European Imperialism In South Africa

South Africa was first colonized by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. They created Cape Town as a refreshment stop. Cape Town was created to supply VOC ships on their way to Asia with fresh fruit, vegetables, and meat. It was located near Table Bay, this was a very important location for Cape Town because there was a good supply of fresh water which you cannot find in many other places. Cape Town soon grew quickly as buildings went up and more Europeans started to come to Cape Town. Cape Town then soon became a colony. Cape Town did not have rich soil and most settlers did not have any agriculture experience, so they struggled with growing crops. They also experienced lots of droughts which didn’t help. Cape Town was a critical resupply
One year later the British took Cape Town over. When the British took over tensions rose. The Dutch, or also known as the Boers, got angry and did not want South Africa to become an English country. In 1833, the Boers led a massive group of people into African tribal territory. There they made the republic of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. These new republics and their British neighbors didn’t bother each other until 1867 when the discovery of Gold and Diamonds was found in the region. Little bits of fighting with Britain and the Boer states began in the 1890’s. By 1899 a large war had begun. By June of 1900 the British had captured most of the Boer bases and major cities. By 1902 the British had demolished the Boers and the peace of vereeniging was signed, ending all fights and
There was restricted movement and independent homelands created for African ethnic groups. Passbooks were used to control the movement of black people and there were many revolts due to this inferior treatment of the blacks. After Botha became prime minister in 1978, he wanted to improve how the races got along and pledged to uphold discrimination as well as improve race relations. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government granted independence to four homelands, Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei. In 1996 South Africa started a permanent constitution and was considered a federal republic. Before this South Africa was run by a completely white minority. This ended over three centuries of domination by the white people as there were very few non-whites or Asian and no black people. It now has a central government run by a president who is elected for a five year term. Nelson Mandela was elected in 1994 as the first democratic leader. Their government is similar to the United States of America in that it has legislatures and the constitution has laws and bills of rights. The country is divided into nine provinces. Provinces are given exclusive powers in only a few areas, such as roads and