evolution of the Afrikaner people as the little settlement grew into a town, now called Kaapstad (Cape Town). When the British seized it in 1795, the town had about 1,000 houses and a population of some 14,000.

History of South Africa, Early European Settlement Early European Settlement Origins of Settlement Portuguese mariners explored the west coast of Africa throughout the latter half of the fifteenth century. Two ships under Bartholomeu Dias eventually rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 and traveled more than 600 kilometers along the southwestern coast. In 1497 an expedition under Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape, sailed up the east African coast to the Arab port of Malindi (in present-day Kenya), and then crossed the Indian Ocean to India, thereby opening up a way for Europeans to gain direct access to the spices of the East without having to go through Arab middlemen. The Portuguese dominated this trade route throughout the sixteenth century. They built forts and supply stations along the west and east African coasts, but they did not build south of present-day Angola and Mozambique because of the treacherous currents along the southern coast.

At the end of the sixteenth century and in the early seventeenth century, English and Dutch merchants challenged the Portuguese monopoly in West Africa and Asia and saw the Cape peninsula as a source of fresh water, meat, and timber for masts, all of which they could obtain through trade with the local Khoikhoi. The English government refused its mariners' requests that it annex land there and establish a base, but in 1652 the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie--VOC) established a supply station in Table Bay on the Cape peninsula, instructing its station commander, Jan van Riebeeck, and his eighty company employees to build a fort and to obtain supplies of foodstuffs for the Dutch fleets. Establishing a Slave Economy The VOC's directors intended that the settlement at Table Bay should amount to no more than a small supply station able largely to pay for itself. European settlement was to be limited to VOC employees only, and their numbers were to be kept as small as possible. Company ships could stop to take on water, to get supplies of fresh fruit and vegetables grown by VOC employees, and to trade for fresh meat and milk from the local Khoikhoi.

The Khoikhoi were also expected to supply the labor needs of the settlement--building wharves and warehouses, putting up offices, and laying out roads. Within its first half decade, however, the Cape Colony was growing in ways unforeseen at its establishment. Most Khoikhoi chose not to labor for the Dutch because of low wages and harsh conditions; and, although ready initially to trade with the Dutch, they became increasingly unwilling to sell their farm products at the prices offered by the VOC. As a result, three processes were set in motion in the 1650s that were to produce a rapidly expanding, racially stratified society. First, the VOC decided to import slaves to meet local labor needs, and it maintained that policy for more than 100 years. Second, the VOC decided to free some of its employees from their contracts and to allow them to establish farms of their own to supply the Dutch fleets, thereby giving rise to a local settler population.

Third, to supply the needs of the fleets as well as of the growing local population, the Dutch expanded ever farther into the lands of the Khoikhoi, engaging in a series of wars that, together with the effects of imported diseases, decimated the indigenous population. Van Riebeeck had concluded within two months of the establishment of the Cape settlement that slave labor would be needed for the hardest and dirtiest work. Some thought was given to enslaving Khoikhoi men, but the idea was rejected on the grounds that such a policy would be both costly and dangerous. With a European population that did not exceed 200 during the settlement's first five years, war against neighbors numbering more than 20,000 would have been foolhardy. Moreover, the Dutch feared that Khoikhoi people, if enslaved, could always escape into the local community, whereas foreigners would find it much more difficult to elude their "masters." Between 1652 and 1657, a number of unsuccessful attempts were made to obtain men from the Dutch East Indies and from Mauritius.

In 1658, however, the VOC landed two shiploads of slaves at the Cape, one containing more than 200 people brought from Dahomey (later Benin), the second with almost 200 people, most of them children, captured from a Portuguese slaver off the coast of Angola. Except for a few individuals, these were to be the only slaves ever brought to the Cape from West Africa. Thereafter, all the slaves imported into the Cape until the British stopped the trade in 1807 were from East Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, and South and Southeast Asia. Large numbers were brought from India, Ceylon, and the Indonesian archipelago. Prisoners from other countries in the VOC's empire were also enslaved. The slave population, which exceeded that of the European settlers until the first quarter of the nineteenth century, was overwhelmingly male and was thus dependent on constant imports of new slaves to maintain and to augment its size. Emergence of a Settler Society In 1657 nine European men were released from the VOC's service, given the status of "free burghers," and granted blocks of land.

