An Independent South Africa

            South Africa walked a long road to reach its independence. Centuries of being under the rule of someone else, they finally received the opportunity to decolonize themselves. July 4, 1776 forever marks the beginning of the United States of America, and May 31, 1961 will forever mark the beginning of the Republic of South Africa.

            As before mentioned, South Africa received complete independence from British rule in 1961. The State of Union Act of 1934 granted South Africa the right of sovereignty within the British Empire but in 1961 they became a republic. Their republic status came about because of the National Party, a political party who ruled the state from 1948 to 1994. The National party issued the republic status as a way to unite whites and consolidate their program of apartheid, a system of tightened segregation and discrimination. As a free country, South Africa is a member of the United Nations and BRICS, an economic coalition made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. South Africa was also the host of the World Cup in 2010. South Africa has thrived in their 50 short years of independence. 

South Africa's Colonial Experience

            South Africa experienced 309 years of colonization. However, their colonial experience under the rule of the Dutch and the British molded South Africa into what it is now. South Africans had to deal with their land being taken from them and racial discrimination from these European powers; nonetheless, it unified their people and led to their eventual independence.

            South Africans had a fairly well colonial experience under the Dutch, in the beginning. When the Dutch first settled, the native South Africans, such as the Khoikhoi, lived in harmony with the Dutch. None of the Khoikhoi were enslaved or treated inhumanely. However, the Dutch and Khoikhoi’s peaceful relationship began to go sourer when trade between the two and colonists attempting to take their land led to a series of wars. Along with wars, the Dutch infected the Khoikhoi with smallpox. These two contributing factors led to almost the total demise of the Khoikhoi society. Surviving members either moved away from the Cape or went it labor close to serfdom on colonial farms. The San, South African hunter-gatherers, also were pushed from their land and were forced to live by cattle raiding. Colonists put forth a “systematic eradication”, which eventually led to South Africa being separated by a colonial dominated west region and east region (3).

            South Africans colonial experience with the British was almost opposite to that of the Dutch. Initially, Racially discriminate legislation was enforced so that the Khoikhoi and other free blacks would work for as little as possible. To add to their racial discrimination, the British passed the Hottenton Code in 1809, which required all Khoikhoi and free blacks carry passes saying where their residents was and who they worked for. Those caught without the passes could be forced into labor by white masters. Later, these British policies against blacks were abolished and blacks began to be treated more as equals. Police forces were established in which Khoikhoi’s held positions in. In addition, the British freed all slaves and granted land back to native South Africans and sought peace with them. However these new policies angered the Boer colonists, forcing them to move in what was the called the Great Trek, which brought the creation of 2 more colonies that eventually unified with the other 2 South African colonies creating the Union of South Africa. 

The Initial Conquest of the Cape

            In their long history, South Africa, located at the cape of the Africa continent, at one point experienced being conquered and colonized by a foreign presence. This was an experience South Africa not only had to deal with once, but twice, under the control of the Dutch and then the British. How each of these two European countries obtained their share of the Cape Colony differed and their motives for conquering it also faced a contrast.

            In the late 16^th and early 17^th century the Dutch sought after the Cape peninsula, seeing it as a “source of fresh water, meat, and timber for masts (1).” In 1652, Verengide Oostidishe Compagnie (VOC), a Dutch East India Company, established the first permanent settlement on the cape in Table Bay. The settlement originally served as a supply station for provisioning Dutch fleets. When the Dutch initially settled on the cape, it was done in peace. No wars were fought and no natives were enslaved. In fact, the VOC didn’t allow any of the settlers enslave the native Khoikhoi.  However, colonial pastoralists began to encroach onto the land of the Khoikhoi and San, South African hunter-gatherers, in an attempt to expand their territory. These colonists continued to do so, forcing the Khoikhoi, San, and other hunter-gatherer communities into “marginal areas (2).”

             The British occupied South Africa in 1795 and then again in 1806. They, on the other hand, conquered the Cape by simply taking it from the Dutch East India Company (how has not been explained by various sources). Their motives for obtaining the Cape were to keep it out of the hands of Napoleon and the French, who the British were at war with, because the Cape served as an important sea route to the East. In Britain’s initial conquest they planned to keep the settlement small. Britain’s key to the settlement lied in its strategic location.