History
The Earliest People
Stone-age tribes arrived tens of thousands of years ago to the Cape. They were followed by the San hunter gatherers who illustrated their occupation only through cave paintings.
Upto the period when the first Portuguese mariners arrived, the Cape was being occupied by the Khoikhoi, close relatives of the San, who were semi-nomadic sheep and cattle pastoralists.
The European Navigators (1487-1503)
Bartholomeu Diaz led a voyage in 1487, around the Cape of Good Hope, in search of precious species found in the east, especially India. The Cape became an unmistakable beacon, which could be seen by ships from over 150kms.
One hundred and sixty years after its discovery in 1488, the Peninsula was still a part of primeval Africa. Any commerce that occured was linked to the important geographic location of the Cape.
Portuguese sailors christened the Peninsula, "Cabo Tormentosa" (Bay of Storms) as it is the meeting place of two great currents, one from the equator (Agulhas Current - the strongest north-south current in the Southern Hemisphere) and the other from the Antarctic (Benguela Current), causing turbulent seas and gigantic waves.
In 1503, Antonio Saldanha gave Table Mountain its name after he was the first European to climb it.
The First European Settlers (1652-1798)
By the end of the 16th century, the English and the Dutch were reaping the same rewards by using the Cape as a stop-over for their scurvy-ridden crews. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company established a port at Table Bay with the intention for ships to stock up on fresh supplies of meat, fruit and vegetables. Jan van Riebeeck was the man chosen to lead a small expedition in his flagship Drommedaris. His first fort, subsequently was replaced by the existing Castle of Good Hope, was Cape Town's first building.
Jan van Riebeeck's flagship Drommedaris as it salied into the port at Table Bay
The 17th century was the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic. Its merchants were the most successful businessmen in Europe; their Dutch East India Company was the world's greatest trading corporation and had soveriegn rights in the East and the Cape. By mid-century it was the dominant European maritime power in Southeast Asia. Its fleet, some six thousand ships totalling at least 600,000 tons, was manned by about 48,000 sailors.
The Cape became an outstation of the Dutch East India Company's eastern empire, and fell directly under the Governor-Gerneral of the Indies. From 1672 the Cape had its own Governor but was still under eastern control until the end of the company period in 1795. The map below shows the extent of land the Dutch occupied from 1652-1798 in the Western Cape.
The population of whites did not reach 1,000 until 1745, but a few free burghers had begun to break away from the Company's stranglehold. These were the first of the trekboers and their inevitable confrontations with the Khoisan were disastrous. The indigenous people were forced out from their lands through the introduction of diseases and superior weapons. The survivors had to work for Europeans in a form of bondage little different from slavery. During this period, the town was thriving and providing a comfortable European lifestyle to a growing number of artisans and entrepreneurs who serviced the ships and crews.
Simon van der Stel, who arrived as Governor in 1679, was destined to exercise marked influence on the Colony for the next 20 years. He is the founder of Stellenbosch, Drakenstein and Franschoek, and is responsible for the construction of many of the famous homesteads in the Cape.
Architectural Heritage
In 1777, Anton Anreith, a young sculptor and wood carver from Freiburg, was the first of three very talented architects who influenced a period of prosperity and aesthetic building activity. The other two were Louis Michel Thibault who arrived in 1781 and Hermann Schutte in 1789.
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| The Kat Balcony in Cape Town Castle built in the late 19th Century by Thibault and Anreith | The Entrance Hall to a Cape Town House showing glazed screen and fanlight |
British Rule (1792-1910)
By the end of the 18th Century the British secured the Cape in response to the fading power of the Dutch. The colony was permanently ceded to the Crown on 13th August 1814. The slave trade was abolished in 1808. During this period, the British introduced new laws that spurred the exploitation of labour resources. It was a crime to be in the colony without a pass or a job.
Outside the town, satellite villages formed around churches and inns along the road to False Bay. In 1824, Cape Town's first newspaper, The Commercial Advertiser was published. It was printed in English and Dutch.
Cape Town became a municipality in 1840. A liberal constitution was granted to the Cape Colony in 1853 and the first elected Parliament met on 30 June 1854.
In the 1870s and 80s, the discovery and exploitation of diamonds and gold in central South Africa led to rapid changes. The port enabled Cape Town to benefit from this mineral wealth that laid the foundations for an industrial society. However, in 1869 the Suez Canal opened and Cape Town's link to Asia began to wane.
Cape Town became the seat of the legislature while Pretoria the adminstrative capital and Bloemfontein the seat of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. The Union of South Africa came into being in 1910.
War and Apartheid
South Africa fought alongside the Allies in both world wars, but Afrikaner opposition to British support continued throughout. The years between 1910 and the historical parliamentary election of 1948 saw South Africa become a powerful industrial nation. The National Party won its first election under the leadership of D.F. Malan in 1948. This marked the beginning of the apartheid era.
The western half of the Cape Province was declared a "coloured preference area" which meant no black could be employed unless it could be proved there was no suitable coloured person for the job. The voting rights of non whites were taken away in the case of Africans in 1936 and of Coloureds in 1956. No new black housing was built which led to shanty towns.
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Map showing the plan to segregate the races in Greater Cape Town. The industrial sector forms a wedge from the Docklands out to the suburbs. It is interesting to note that the blacks were to remain in an area sandwitched between the Coloureds zone. |
In the 1960s many ANC (African National Congress) leaders were sentenced to prison in Robben Island, which is in the middle of Table Bay. The most famous prisoner was Nelson Mandela.
