The first
European colony in South Africa was made in Cape Town by the Dutch in 1652.
Making a colony, however, was their original intention. They just wanted to
build a half way port for their ships on their long voyages traveling to the
Dutch East Indies. During the European War, England soon took the Dutch colony
in 1795. It was then given to the Netherlands by the Treaty of Amiens in 1802,
but the British recaptured it right away in 1806. In 1820 the first
English-speaking settlement was created near the area of Port Elizabeth. The
law “color blind” was the main reason of why life changed in South Africa. Afrikaner
farmers then started the Great Trek in 1835. The Great Trek was a series of
movements, not one migration. Voortrekkers (prisoners) traveled northeast to
Natal. In Natal they got involved with fighting the Zulus. After a big victory
by the Zulus, led by Dingaan, the Voortrekkers (led by Andries Pretorius) beat
the Zulus in a major battle on the banks of the Blood River. Although the
Afrikaners created the Republic of Natalia in 1840, it did not survive the
proclamation of Natal as a British colony in 1843. Other Voortrekkers moved
north and created two independent republics, the Transversal in 1852, and the
Orange Free State in 1854. The Cape Colony got a legislative council in 1834
and also got a bicameral parliament in 1854. It also got a full internal
self-government for its white population in 1872. Natal received full internal
self-government in 1893. Friction between the British government and the
English people and other Europeans immigrants versus Afrikaner republics soon
lead the South African War, otherwise known as the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). The
South Africa Act was drafted in Durban in 1908, which created the Union of
South Africa (A).
