British colony from 1806 to 1910
This article is about the British colony. For the original Dutch colony, see
Dutch Cape Colony
.
Cape Colony
|
---|
|
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Anthem:
God Save the King
(1795?1837; 1901?1910)
God Save the Queen
(1837?1901)
|
The Cape Colony in 1885
|
Status
| Crown colony
of the
British Empire
|
---|
Capital
| Cape Town
|
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Common languages
| English
,
Dutch
[a]
Khoekhoe
,
Xhosa
also spoken
|
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Ethnic groups
(1904)
| |
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Religion
| Dutch Reformed Church
,
Anglican
,
San religion
|
---|
Government
| Self-governing colony
under
Constitutional monarchy
|
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King/Queen
|
|
---|
|
? 1795?1820
| George III
|
---|
? 1820?1830
| George IV
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? 1830?1837
| William IV
|
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? 1837?1901
| Victoria
|
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? 1901?1910
| Edward VII
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|
Governor
|
|
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|
? 1797?1798
| George Macartney
|
---|
? 1901?1910
| Walter Hely-Hutchinson
|
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|
Prime Minister
|
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|
? 1872?1878
| John Charles Molteno
|
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? 1908?1910
| John X. Merriman
|
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|
Historical era
| Imperialism
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|
| 1803?1806
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| 8 January 1806
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| 1814
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| 1844
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| 3 November 1871
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| 2 February 1884
|
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| 31 May 1910
|
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|
|
1822
| 331,907 km
2
(128,150 sq mi)
|
---|
|
|
? 1822
| 110,380
|
---|
? 1865 census
| 496,381
|
---|
? 1875 census
| 720,984
|
---|
? 1891 census
| 1,527,224
|
---|
? 1904 census
| 2,409,804
|
---|
|
Currency
| Pound sterling
|
---|
|
Today part of
| Namibia
[b]
South Africa
Lesotho
[c]
|
---|
The
Cape Colony
(
Dutch
:
Kaapkolonie
), also known as the
Cape of Good Hope
, was a
British
colony
in present-day
South Africa
named after the
Cape of Good Hope
. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three other colonies to form the
Union of South Africa
, then became the
Cape Province
, which existed even after 1961, when South Africa had become a republic, albeit, temporarily outside the
Commonwealth of Nations
(1961?94).
The British colony was preceded by an earlier corporate colony that became an
original Dutch colony of the same name
, which was established in 1652 by the
Dutch East India Company (VOC)
. The Cape was under VOC rule from 1652 to 1795 and under rule of the Napoleonic
Batavia Republic
from 1803 to 1806.
The VOC lost the colony to
Great Britain
following the 1795
Battle of Muizenberg
, but it was ceded to the
Batavia Republic
following the 1802
Treaty of Amiens
. It was re-occupied by the British following the
Battle of Blaauwberg
in 1806, and British possession affirmed with the
Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814
. The Cape of Good Hope then remained in the
British Empire
, becoming
self-governing
in 1872.
The colony was coextensive with the later
Cape Province
, stretching from the
Atlantic coast
inland and eastward along the southern coast, constituting about half of modern South Africa: the final eastern boundary, after several wars against the
Xhosa
, stood at the
Fish River
. In the north, the
Orange River
, natively known as the
?N??arib
(Black River) and subsequently called the Gariep River, served as the boundary for some time, although some land between the river and the southern boundary of
Botswana
was later added to it. From 1878, the colony also included the enclave of
Walvis Bay
and the
Penguin Islands
, both in what is now
Namibia
.
It united with three other colonies to form the
Union of South Africa
in 1910, and was accordingly renamed the
Province of the Cape of Good Hope
.
South Africa
became a sovereign state in 1931 by the
Statute of Westminster
. In 1961, it became the
Republic of South Africa
. Following the 1994 creation of
the present-day South African provinces
, the
Cape Province
was partitioned into the
Eastern Cape
,
Northern Cape
, and
Western Cape
, with smaller parts in
North West
province.
