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Development of Namibia

  • 1488

    Explorer Bartolomeu Dias arrives from Portugal

  • Afrikaner settlers arrive and reach Ovambo kingdoms

  • British annexation of Walvis Bay

  • Walvis Bay claimed by Britain’s Cape Colony (South Africa)

  • Period: to

    German Colonization: Formation of German Southwest Africa

  • Period: to

    Conflict with the Germans and indigenous Herero and Nama peoples

  • Period: to

    Herero and Nama rebellion, Herero genocide by the Germans: possibly 60,000 (80%) of the Herero population are killed

  • Act of Union: Walvis Bay included in new South Africa

  • South Africa conquest over South West Africa during WWI

  • Governance of South West Africa granted to South Africa by League of Nations (Class C) mandate

  • United Nations refuses annexation of South West Africa by South Africa

  • Herman Toivo ja Toivo and the creation the opposition movement (Ovamboland People's Congress, later renamed South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO))

  • Herman Toivo ja Toivo and SWAPO leaders tried for terrorism, imprisonment at Robben Island

  • South West Africa renamed Namibia

  • Namibia independence, Sam Nujoma elected as president

  • South Africa grants sovereignty to Namibia over Walvis Bay

  • Germany apologizes for colonial-era genocide of Herero people