Coordinates	53°49′17″N22°21′44″N
Native name	Kaapkolonie
Conventional long name	Cape Colony
Common name	Cape Colony
Continent	Africa
Region	Southern Africa
Country	South Africa
Era	Scramble for Africa
Status	Colony
Empire	United Kingdom
Government type	Constitutional monarchy
Year start	1795
Year end	1910
Event1	Dutch colony
Date event1	1803–1806
Event2	Anglo-Dutch treaty
Date event2	1814
Event3	Natal incorporated
Date event3	1844
P1	Dutch Empire
Flag p1	Prinsenvlag.svg
P2	British Bechuanaland
Flag p2	Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
S1	Union of South Africa
Flag s1	South Africa Flag 1910-1912.svg
Image coat	CapeCoatofArms.png
Image map caption	The Cape Colony ca. 1890with Griqualand East and Griqualand West annexedand Stellaland/Goshen claimed (in light red)
Capital	Cape Town
National anthem	God Save the King(God Save the Queen 1837–1901)
Common languages	English, Dutch ¹
Religion	Dutch Reformed Church, Anglican
Currency	Pound sterling
Leader1	George III
Year leader1	1795–1820
Leader2	George IV
Year leader2	1820–1830
Leader3	William IV
Year leader3	1830–1837
Leader4	Victoria
Year leader4	1837–1901
Leader5	Edward VII
Year leader5	1901–1910
Title leader	King/Queen
Representative1	George Macartney
Year representative1	1797–1798
Representative2	Walter Hely-Hutchinson
Year representative2	1901–1910
Title representative	Governor
Deputy1	John X. Merriman
Year deputy1	1908–1910
Title deputy	Prime Minister
Stat year1	1910
Stat area1	569020
Stat pop1	2564965
Today	²
Footnotes	¹ Dutch was the sole official language until 1806, when the British officially replaced Dutch with English. Dutch was reincluded as a second official language in 1882.² Except for the exclave of Walvis Bay, which is now part of Namibia. }}

The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take possession of the Cape with its important strategic location. An improving situation in the Netherlands (the Peace of Amiens) allowed the British to hand back the colony to the Batavian Republic in 1803, but by 1806 resurgent French control in the Netherlands led to another British occupation to prevent Napoleon using the Cape. The Cape Colony subsequently remained in the British Empire, becoming self-governing in 1872, and united with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa in 1910, when it was renamed the Cape of Good Hope Province. South Africa became fully independent in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster

The Cape 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, also known as the Gariep River, served for a long time as the boundary, although some land between the river and the southern boundary of Botswana was later added to it.

History

Dutch East India Company (''VOC'') traders, under the command of Jan van Riebeeck, were the first people to establish a European colony in South Africa. The Cape settlement was built by them in 1652 as a re-supply point and way-station for Dutch East India Company vessels on their way back and forth between the Netherlands and Batavia (Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies. The support station gradually became a settler community, the forebears of the Afrikaners, a European ethnic group in South Africa.

The local Khoikhoi had neither a strong political organisation nor an economic base beyond their herds. They bartered livestock freely to Dutch ships. As Company employees established farms to supply the Cape station, they began to displace the Khoikhoi. Conflicts led to the consolidation of European landholdings and a breakdown of Khoikhoi society. Military success led to even greater Dutch East India Company control of the Khoikhoi by the 1670s. The Khoikhoi became the chief source of colonial wage labour.

After the first settlers spread out around the Company station, nomadic European livestock farmers, or Trekboeren, moved more widely afield, leaving the richer, but limited, farming lands of the coast for the drier interior tableland. There they contested still wider groups of Khoikhoi cattle herders for the best grazing lands. By 1700, the traditional Khoikhoi lifestyle of pastoralism had disappeared.

The Cape society in this period was thus a diverse one. The emergence of Afrikaans, a new vernacular language of the colonials that is however intelligible with Dutch, shows that the Dutch East India Company immigrants themselves were also subject to acculturation processes. By the time of British rule after 1795, the sociopolitical foundations were firmly laid.

