Introduction to History of South Africa

Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 by the Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Dias opened the way for Portugal's trade with the East Indies. However, settlement did not come until the Netherlands entered that trade a century later.

Dutch Colonization. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company established at the site of Cape Town a “refreshment” station, for growing food to provision its ships, under the command of Johan van Riebeeck. Soon a settlement grew in the area that the Dutch called Cape Colony (present Western Cape). The only indigenous peoples they encountered were Khoi (Hottentots) and San (Bushmen). The San soon fled northward.

The farmer colonists needed workers, and the company imported slaves, mainly from the Dutch East Indies. Huguenot refugees from France arrived after 1685 and were assimilated into the Dutch population, as were later German immigrants. When the Khoi, who had been working for the settlers, were decimated by smallpox, more slaves were brought in.

Many of the Boers (Dutch for “farmers”) turned to raising cattle, and their need for land led them eastward. In the 1770's, at the Great Fish River (in present Eastern Cape), they encountered Bantu-speaking Africans whom they called Kaffirs. The first of almost a dozen Kaffir wars on the eastern frontier of Cape Colony was fought in 1779. (The last was a century later, and the overall result was to compress the blacks into what were for the most part small, relatively barren areas.)

The British and the Boers

In 1795 Great Britain temporarily occupied Cape Colony in order to protect its trade with India from French interference. The British returned in 1806, and at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 gained permanent possession of the colony. British colonization, which began in 1820, was resented by the Boers.

Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire in 1833. Compensation paid to the Boers was less than promised, arousing further resentment. They were also irritated by British interference in other matters and they wanted more land. In 1836 they began moving out of Cape Colony in what came to be known as the Great Trek, which took several thousand Boer families into Transvaal (present-day Limpopo, Gauteng, and Mpumalanga), Orange Free State (present-day Free State), and Natal (present-day KwaZulu/Natal).

The Zulus, a Bantu-speaking people that ruled a vast region, tried unsuccessfully to keep the Boers from settling in Natal. The British, already settled at Durban, began fighting the Boers in 1840 and were victorious in 1843. Natal was annexed to Cape Colony in 1845, and British sovereignty was soon extended over the other Boer domains. However, Britain restored the independence of Transvaal in 1852 and of Orange Free State in 1854. Both countries organized themselves as republics. Natal was made a separate British colony in 1856.

As Cape Colony extended its borders, there was constant conflict with blacks, and the British began assigning reserves to them. In Natal indentured laborers were brought from India to work on sugar plantations. Basutoland (now Lesotho) accepted British sovereignty in 1868, becoming part of Cape Colony. (Basutoland became a separate colony in 1884, and gained independence in 1966.)

Diamonds were discovered in the 1860's. The major field, at what is now Kimberley, was in a border area of disputed ownership; Britain annexed it in 1871. Cecil Rhodes, a British prospector who grew rich on diamonds, gained control of the industry.

Transvaal, weakened by disunity, was annexed by Britain in 1877, and the Zulus were subdued in 1879 by a British invasion of Zululand. After a Boer rebellion, Transvaal in 1881 was made a self-governing colony. In the mid-1880's gold was found in quantity in the Transvaal. Under the presidency of “Oom Paul” Kruger, the country won a greater degree of independence and again began using the name “republic.

Meanwhile, urged on by Rhodes, Britain was expanding its territory. In 1885 the southern portion of Bechuanaland was annexed to Cape Colony and the northern portion (now Botswana) was made a British protectorate. Rhodes himself was granted a charter to develop the region that is now Zimbabwe. Rhodes became prime minister of Cape Colony in 1890. Seeking to restore British control of the Transvaal, he organized a conspiracy against the Boer government that culminated in the Jameson raid of 1895. The raid failed and Rhodes resigned. (

Transvaal joined the Orange Free State in a military alliance. Tension between the British and the Boers became acute, and war was declared in 1899. Britain, victorious, in 1902 made the Boer republics British colonies. ( Swaziland, a native kingdom surrounded by Transvaal, was made a protectorate.

Union of South Africa

The new colonies soon attained self-government and under the leadership of such Afrikaners (Boers) as Louis Botha, Jan Christiaan Smuts, and James Hertzog agreed to unite with Cape Colony and Natal. In 1910, the Union of South Africa, a self-governing British dominion, was formed, consisting of four provinces—Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal. Botha was the first prime minister. The new government was under the control of the white minority, and blacks were given virtually no political power. In 1912 black leaders formed the African National Congress (ANC) to try to further the cause of their people in South Africa.

