| Cape Town History | ||
| First Settlement | ||
| Portuguese Explorers | ||
| The Portuguese decided to send explorers in search of a sea route around Africa to Asia. In January 1488, Bartholomeu Dias was lost in a great storm and when he emerged after 3 terrible weeks, he found that he had rounded the Cape and was off the southern coast of Africa. He entered a bay 170 miles east of the Cape (Mossel Bay) and continued along the coast as far as Port Elizabeth, but turned back for the sake of his terrified crew. On his return, in clear weather, he saw the Cape Peninsula for the first time and entered False Bay. He erected a cross near Cape Point and spent a month at anchor drawing maps. In Lisbon his discovery of the 'Cabo Tormentoso' (cape of storms) was celebrated, but his princely sponsor, Henry the Navigator, had a better name - it was a 'Cape of Good Hope' for it promised a sea route to the riches of Asia. | ||
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| Merchant Sailors in the 16th century | ||
| Ten years later Vasco de Gama followed the route via the Cape all the way to India and opened a sea route for the spice trade. The Spanish and Portuguese dominated the trade route via the Cape throughout the sixteenth century. But they feared both the Khoisan and the reputation of Cape Point as a 'cape of storms'. They developed other bases and left the Cape largely unvisited as terrifying legends had developed about mindful of curses, storms and dangerous locals. An Englishman, finally, had a very different perspective; Sir Francis Drake encountered the Cape Peninsula in fair weather and later affirmed it 'the fairest Cape and the most stately thing we saw in the whole circumference of the globe.' | ||
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| Jan van Riebeeck | ||
| In the early 17th century the English East India Company (EEIC) and Dutch East India Company (VOC) expanded their trade to Asia. The British already used the Cape to replenish their ships, but it was the Dutch, who decided to establish a permanent settlement there. A merchant named Jan van Riebeeck volunteered to lead the party and arrived at the Cape on the 6th April 1652. His orders were explicitly not to establish a colony, but merely to sell produce to passing ships. He could barter supplies from the Khoi and grow vegetables. He established a small fortification and a company garden, but soon the demand for produce led to farms, slaves and a growing settlement. The occupation of land led to warfare with the Khoi. By the time van Riebeeck left after 10 years, there were four streets, large farms, a guesthouse, several taverns and the name 'Cape Town' was established. Warfare had broken the power of the Khoi, but the threat of European invasion rose, and the VOC began to build a stone Castle in 1665. | ||
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| Simon van der Stel | ||
| Van der Stel may be regarded as the father of the South African wine industry. 40 years old, well educated and widely travelled Simon van der Stel quickly developed ambitious plans for the expansion of a colony when he arrived in 1679. Survey teams and geologists were sent out and he surveyed for himself the fertile mountain slopes beyond the Cape Flats. He founded Stellenbosch after a night he camped among bushes near the Eerste River and in 1685 he established the magnificent Groot Constantia wine farm as a model to Dutch farmers. He was dismayed by the poor quality of wine production, and determined to teach the Boers (farmers) by example. However, soon Simon had a better idea to improve farming. He asked the VOC to provide passage to the Cape for any French Huguenot refugee with experience of wine farming. Roughly 200 were shipped over, increasing the population by a third. They were provided with limited supplies and sent out to establish farms, first to the region of Paarl and then to 'Oliphantshoek' that later became known as 'Franschhoek'. | ||
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| VOC Control | ||
| By 1700, the Cape Peninsula and the winelands were widely settled. Extensive tracts of land had been cultivated and plantation forests established. Slaves performed the hardest manual tasks and the Khoi had been put to work as shepherds. The Burghers (citizens), many of whom had been very poor in Europe, made themselves land owners and directors. Slowly, the ratio of females to males became more even as burghers and officials called their wives from Europe, also, orphan girls were sent from Holland and female slaves arrived. The VOC no longer tried to stop the energetic expansion of the colony, but they maintained a firm, sometimes brutal control over the town in order to protect their profits. There was no attempt to build a society. There was a hospital, but virtually no primary schools and never a secondary school to serve the settler population. No missionaries were sent to the Cape and there was no newspaper. Few churches were built and local politics was also strictly controlled by the VOC. |
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| VOC Legacy |
| Cape Town developed in the 1700s, as an attractive Dutch-style town and an important port of call for sailors. The town offered rest and amusement for the most refined and the roughest sailors, truly a 'Tavern of the Seas'. The streets of Cape Town in the 1700s hummed with extraordinary cultural diversity. VOC officials came from all over Europe, and other company employees from across Europe and Asia. Slaves and former slaves came from Asia and Africa. A mixed race community developed. The VOC never intended to establish a colony at the Cape, and although they imposed control they did very little to nurture a society, especially in the outlying farming areas. Nonetheless, a complex, eclectic and multi-cultural population came to call the Cape 'home' and settlements were established far into the interior, and especially at Cape Town which became an important port. A unique culture was developing from the meeting of East and West with its own language, cuisine and traditions. |