In 1795, France occupied the Seven Provinces of the Netherlands, the mother country of the Dutch East India Company. This prompted Great Britain to occupy the territory in 1795 as a way to better control the seas in order stop any potential French attempt to get to India. The British assumed control of the territory following the minor Battle of Muizenberg. The VOC transferred its territories and claims to the Batavian Republic (the Revolutionary period Dutch state) in 1798, and ceased to exist in 1799. Improving relations between Britain and Napoleonic France, and its vassal state the Batavian Republic, led the British to hand the Cape Colony 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 Britain and Napoleonic France had crumbled into open hostilities, whilst Napoleon had been strengthening his influence on the Batavian Republic (which Napoleon would subsequently abolish later the same year). The British, who set up a colony on 8 January 1806, hoped to keep Napoleon out of the Cape, and to control the Far East trade routes. In 1814 the Dutch government formally ceded sovereignty over the Cape to the British, under the terms of the Convention of London.

The British started to settle the eastern border of the colony with the arrival in Port Elizabeth of the 1820 Settlers. In 1854, the Cape Colony received representative government, and in 1872 under Prime Minister JC Molteno, responsible government. The discovery of diamonds around Kimberley in 1870 led to a rapid expansion of British influence into the hinterland under colonialists such as Cecil Rhodes. The ill-fated Jameson Raid curbed this expansion somewhat until British victory following the Second Boer War 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 Afrikaners, a division that replaced the earlier tensions between the eastern and western halves of the Cape.

The Cape Colony remained nominally under British rule until the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, when it became the Cape of Good Hope Province, better known as the Cape Province.

Governors of the Cape Colony (1652–1910)

The title of the founder of the Cape Colony, Jan van Riebeeck, was "Commander of the Cape" (initially called "opperhoof"), a position which he held from 1652 to 1662. He was succeeded by a long line of both Dutch and British colonial administrators, depending on who was in power at the time:

Commanders of Dutch East India Company colony (1652–1691)

Jan van Riebeeck (April 7, 1652 – May 6, 1662)

Zacharias Wagenaer (May 6, 1662 – September 27, 1666)

Cornelis van Quaelberg (September 27, 1666 – June 18, 1668)

Jacob Borghorst (June 18, 1668 – March 25, 1670)

Pieter Hackius (March 25, 1670 – November 30, 1671)

Albert van Breugel (acting) (April, 1672 – October 2, 1672)

Isbrand Goske (October 2, 1672 – March 14, 1676)

Johan Bax dit van Herenthals (March 14, 1676 – June 29, 1678)

Hendrik Crudop (acting) (June 29, 1678 – October 12, 1679)

Simon van der Stel (December 10, 1679 – June 1, 1691)

Governors of Dutch East India Company colony (1691–1795)

Simon van der Stel (June 1, 1691 – November 2, 1699)

Willem Adriaan van der Stel (November 2, 1699 – June 3, 1707)

Johannes Cornelis d’Ableing (acting) (June 3, 1707 – February 1, 1708)

Louis van Assenburg (February 1, 1708 – December 27, 1711)

Willem Helot (acting) (December 27, 1711 – March 28, 1714)

Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes (March 28, 1714 – September 8, 1724)

Jan de la Fontaine (acting) (September 8, 1724 – February 25, 1727)

Pieter Gijsbert Noodt (February 25, 1727 – April 23, 1729),

Jan de la Fontaine (acting) (April 23, 1729 – March 8, 1737)

Jan de la Fontaine (March 8, 1737 – August 31, 1737)

Adriaan van Kervel (August 31, 1737 – September 19, 1737) (died after three weeks in office)

Daniël van den Henghel (acting) (September 19, 1737 – April 14, 1739)

Hendrik Swellengrebel (April 14, 1739 – February 27, 1751)

Ryk Tulbagh (February 27, 1751 – August 11, 1771)

Joachim van Plettenberg (acting) (August 11, 1771 – May 18, 1774)

Joachim van Plettenberg (May 18, 1774 – February 14, 1785)

Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff (February 14, 1785 – June 24, 1791)

Johannes Izaac Rhenius (acting) (June 24, 1791 – July 3, 1792)

Sebastiaan Cornelis Nederburgh and Simon Hendrik Frijkenius (Commissioners-General) (July 3, 1792 – September 2, 1793)

Abraham Josias Sluysken (September 2, 1793 – September 16, 1795)