History
[
edit
]
VOC settlement
[
edit
]
An expedition of the VOC led by
Jan van Riebeeck
established a trading post and naval victualing station at the
Cape of Good Hope
in 1652.
Van Riebeeck's objective was to secure a harbour of refuge for VOC ships during the long voyages between Europe and Asia.
Within about three decades, the Cape had become home to a large community of
vrijlieden
, also known as
vrijburgers
('free citizens'), former VOC employees who settled in the colonies overseas after completing their service contracts.
Vrijburgers
were mostly married citizens who undertook to spend at least twenty years farming the land within the fledgling colony's borders; in exchange they received tax exempt status and were loaned
tools
and
seeds
.
Reflecting the multi-national nature of the early trading companies, the VOC granted
vrijburger
status to Dutch, Swiss, Scandinavian and German employees, among others.
In 1688 they also sponsored the immigration of nearly two hundred French
Huguenot
refugees who had fled to the Netherlands upon the
Edict of Fontainebleau
.
This so-called "Huguenot experiment" was deemed a failure by the colonial authorities a decade later, as many of the Huguenot arrivals had little experience with agriculture and had become a net burden on the colonial government.
[11]
There was a degree of cultural assimilation due to Dutch cultural hegemony that included the almost universal adoption of the Dutch language.
Many of the colonists who settled directly on the frontier became increasingly independent and localised in their loyalties.
Known as
Boers
, they migrated beyond the Cape Colony's initial borders and had soon penetrated almost a thousand kilometres inland.
Some Boers even adopted a nomadic lifestyle permanently and were denoted as
trekboers
.
The VOC colonial period had a number of bitter, genocidal conflicts between the colonists and the
Khoe-speaking indigenes
,
[16]
followed by the
Xhosa
, both of which they perceived as unwanted competitors for prime farmland.
VOC traders imported thousands of
slaves
to the Cape of Good Hope from the
Dutch East Indies
and other parts of Africa.
By the end of the eighteenth century the Cape's population swelled to about 26,000 people of European descent and 30,000 slaves.
British conquest
[
edit
]
In 1795,
France
occupied the
Seven Provinces
of the
Dutch Republic
, the mother country of the
Dutch United East India Company
. This prompted
Great Britain
to occupy the
Cape Colony
in 1795 as a way to better control the seas in order to stop any potential
French
attempt to reach
India
. The British sent a fleet of nine warships which anchored at
Simon's Town
and, following the defeat of the VOC militia at the
Battle of Muizenberg
, took control of the territory. The United East India Company transferred its territories and claims to the
Batavian Republic
(the Revolutionary period Dutch state) in 1798, and went bankrupt in 1799. Improving relations between
Britain
and
Napoleonic France
, and its vassal state the
Batavian Republic
, led the British to hand the Cape of Good Hope over to the Batavian Republic in 1803, under the terms of the
Treaty of Amiens
.
In 1806, the
Cape
, now nominally controlled by the
Batavian Republic
, was occupied again by the
British
after their victory in the
Battle of Blaauwberg
. The temporary peace between the UK and
Napoleonic France
had crumbled into open hostilities, whilst Napoleon had been strengthening his influence on the
Batavian Republic
(which
Napoleon
would subsequently abolish and directly administer later the same year). The
British
, who set up a colony on 8 January 1806,
[
citation needed
]
hoped to keep
Napoleon
out of the Cape, and to control the Far East trade routes.
The Cape Colony at the time of
British
occupation was three months' sailing distance from
London
. The
White
colonial population was small, no more than 25,000 in all, scattered across a territory of 100,000 square miles. Most lived in Cape Town and the surrounding farming districts of the
Boland
, an area favoured with rich soils, a
Mediterranean Climate
and reliable rainfall.
Cape Town
had a population of 16,000 people.
In 1814 the Dutch government formally ceded sovereignty over the
Cape
to the
British
, under the terms of the
Convention of London
.
