The San people were the first settlers. Then the Khoikhoi and the Bantu-speaking tribes followed. The first European settlers landed in the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, where they launched a colony that by the end of the 18th century numbered only about 15000, who were known as Boers or Afrikaners. They were speaking a Dutch dialect known as Afrikaans.
After occupying the Cape colony, Britain took permanent possession in 1815, which was at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
Nine years later, in 1867, they discovered diamonds and it brought an influx of “outlanders” into the republic.
What British expansionists called the “inevitable” war with the Boers broke out on October 11, 1899. The defeat of the Boers in 1902 led in 1910 to the Union of South Africa, composed of four provinces, the two former republics, and the old Cape and Natal colonies. Louis Botha, a Boer, became the first prime minister. Organized political activity among Africans started with the establishment of the African National Congress in 1912.
Apartheid
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Whites had all the power in South Africa. They also owned the gold, diamonds and most of all, almost the whole country. The police, the soldiers and the government were white too. In 1948 the Whites created a system that would make it easy to keep all the power without sharing anything with the coloured or the black people. They decided to separate all South Africans according to the colour of their skin. Some families were split, if their parents colour were different. The actually word apartheid is a Dutch word for “living apart”.
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