British occupation (1st, 1797–1803)

George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney (1797–1798)

Francis Dundas (1st time) (acting) (1798–1799)

Sir George Yonge (1799–1801)

Francis Dundas (2nd time) (acting) (1801–1803)

Batavian Republic (Dutch colony) (1803–1806)

Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist (1803–1804)

Jan Willem Janssens (1803–1806)

British occupation (2nd, 1806–1814)

Sir David Baird (acting) (1806–1807)

Henry George Grey (1st time) (acting) (1807)

Du Pre Alexander, 2nd Earl of Caledon (1807–1811)

Henry George Grey (2nd time) (acting) (1811)

Sir John Francis Cradock (1811–1814)

Robert Meade (acting for Cradock) (1813–1814)

British colony (1814–1910)

Charles Somerset (1814–1826)

Sir Rufane Shaw Donkin (acting for Somerset) (1820–1821)

Richard Bourke (acting) (1826–1828)

Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole (1828–1833)

Thomas Francis Wade (acting for D'Urban from 10 Jan 1834) (1833–1834)

Benjamin d'Urban (1834–1838)

Sir George Thomas Napier (1838–1844)

Sir Peregrine Maitland (1844–1847)

Sir Henry Pottinger (1847)

Sir Harry Smith (1847–1852)

George Cathcart (1852–1854)

Charles Henry Darling (acting) (1854)

Sir George Grey (1854–1861)

Robert Henry Wynyard (1st time) (acting for Grey) (1859–1860)

Robert Henry Wynyard (2nd time) (acting) (1861–1862)

Sir Philip Edmond Wodehouse (1862–1870)

Charles Craufurd Hay (acting) (1870)

Sir Henry Barkly (1870–1877)

Henry Bartle Frere (1877–1880)

Henry Hugh Clifford (acting) (1880)

Sir George Cumine Strahan (acting) (1880–1881)

Hercules Robinson (1st time) (1881–1889)

Sir Leicester Smyth (1st time) (acting for Robinson) (1881)

Sir Leicester Smyth (2nd time) (acting for Robinson) (1883–1884)

Sir Henry D'Oyley Torrens (acting for Robinson) (1886)

Henry Augustus Smyth (acting) (1889)

Henry Brougham Loch (1889–1895)

Sir William Gordon Cameron (1st time) (acting for Loch) (1891–1892)

Sir William Gordon Cameron (2nd time) (acting for Loch) (1894)

Hercules Robinson (2nd time) (1895–1897)

Sir William Howley Goodenough (acting) (1897)

Alfred Milner (1897–1901)

Sir William Francis Butler (acting for Milner) (1898–1899)

Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson (1901–1910)

Sir Henry Jenner Scobell (acting for Hely-Hutchinson) (1909)

The post of High Commissioner for Southern Africa was also held from 27 January 1847 to 31 May 1910 by the Governor of the Cape Colony. The post of Governor of the Cape Colony became extinct on 31 May 1910, when it joined the Union of South Africa.

==Prime Ministers of the Cape Colony (1872–1910)==

Sir John Charles Molteno (1872–1878)

Sir John Gordon Sprigg (1st time) (1878–1881)

Thomas Charles Scanlen (1881–1884)

Thomas Upington (1884–1886)

Sir John Gordon Sprigg (2nd time) (1886–1890)

Cecil John Rhodes (1890–1896)

Sir John Gordon Sprigg (3rd time) (1896–1898)

William Philip Schreiner (1898–1900)

Sir John Gordon Sprigg (4th time) (1900–1904)

Leander Starr Jameson (1904–1908)

John Xavier Merriman (1908–1910)

The post of prime minister of the Cape Colony also became extinct on 31 May 1910, when it joined the Union of South Africa.

References

Sources

Beck, Roger B. (2000). ''The History of South Africa''. Westport, CT: Greenwood. ISBN 031330730X.

Davenport, T. R. H., and Christopher Saunders (2000). ''South Africa: A Modern History'', 5th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312233760.

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, Elizabeth van Heyningen, and Vivian Bickford-Smith (1998). ''Cape Town: The Making of a City''. Cape Town: David Philip. ISBN 0864864353.