British colonisation
[
edit
]
The
British
started to settle the eastern border of the Cape Colony, with the arrival in
Port Elizabeth
of the
1820 Settlers
. They also began to introduce the first rudimentary rights for the Cape's
Black African
population and, in 1834,
abolished slavery
; however, the government proved unable to rein in settler violence against the San, which continued largely unabated as it had during the Dutch period.
[21]
The resentment that the Boers felt against this social change, as well as the imposition of
English language
and
culture
, caused them to trek inland en masse. This was known as the
Great Trek
, and the migrating Boers settled inland, eventually forming the
Boer Republics
.
British Immigration continued in the Cape, even as many of the Boers continued to trek inland, and the ending of the
British East India Company
's monopoly on trade led to economic growth.
At the same time, the long series of
Xhosa Wars
fought between the Xhosa people in the east and the government of the Cape Colony as well as Boer settlers finally died down when the Xhosa took part in a
mass destruction of their own crops and cattle
, in the belief that this would cause their ancestors to wake from the dead. The resulting famine crippled Xhosa country and ushered in a long period of stability on the border.
Peace and prosperity, in addition to the
Convict crisis
of 1849, led to a desire for political independence. In 1853, the Cape Colony became a British Crown colony with representative government.
In 1854, the Cape of Good Hope
elected its first parliament
, on the basis of the multi-racial
Cape Qualified Franchise
. Cape residents qualified as voters based on a universal minimum level of property ownership, regardless of race.
Executive power remaining completely in the authority of the British governor did not relieve tensions in the colony between its
eastern
and
western
sections.
Responsible government
[
edit
]
In 1872, after a long political battle, the Cape of Good Hope achieved
responsible government
under its first Prime Minister,
John Molteno
. Henceforth, an elected Prime Minister and his cabinet had total responsibility for the affairs of the country. A period of strong economic growth and social development ensued, and the
eastern-western division
was largely laid to rest. The system of multi-racial franchise also began a slow and fragile growth in political inclusiveness, and ethnic tensions subsided.
In 1877, the state expanded by annexing
Griqualand West
and
Griqualand East
? that is, the Mount Currie district (
Kokstad
). The emergence of two Boer mini-republics along the Missionary Road resulted in 1885 in the Warren Expedition, sent to annex the republics of
Stellaland
and
Goshen
(lands annexed to
British Bechuanaland
). Major-General
Charles Warren
annexed the land south of the Molopo River as the colony of British Bechuanaland and proclaimed a protectorate over the land lying to the North of the river.
Vryburg
, the capital of Stellaland, became capital of British Bechuanaland, while
Mafeking
(now
Mahikeng
), although situated south of the protectorate border, became the protectorate's administrative centre. The border between the protectorate and the colony ran along the Molopo and Nossob rivers. In 1895, British Bechuanaland became part of the Cape Colony.
However, the discovery of diamonds around
Kimberley
and gold in the
Transvaal
led to a return to instability, particularly because they fuelled the rise to power of the ambitious imperialist
Cecil Rhodes
. On becoming the Cape's Prime Minister in 1890, he instigated a rapid expansion of British influence into the hinterland. In particular, he sought to engineer the conquest of the Transvaal, and although his ill-fated
Jameson Raid
failed and brought down his government, it led to the
Second Boer War
and British conquest at the turn of the century. The politics of the colony consequently came to be increasingly dominated by tensions between the British colonists and the Boers. Rhodes also brought in the first formal restrictions on the political rights of the Cape of Good Hope's black African citizens.
The Cape of Good Hope remained nominally under British rule until the formation of the
Union of South Africa
in 1910, when it became the province of the Cape of Good Hope, better known as the
Cape Province
.
Governors
[
edit
]
Districts
[
edit
]
The districts of the colony in 1850 were:
- Clanwilliam
- The Cape
- Stellenbosch
- Zwellendam
- Tulbagh/Worcester
- Beaufort
- George
- Uitenhague
- Albany
- Victoria
- Somerset
- Graaf Reynet
- Colesberg
Demographics
[
edit
]
Population figures for the 1865, 1875, 1891 and 1904 censuses.
