Dutch Settlement at the Cape

The Motives of the Dutch Settlement at the Cape

Explain the motives of the Dutch settlement at the Cape

Southern Africa became the site of the earliest European settlement in the modern African history in 1652, when employees of the Dutch East Indian Company established a supply base on the shore of Table Bay, the site of the modern city of Cape Town.

Over the next 150 years, Dutch settlers on the land surrounding Table Bay and to the east along the coast, creating Cape colony.

As the Dutch settlements expanded, they encountered both indigenous Stone Age Khoisan and Iron Age Bantu African peoples. The earliest encounters were with Khoisan who were decimated, enslaved or forced to flee.

As subsequent generations of Europeans expanded further to the east, they encountered Bantu (mostly Xhosa) to became trading partners as well as armed opponents.

The Dutch settlers, called Boers (from the Dutch word for farmer)created very large farms and found it necessary to import labour, so Cape colony imported slaves while much of the rest of Africa exported them.

In their determination to reach the center of trade in India and the Far East, European merchants succeeded to around the southern tip of Africa in the 5th century.

A Portuguese merchant explorer known as Vasco Da Gama was the first to around the southern Africa cape in 1498. The southern cape was called the Cape of Good Hope because it was important in European trade with Asia. Sailors from Europe to the Far East and from the Far East to Europe used the following as a convenient stopping place for:

• Refueling their ships
• Getting fresh water

The climate at the cape was good and conducive for European settlement so the Whites started to establish their settlement there, the first White to make permanent settlement in the cape came from Holland in 1652.

The coming of Whites in South Africa is related to the economic development in Europe in the 16th and 17th century. This was a period of merchant capital i.e. mercantilism in Europe, trading transaction within and outside Europe were important in the development of European economies.

By 1652 the Dutch East Indian Company established the fort at Table Bay with the aim of supplying fresh produce to ship sailing to and from the East Indies. Gradually the settlers in the Cape Province started to spread further into the interior as they increased production of fresh fruits and other food stuff.

Having settled in the Cape land the White settlers became involved in barter trade with the indigenous inhabitants who by then were Khoi and San. Settlers used metal, beads, tobacco spirit to obtain cattle from the Khoi.

Besides the barter trade the White settlers also raided the Khoi herds, robbing bands of white stock farmer entered Khoi and Xhosa areas and shot people and returned to their settlements. They grabbed Khoi and Xhosaby force foragricultural land becausethey needed land to feed their animals after raiding them from Africans.

Motives of the Dutch settlement at the Cape

• The need to control Indian Ocean trade which was dominated by the Portuguese
• The need to establish farms
• Favourable climatic conditions
• Availability of raw materials for trade

The Impact of Dutch Settlements at the Cape

Discuss the impact of Dutch settlement at the Cape

The impact of the Dutch settlement at the Cape

• Enslavement of Africans: The Dutch East India Company provided slaves from West Africa and West India to provide labour for their plantations and livestock. Boers had established large plantations where they kept animals and grew crops like potatoes, watermelon, pumpkins, pineapple and cucumbers.
• Displacement of African people: Africans were forced to move from their normal productive areas to unproductive areas. Hence the Dutch displaced the native Africans from the fertile areas and took their livestock by force.
• Social segregation: The Dutch thought themselves superior to Africans, they exploited and mistreated Africans as they were regarded as stupid,uncivilised and faithless thus, laying the foundation of racial segregation.
• Expansion of Europeans settlement: Dutch activities led other Europeans like British and French to come to South Africa. However, the Dutch population grew dramatically, for example in 1652 Van Riebeeck arrived at the Cape with a few people, by 1662 the Dutch community had grown to 120 people and in 1685 the population increased to 150 Dutch families.
• The increase of warfare: There were frequent wars between the Africans and the Dutch because the Dutch wanted to rule the Africans and take their land while the Africans demanded freedom. 1779 to 1781, 1789 to 1793 and 1799 to1803 there were Kaffir wars between the Dutch and the Xhosa.
• Introduction of a new culture: The Dutch introduced a new culture to the Africans and ignored the indigenous culture. For example the new language known as Afrikaans based on the Dutch language and some words from other languages like Portuguese and Khoikhoi languages was born.

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