External links

Category:Former Dutch colonies Category:States and territories established in 1795 Category:States and territories disestablished in 1910

af:Kaapkolonie ca:Colònia del Cap da:Kapkolonien de:Kapkolonie es:Colonia del Cabo fr:Colonie du Cap fy:Kaapkoloanje ko:케이프 식민지 it:Colonia del Capo he:מושבת הכף hu:Fokföld sw:Koloni ya Rasi lt:Kapo kolonija nl:Kaapkolonie ja:ケープ植民地 no:Kappkolonien pl:Kolonia Przylądkowa pt:Colónia do Cabo ro:Colonia Capului ru:Капская колония fi:Kapmaa sv:Kapkolonin tl:Kolonya ng Kabo uk:Капська колонія zh:開普殖民地

Nigel Worden (born 27 March 1955) is Professor of History and head of the Historical Studies department at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He was previously Research Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and Lecturer in Commonwealth History at the University of Edinburgh. He holds MA and Ph.D degrees in History from the University of Cambridge and BA degrees in Art History and Linguistics from the University of South Africa, and is fluent in Dutch and French.

Publications

Publications by Nigel Worden include:

'Slavery in Dutch South Africa' (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985 reprinted 2010)

'The slaves, 1652-1834' in R.Elphick and H.Giliomee (eds) 'The shaping of South African society, 1652-1840'(2nd ed. Maskew Miller Longman, 1989, reprinted 1990, 1991, translated into Afrikaans 1991) [jointly with James Armstrong]

'Breaking the Chains: Slavery and Emancipation in the nineteenth century Cape Colony'. Jointly edited with Clifton Crais (Witwatersrand University Press, 1994)

'Contested heritage at the Cape Town Waterfront', International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2 (1996)

'The Making of Modern South Africa, Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid'. (Oxford, Blackwell, first published 1994, 4th edition 2007)

'Contested heritage in a South African city: Cape Town' in B.Shaw and R. Jones (eds), Contested Urban Heritage: Voices from the Periphery (Aldershot, Ashgate Publishers, 1997).

'Cape Town: The Making of a City. An illustrated history'. N. Worden, E. van Heyningen, V. Bickford-Smith (Cape Town, David Philip, 1998)

'Commemorating, invoking and suppressing Cape slavery' together with Kerry Ward in Sarah Nuttall and Carli Coetzee (eds) 'The Making of Memory in South Africa'. (Cape Town, Oxford University Press, 1998)

'National identity and heritage tourism in Melaka', Indonesia and Malay World, 31, 31-43.

'Trials of slavery: selected documents concerning slaves from the criminal records of the Council of Justice at the Cape of Good Hope, 1705-1794', edited jointly with Gerald Groenewald, Van Riebeeck Society, Cape Town, 2005.

'Artisan conflicts in a colonial context: the Cape Town blacksmith strike of 1752’, Labor History 46:2 (May 2005), 155-184.

'New approaches to VOC history in South Africa’, South African Historical Journal 59 (2007), 3-18.

'Strangers ashore: sailor identity and social conflict in mid-18th century Cape Town’, Kronos 33 (2007), 72-83.

'“Below the line the devil reigns”: death and dissent aboard a VOC vessel’, South African Historical Journal, 61:4 (2009), 701-29.

'Demanding satisfaction: violence, masculinity and honour in late eighteenth-century Cape Town’, Kronos 35 (2009), 32-47.

'The changing politics of slave heritage in the Western Cape, South Africa’, Journal of African History 50 (2009), 23-40.

Awards

He has received the following awards:

G. Wesley Johnson Award from the U.S Council on Public History for the best article in the field of public history published in 1994 (1995)

Meritorious publication award, UCT for Cape Town: the Making of a City (2000)

Overseas Visiting Fellowship, St. John's College, Cambridge (2002);

Nelson Mandela Chair in Humanities grant to edit volume of slave court testimonies to be published by the Van Riebeeck Society (2003-4)

Western Cape Provincial Honours: Premier's Commendation for contributions to the study of slavery (2005)

References

External links

Profile of Nigel Worden

An extensive list of Worden's publications

Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:University of Cape Town academics Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge Category:Fellows of Clare Hall, Cambridge Category:Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Category:South African academics