Context of Apartheid

By Estée

  • The Cape Colony at Table Bay is founded

  • British forces seize Cape Colony from the Netherlands.

    Territory is returned to the Dutch in 1803; ceded to the British in 1806.
  • Period: to

    Shaka Zulu founds and expands the Zulu empire

    creates a formidable fighting force.
  • Period: to

    Boers leave Cape Colony in the 'Great Trek' and found the Orange Free State and the Transvaal.

  • Period: to

    Arrival of thousands of labourers and traders from India

    Forebears of the majority of South Africa's current Indian population.

  • Diamonds discovered at Kimberley.

  • British defeat the Zulus in Natal.

  • Period: to

    Boers rebel against the British

    Sparking the first Anglo-Boer War. Conflict ends with a negotiated peace. Transvaal is restored as a republic.

  • Treaty of Vereeniging ends the second Anglo-Boer War

    The Transvaal and Orange Free State are made self-governing colonies of the British Empire.

  • Formation of Union of South Africa

    By former British colonies of the Cape and Natal, and the Boer republics of Transvaal, and Orange Free State.