History of the Cape Colony before 1806

[1] In 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed along the whole coast of South Africa on his way to India, landed at St Helena Bay for 8 days, and made a detailed description[2] of the area.

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.

They arrived in the harbour of modern-day Cape Town on 6 April 1652 with five ships: The settlers initially built a clay and timber fort, which was replaced between 1666 and 1679 by the Castle of Good Hope, which is now the oldest building in South Africa.

Initially the VOC had hoped to employ a small number of servants and employees to produce food close to the fortress whilst obtaining cattle from the local Khoikhoi.

[3]: 31 The earliest colonists were, for the most part, from the lower, working class and displayed an indifferent attitude towards developing the colony, but after a commissioner that was sent out in 1685 to attract more settlers, a more dedicated group of immigrants began to arrive.

Neither the hostility of the natives, nor the struggle to make agriculture profitable on Karoo or veld, slowed the progress made by the colonists as much as the narrow and tyrannical policy adopted by the Dutch East India Company.

To avoid collision with the bantu tribes advancing south and west from east central Africa, the Dutch agreed in 1780 to make the Great Fish River the boundary of the colony.

In 1795 the heavily taxed boers of the frontier districts, who received no protection against the Africans, expelled the officials of the Dutch East India Company, and established independent governments at Swellendam and at Graaff-Reinet.

Reacting to the weakness of the Dutch East India Company holdings, a British force under Sir James Henry Craig set out for Cape Town to secure the colony for the Stadtholder Prince William V of Orange against the French.