They were exempted from taxation for twelve years, but the VOC held a mortgage on their lands. They were free to trade with Khoikhoi for sheep and cattle, but they were prohibited from paying higher prices for the stock than did the VOC, and they were told not to enslave the local pastoralists. They were encouraged to grow crops, especially grains, for sale to the VOC, but they were not allowed to produce anything already grown in the company's own gardens. By such measures, the VOC hoped not only to increase local production and thereby to pay the costs of the settlement, but also to prevent any private producers from undercutting the VOC's control over prices. Conflict between Dutch farmers and Khoikhoi broke out once it became clear to the latter that the Dutch were there to stay and that they intended to encroach on the lands of the pastoralists. In 1659 Doman, a Khoikhoi who had worked as a translator for the Dutch and had even traveled to Java, led an armed attempt to expel the Dutch from the Cape peninsula. The attempt was a failure, although warfare dragged on until an inconclusive peace was established a year later.

During the following decade, pressure on the Khoikhoi grew as more of the Dutch became free burghers, expanded their landholdings, and sought pastureland for their growing herds. War broke out again in 1673 and continued until 1677, when Khoikhoi resistance was destroyed by a combination of superior European weapons and Dutch manipulation of divisions among the local people. Thereafter, Khoikhoi society in the western Cape disintegrated. Some people found jobs as shepherds on European farms; others rejected foreign rule and moved away from the Cape. The final blow for most came in 1713 when a Dutch ship brought smallpox to the Cape. Hitherto unknown locally, the disease ravaged the remaining Khoikhoi, killing 90 percent of the population. The community at Table Bay grew larger and more diverse throughout the late 1600s, particularly after the VOC decided in 1679 that European settlement should be boosted in order to expand agricultural production. German and Dutch settlers were offered free farms if they would come to the Cape.

In 1688 several hundred Huguenots fleeing persecution by the French were offered free passage to the Cape and grants of land. These settlers, all of whom soon assimilated Dutch culture and language, grew large crops of wheat as well as other grains for sale to the VOC, although they found such crops barely profitable. They also planted grapevines, so that they could make wine and brandy--products much in demand for Dutch sailors and capable of being exported to Europe, unlike other, perishable items. The mainstay of most settlers, however, was livestock farming, which required large areas of pastureland because the soil was generally poor. By the end of the century, pressures for land in and around the Cape peninsula had become intense. There were approximately 1,500 Europeans in the Cape settlement and a slightly larger number of slaves, and the area of settlement had extended well beyond the original base at Table Bay to include freehold farms reaching sixty kilometers inland. The rise of an expanding settler society fueled tensions between free burghers and the VOC. Free burghers criticized the autocratic powers of the local VOC administration, in which the governor had full control and the settlers had no rights of representation.

They denounced the economic policies of the VOC that fixed the prices at which settlers could sell their agricultural products. They called attention to the corrupt practices of VOC officers, who granted themselves prime land and then sold their own crops at higher prices to the company. Above all, they complained about the VOC's failure--at least in their eyes--to police the frontier boundaries and to protect the settlers' crops and herds from Khoikhoi and San raiders. Trekboers (semi-migrant farmers of primarily Dutch, German, and French ancestry; more commonly known as Boers) played a key role in the eighteenth century in the expansion of the settlement and in the growth of frontier conflict. With much of the better land close to the Cape in the hands of VOC officials and rich burghers, poorer whites sought to make a living beyond the boundaries of the settlement. Traveling by wagon inland and along the southwestern coast, individual farmers, along with their immediate families (if any), a few slaves, several Khoikhoi herdsmen, and small numbers of livestock, set out to establish farms on large tracts of land (averaging 2,500 hectares) granted on loan by the VOC.

Because much of this land was already occupied by Khoikhoi pastoralists near the coast and by San hunter-gatherers in the interior, considerable warfare resulted. Trekboers raided the herds of the Khoikhoi and seized control of the springs on which pastoralists and hunter-gatherers alike depended for water, while Khoikhoi and San counterraided the herds of the Trekboers. In the face of burgher agitation, growing frontier conflict, and increasing overproduction of agricultural goods for the local market, the VOC in 1717 attempted to limit the growth of European settlement. It stopped all assisted immigration of Europeans and decided that thereafter only slaves should be used in the future development of the settlement. Moreover, it ended the granting of freehold title to land, although it did continue to make farms available on loan. Such measures had only a limited impact on the growth of the settlement. Throughout the eighteenth century, the settlement continued to expand through internal growth of the European population and the continued importation of slaves.