Groups marked "nd" are Not Distinguished in the censuses for those years.
Population group
|
1865 Census
|
1875 Census
|
1891 Census
|
1904 Census
|
|
Number
|
Per cent
(%)
|
Number
|
Per cent
(%)
|
Number
|
Per cent
(%)
|
Number
|
Per cent
(%)
|
Black
|
nd
|
*
|
287,639
|
39.89
|
838,136
|
54.87
|
1,424,787
|
59.12
|
White
|
181,592
|
36.58
|
236,783
|
32.84
|
376,987
|
24.68
|
579,741
|
24.05
|
Coloured
|
nd
|
*
|
196,562
|
27.26
|
310,401
|
20.32
|
395,034
|
16.39
|
Asian
|
nd
|
*
|
nd
|
*
|
1,700
|
0.11
|
10,242
|
0.42
|
Total
|
496,381
|
100.00
|
720,984
|
100.00
|
1,527,224
|
100.00
|
2,409,804
|
100.00
|
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Dutch was the sole official language until 1822, when the British officially replaced Dutch with English.
Dutch was reincluded as a second official language in 1882.
- ^
Penguin Islands
and
Walvis Bay
- ^
Basutoland
was annexed to the Cape Colony in 1871, before becoming a Crown colony in 1884. See
"Lesotho: History"
. The Commonwealth. Archived from
the original
on 1 November 2017
. Retrieved
8 November
2017
.
Citations
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Cana, Frank Richardson;
Gibson, Walcot
;
Hillier, Alfred Peter
(1911).
"Cape Colony"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). pp. 225?248.
- Cape of Good Hope (1866).
Census of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. 1865
. Cape Town: Soloman – via HathiTrust Digital Library.
- Malherbe, E.G. (1939).
Official Year Book of the Union of South Africa and of Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protectorate, and Swaziland 1939
. Vol. 20. Pretoria: Union of South Africa.
- Dugard, John (2006).
International Law, A South African Perspective
. Cape Town.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- Evans, Charlotte (1993). "Italy".
The Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World: 40,000 B.C. to Present Day
. Kingfisher Books.
ISBN
978-1-85697-862-0
.
- Farlam, Paul (2001). Palmer, Vernon (ed.).
Mixed Jurisdictions Worldwide: The Third Legal Family
. Cambridge: University Press.
ISBN
0-521-78154-X
.
- Greaves, Adrian (2013).
The Tribe that Washed its Spears: The Zulus at War
. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military.
ISBN
978-1629145136
.
<
- Heese, J. A. (1971).
Die Herkoms van die Afrikaner 1657 - 1867
[
The Origin of the Afrikaaner 1657 - 1867
] (in Afrikaans). Cape Town: A. A. Balkema.
ISBN
978-1-920429-13-3
.
- Hunt, John (2005). Campbell, Heather-Ann (ed.).
Dutch South Africa: Early Settlers at the Cape, 1652-1708
. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
ISBN
978-1904744955
.
- Keltie, John Scott; Epstein, M., eds. (1920). "Province of the Cape of Good Hope".
The Statesman's Year Book: Statistical and Historical Annual of the States of the World for the Year 1920
. London: MacMillan.
- Lambert, David (2009).
The Protestant International and the Huguenot Migration to Virginia
. New York: Peter Land Publishing, Incorporated.
ISBN
978-1433107597
.
- Lloyd, Trevor Owen (1997).
The British Empire, 1558-1995
. Oxford: University Press.
ISBN
978-0198731337
.
- Lucas, Gavin (2004).
An Archaeology of Colonial Identity: Power and Material Culture in the Dwars Valley, South Africa
. New York: Springer, Publishers.
ISBN
978-0306485381
.
- Mbenga, Bernard; Giliomee, Hermann (2007).
New History of South Africa
. Cape Town: Tafelburg, Publishers.
ISBN
978-0624043591
.
- Meredith, Martin (2007).
Diamonds, Gold and War: The Making of South Africa
. Simon & Schuster.
ISBN
978-0-7432-8614-5
.
