Cape Colony

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This article is about the British colony. For the original Dutch colony, see Dutch Cape Colony.

Cape Colony
Kaapkolonie (Dutch)
1806–1910
Coat of arms of Cape Colony
Coat of arms
Anthem: 
George IV
• 1830–1837
William IV
• 1837–1901
Victoria
• 1901–1910
Edward VII
Governor 
• 1797–1798
George Macartney
• 1901–1910
Walter Hely-Hutchinson
Prime Minister 
• 1872–1878
John Charles Molteno
• 1908–1910
John X. Merriman
Historical era
Dutch colony
1803–1806
• Occupied
8 January 1806
1814
1844
• Basutoland incorporated into the Cape Colony
3 November 1871
• Basutoland separated to form its own colony
2 February 1884
31 May 1910
Area
1822[1]331,907 km2 (128,150 sq mi)
Population
• 1822[1]
110,380
• 1865 census[2][3]
496,381
• 1875 census[3]
720,984
• 1891 census[3]
1,527,224
• 1904 census[3]
2,409,804
CurrencyPound sterling
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Dutch Cape Colony
British Bechuanaland
Republic of Swellendam
Republic of Graaff-Reinet
Union of South Africa
Basutoland
Today part ofNamibia[b]
South Africa
Lesotho[c]
Historical states
in present-day
South Africa
before 1600
1600–1700
1700–1800
1800–1850
1850–1875
1875–1900
1900–present
flag South Africa portal
Map of the Cape of Good Hope in 1885 (blue). The areas of Griqualand West and Griqualand East were annexed to the Cape Colony around 1880.

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

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 ǂNūǃarib (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.[5] 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

VOC settlement

Main article: Dutch Cape Colony

An expedition of the VOC led by

seeds.[8] Reflecting the multi-national nature of the early trading companies, the VOC granted vrijburger status to Dutch, Swiss, Scandinavian and German employees, among others.[9] 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.[10] 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.[12]

Many of the colonists who settled directly on the frontier became increasingly independent and localised in their loyalties.

Boers, they migrated beyond the Cape Colony's initial borders and had soon penetrated almost a thousand kilometres inland.[14] Some Boers even adopted a nomadic lifestyle permanently and were denoted as trekboers.[15] 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.[15]

VOC traders imported thousands of slaves to the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch East Indies and other parts of Africa.[17] By the end of the eighteenth century the Cape's population swelled to about 26,000 people of European descent and 30,000 slaves.[18][19]

British conquest

Main article:
Invasion of the Cape Colony (1795)

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.

Part of a series on
Cape Colony history

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. [20] In 1814 the Dutch government formally ceded sovereignty over the Cape to the British, under the terms of the Convention of London.

British colonisation

The

Boer Republics
.

Skirmish during the Xhosa Wars

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 led to a desire for political independence. In 1853, the Cape Colony became a British Crown colony with representative government.[22] 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.

Mossel Bay on the Indian Ocean, 1818
Table Bay, Cape Town, circa 1832

Executive power remaining completely in the authority of the British governor did not relieve tensions in the colony between its eastern and western sections.[23]

Responsible government

In 1872, after a long political battle, the Cape of Good Hope achieved

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.[26]

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

Main article: List of governors of British South African colonies § Cape Colony

Districts

Tallis Map of the Cape Colony, 1850.

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

Population figures for the 1865, 1875, 1891 and 1904 censuses.[3] Groups marked "nd" are Not Distinguished in the censuses for those years.

Population group 1865 Census[3] 1875 Census[3] 1891 Census[3] 1904 Census[27][3]
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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cape Colony.

References

Notes

  1. ^ Dutch was the sole official language until 1822, when the British officially replaced Dutch with English.[28] Dutch was reincluded as a second official language in 1882.
  2. ^ Penguin Islands and Walvis Bay
  3. ^ 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

  1. ^ a b Wilmot & Chase 1869, p. 268.
  2. ^ Cape of Good Hope 1866, p. 11.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Malherbe 1939, p. 1038.
  4. ^ Heese 1971, p. 15.
  5. ^ Keltie & Epstein 1920, p. 222.
  6. ^ a b Hunt 2005, pp. 13–15.
  7. ^ Parthesius 2010.
  8. ^ Lucas 2004, pp. 29–33.
  9. ^ Worden 2010, pp. 94–140.
  10. ^ Lambert 2009, pp. 32–34.
  11. S2CID 219717224
    . Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  12. ^ Mbenga & Giliomee 2007, pp. 59–60.
  13. ^ Ward 2009, pp. 322–342.
  14. ^ Greaves 2013, pp. 36–35.
  15. ^ a b Stapleton 2010, pp. 4–6.
  16. S2CID 43522981
    . Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  17. ^ Worden 2010, pp. 40–43.
  18. ^ Lloyd 1997, pp. 201–206.
  19. ^ Cana, Gibson & Hillier 1911.
  20. ^ Meredith 2007, p. 1.
  21. S2CID 72177008
    . Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  22. ^ Evans 1993, p. 576.
  23. ^ Oakes 1992.
  24. ^ Parsons 1993.
  25. ^ Dugard 2006, p. 136.
  26. ^ Ziegler 2008.
  27. ^ Hancock 1962, p. 219.
  28. ^ Farlam 2001, pp. 87–88.

Sources

Further reading

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