The approximately 3,000 Europeans and slaves at the Cape in 1700 had increased by the end of the century to nearly 20,000 Europeans, almost 25,000 slaves, and another 15,000 Khoikhoi and mixed-race people living within the boundaries of the settlement. In the west, the economy was dominated by the bustling port at Table Bay and the wheat farms and vineyards of Stellenbosch and Swellendam, which depended almost totally on slave labor. Politically, the VOC governor continued to be in firm control, although a number of wealthy burghers exercised considerable informal influence. Socially, the community was marked by considerable stratification and diversity. Most wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few company officials and a minority of burghers. The majority of Europeans earned a living as artisans, traders, and innkeepers, although almost all whites owned at least one or two slaves. A small community of mixed-race people had also emerged, the offspring of relationships among whites, Khoikhoi, Asians, and African slaves.

In the eastern areas of the Cape, beyond the Cape Colony itself, Trekboers predominated with their extensive pastoral economy. Most owned some slaves, but they depended more on Khoikhoi and San to meet their labor needs. Although nominally under the jurisdiction of the VOC, the Trekboers largely ruled themselves. They did not believe that Khoikhoi and San should be treated equally with Europeans in the courts, and they established harsh labor regimes on their farms. To deal with frontier problems, they periodically raised armed bands of men to protect their herds and to carry out punitive expeditions against Khoikhoi and San. They developed a consciousness of themselves as a distinct community settled permanently in South Africa and, unlike the employees of the VOC, they did not plan to return to Europe. By the last quarter of the eighteenth century, both western and eastern areas of the Cape were undergoing a period of stress. Continued overproduction for the local market in the west and resulting economic hardship led burghers to identify the VOC as the source of all their problems. The discontents of the Trekboers were even greater.

Their continuing expansion was blocked by a number of barriers: by aridity 500 kilometers north of the Cape peninsula, by hunter-gatherer raiders in the northeast, and, most important, by large numbers of Bantu-speaking farmers (Xhosa) settled roughly 700 kilometers to the east of Cape Town and just south of the Great Fish River. Throughout much of the eighteenth century, Xhosa and Trekboers had peacefully traded with one another, with the Dutch exchanging glass beads, nails, and other manufactured items for African cattle and ivory. By the late 1770s, however, tensions rose as Xhosa farmers were expanding west of the Great Fish River at the same time that the Trekboers were moving eastward. Demand for the same resources--land and water--brought Trekboers and Xhosa into conflict, and a series of frontier wars erupted in 1779 to 1781, and in 1793. In the second war, the Xhosa avenged their defeat in the first.

Their capture of thousands of head of Boer cattle and their occupation of large areas of land previously claimed by the Dutch were officially recognized and accepted by a local representative of the VOC. Enraged by what they considered the treachery of the company, Trekboers in Graaff-Reinet rebelled in 1795, expelling the VOC magistrate and proclaiming an independent republic. This attempt at autonomy ended, however, with the British takeover of the Cape settlement in 1795. Fearing that the strategic port at Table Bay might fall into the hands of Napoleon, the British seized the Cape to defend their sea route to India. They sent troops to the eastern Cape to prevent Boer insurrection and to establish order on the frontier, but they made no attempt to extend the boundaries of the settlement. Like the VOC before them, the British intended that the Cape settlement should remain as small as possible. Its value lay in its strategic position, not in its production. Moreover, the British had no wish to become embroiled in costly local struggles between European settlers and African farmers in the interior.

In 1802 the Treaty of Amiens, which ended a decade of upheaval in Europe, called for the return of the Cape Colony to Dutch control. This was accomplished in 1803, but the Dutch Batavian Republic in Europe had done little to implement this claim when the treaty began to break down in 1805. Britain again seized control of the Cape in 1806 and defied Dutch claims by occupying and expanding its presence in the Cape region. Finally, in 1814 the former Batavian Republic--the Kingdom of Holland--agreed to abandon its claim to the Cape in return for a grant of roughly 2 million British pounds.

Question: Which nation established the first settlement in what is now South Africa at Table Bay in 1652?
Answer: Holland