In World War I, in spite of Afrikaner opposition, Botha and Smuts supported the Allied cause; Smuts served in the British war cabinet. After the war the League of Nations gave South Africa a mandate over South-West Africa (Namibia), formerly a German colony. Migration of blacks to mining and industrial areas led to laws restricting black employment and civil rights.

In 1934 South Africa became an independent nation within the British Commonwealth, retaining the British monarch as head of state. The United Party, formed by Smuts and Hertzog, won the elections. At the outbreak of World War II, opposition to the Allies was again overcome by Smuts. Rapid industrial growth in the postwar period brought a great influx of black labor. The Nationalist Party, led by Daniel Malan and advocating apartheid, won power in 1948. More stringent laws for controlling the black population were passed. In 1959 the apartheid policy was furthered by the creation of eight homelands, or Bantustans, for various black ethnic groups. The government then began a massive resettlement of blacks, moving them from white areas into the Bantustans.

A passive resistance movement developed among some nonwhites, while others resorted to violence. In 1960 a demonstration in Sharpeville brought police fire that killed 68 persons. The government banned the ANC, and the following year the organization began a guerrilla campaign against the government. In 1962 the ANC guerrilla leader, Nelson Mandela, was apprehended. In 1964, following conviction for treason, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Republic

Meanwhile, in 1961, South Africa became a republic and withdrew from the British Commonwealth because of the other members' opposition to its racial policies. Under Prime Minister H. F. Verwoerd, more apartheid measures were imposed. The first Bantustan, Transkei, was granted self-government in 1963. In 1966 Verwoerd was assassinated by a deranged white. He was succeeded by John B. Vorster.

During the 1960's the United Nations repeatedly condemned South Africa for its apartheid policy. In 1966 the UN declared South Africa's mandate over South-West Africa to be ended, and in 1971 the International Court of Justice ruled that continued South African control was illegal. South Africa rejected these actions. Beginning with Transkei in 1976 the Bantustans were granted independence; other nations refused to recognize the Bantustans as independent, considering them puppet states established to foster apartheid.

Meanwhile, a continuing shortage of white workers and the need for trade with other African countries led to liberalization of the restrictions on blacks and coloreds. Despite these changes, there were growing demands for majority rule from other countries as well as from blacks within South Africa. Racial ferment increased sharply after riots in the black township of Soweto, near Johannesburg, in 1976. Other rioting broke out in Cape Town and Natal, and before order was restored 575 persons were killed. Guerrilla warfare against the government intensified as increasing numbers of blacks joined the forces of the ANC and other groups. Pieter W. Botha succeeded Vorster in 1978.

In 1983 South African voters approved a new constitution, which came into force in 1984. The constitution for the first time gave some political power to the colored and Asian populations. It also established a presidential form of government, and Botha became the country's president.

In 1985, because of a wave of violent clashes between the police and blacks protesting apartheid policies, South Africa declared a state of emergency. In other countries, revulsion against apartheid brought about a campaign for the imposition of trade sanctions against South Africa. In 1986 the European Community (what is now the European Union), six Commonwealth nations, and the United States all imposed sanctions against South Africa. The South African government abolished some apartheid laws, but opponents continued to demand a total dismantling of the system. In 1989 Botha resigned, and F. W. de Klerk became president. In 1990 de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC and freed Nelson Mandela and other imprisoned ANC leaders.

In 1989 South Africa agreed to end its control over South-West Africa; the following year the possession became independent as Namibia. Only the Walvis Bay enclave remained under South African control, and it was handed over to Namibia in 1994.

In June and July of 1991, under the leadership of de Klerk the South African parliament repealed the laws that established apartheid. Other nations responded by lifting economic sanctions against South Africa. In December, 19 political groups, including the ANC and the National Party, gathered together in the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) and began negotiations with the goal of establishing a new constitutional government that would enfranchise blacks.

In late 1993, CODESA introduced an interim constitution giving blacks the right to vote, and it was approved by the country's parliament. The interim constitution also created nine provinces out of the four old ones, and abolished the Bantustans.

In April, 1994, blacks won a majority of the seats in the parliament. The ANC received the most votes and elected Nelson Mandela president of the country. The National Party received the second largest number of votes and, as the largest minority in parliament, elected de Klerk deputy president. In June, South Africa rejoined the British Commonwealth. A permanent constitution was enacted in 1996. In 1999, Thabo Mbeki, of the ANC, was elected president of the country. Mbeki was reelected in 2004.