- Oakes, Dougie, ed. (1992).
Illustrated History of South Africa
. The Reader’s Digest Association South Africa.
ISBN
0-947008-90-X
.
- Parsons, Neil (1993).
A New History of Southern Africa
(2nd ed.). London: Macmillan.
- Parthesius, Robert (2010).
Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters: The Development of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) Shipping Network in Asia 1595?1660
. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
ISBN
978-9053565179
.
- Hancock, W.K. (1962).
Smuts: The sanguine years, 1870-1919
. Cambridge: University Press.
- Stapleton, Timothy (2010).
A Military History of South Africa: From the Dutch-Khoi Wars to the End of Apartheid
. Santa Barbara: Praeger Security International.
ISBN
978-0313365898
.
- Ward, Kerry (2009).
Networks of Empire: Forced Migration in the Dutch East India Company
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
978-0-521-88586-7
.
- Wilmot, Alexander; Chase, John Centlivres (1869).
History of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope: From Its Discovery to the Year 1819
. J. C. Juta.
- Worden, Nigel (2010).
Slavery in Dutch South Africa
. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
978-0521152662
.
- Ziegler, Philip (2008).
Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships
. Yale: University Press.
ISBN
978-0-300-11835-3
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Beck, Roger B. (2000).
The History of South Africa
. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
ISBN
0-313-30730-X
- Davenport, T. R. H., and Christopher Saunders (2000).
South Africa: A Modern History
, 5th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press.
ISBN
0-312-23376-0
.
- Elbourne, Elizabeth (2002).
Blood Ground: Colonialism, Missions, and the Contest for Christianity in the Cape Colony and Britain, 1799?1853
. McGill-Queen's University Press.
ISBN
0-7735-2229-8
- Le Cordeur, Basil Alexander (1981).
The War of the Axe, 1847: Correspondence between the governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Henry Pottinger, and the commander of the British forces at the Cape, Sire George Berkeley, and others
. Brenthurst Press.
ISBN
0-909079-14-5
- Mabin, Alan (1983).
Recession and its aftermath: The Cape Colony in the eighteen eighties
. University of the Witwatersrand, African Studies Institute.
- Ross, Robert, and David Anderson (1999).
Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750?1870 : A Tragedy of Manners
.
Cambridge University Press
.
ISBN
0-521-62122-4
.
- Theal, George McCall (1970).
History of the Boers in South Africa; Or, the Wanderings and Wars of the Emigrant Farmers from Their Leaving the Cape Colony to the Acknowledgment of Their Independence by Great Britain
. Greenwood Press.
ISBN
0-8371-1661-9
.
- Van Der Merwe, P.J., Roger B. Beck (1995).
The Migrant Farmer in the History of the Cape Colony
.
Ohio University Press
.
ISBN
0-8214-1090-3
- Worden, Nigel; Van Heyningen, E.; Bickford-Smith, Vivian (1998).
Cape Town: The Making of a City : an Illustrated Social History
. David Philip.
ISBN
978-0-86486-435-2
.
Other South African governments
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Africa
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17th and 18th centuries
| 19th century
| 20th century
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Asia
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17th and 18th centuries
| 19th century
| 20th century
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North America
|
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17th century and before
| 18th century
| 19th and 20th centuries
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Oceania
|
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18th and 19th centuries
| 20th century
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Antarctica and the South Atlantic
|
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|
- 23. Since 2009 part of
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
; Ascension Island (1922?) and Tristan da Cunha (1938?) were previously dependencies of Saint Helena.
- 24. Claimed in 1908; territory formed 1962; overlaps portions of Argentine and Chilean claims, borders not enforced but claim not renounced under the
Antarctic Treaty
.
- 25. Claimed in 1908; territory formed 1985
|
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Political history of
South Africa
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Defunct
polities
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Events
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Political culture
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Defunct
organisations
| Civic and political
organisations
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Trade unions and
social movements
| |
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Paramilitary and
terrorist organisations
| |
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Histories of
political parties
| |
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