Untitled Document

1700	Datum	Gebeurtenis
		The first "placaat" (ordinance or statute) restricting the importation of Asian slaves is promulgated Dlamini chiefdoms move south from Delagoa Bay and settle on land north of the Phongolo River; thereby forming the core of the future Swazi nation. Free burghers are permitted to trade with local Khoikhoi chiefdoms. The latter suffer economic decline, a direct result of the terms of the trading system set by the Dutch. At the advice of Cape Governor WA van der Stel, the Dutch colonial administration annuls its policy of forbidding the inland trek of migrant stock farmers or trekboers. This paves the way for unencumbered colonial expansion. The boundaries extend north and include Winterberg, Witzenberg and Roodezand, later called Tulbagh.
	1701	First recorded raid by Khoisan on cattle of Dutch farmers at the Cape. This form of rebellion is the first of a series of sporadic raids and attacks by Khoisan on Dutch cattle and colonial control posts. They continue until approximately 1715
	1702	Traffic in cattle and ivory at the Cape colony is firmly established. An expedition of ivory traffickers unsuccessfully attacks AmaXhosa for cattle. They lift cattle from Khoikhoi instead. This attack is the first recorded evidence of encounters of colonists with the AmaXhosa
	1702 - 1704	In an attempt to put a stop to cattle raiding and other forms of brigandage by trekboers, the VOC imposes a temporary ban on free trading with the Khoikhoi at the Cape. This embargo is lifted in 1704
	1703	Cape Colony: Licences are issued to stock farmers allowing them to graze their cattle beyond formal colonial boundaries on the land of the Khoikhoi. This is an attempt to increase their productivity. It is estimated that whereas colonists owned 8 300 head of cattle and 54 000 sheep in 1700, by 1710 this number had increased to 20 000 head of cattle and 131 000 sheep
	1706	Cape Colony: Adam Tas, representing farming burghers, draws up a formal memorandum of complaint, which is addressed, to the Directorate of the VOC in Batavia. In the memorandum the signatories accuse Governor van der Stel and Company officials of illicit farming and trading, illegal landholding and setting up of illicit monopolies on the sale of wine, wheat and meat. The Governor orders the arrest and detention of Tas and 60 signatories. However, the VOC removes the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the chaplain and the landdrost (magistrate) from their posts and all the land in possession of company officials have to be disposed of. In addition, the monopolies are rescinded. This meant that the VOC re-asserted the official Company policy with regard to prohibiting the involvement of Company officials in farming and trading activities and restricting them to their official administrative responsibilities
	1710 - 1720	Cape Colony: A continuing surplus of wheat and wine results in a price slump with serious consequences for the wholly agrarian Cape economy
	1713	An outbreak of smallpox, introduced by the crew and passengers of a passing ship, results in the virtual decimation of the south-western Cape Khoikhoi who have no resistance against this disease. The disease proves fatal for a large number of the colonists as well. The decimation of the Khoikhoi results in an acute labour shortage. Tracts of land become ?ownerless?. Colonial cattle farmers appropriate this land. Further outbreaks occur in 1755 and most seriously in 1767, which registers three separate outbreaks
		A group of Cape slaves desert the immediate Cape Colony and attempt to establish a life for themselves to the north-west. They are captured and severely punished. Thomas van Bengalen is hanged, while Tromp van Madagscar, the leader, is sentenced to death by impalement. Van Madagascar commits suicide in gaol. The rest of the captured slaves have their Achilles tendons severed or their feet otherwise broken on the wheel
	1715	Trekboers raid cattle of farmers as far northwest of the Cape Colony as Saldanha Bay
	1717	The VOC decides that future grants of land to settlers at the Cape should no longer be done on a freehold basis, but as loan farms called leningplaatsen. The farmers have to pay a rental to the Company for the use of the farm. However approximately 400 freehold farms had been granted by the time that this system was changed. The owners of these farms are consequently unaffected by the new system of land tenure Cape colony: Estimates put the colony's population at 744 officials, approximately 2 000 burghers and just over 2 700 slaves. Hence the slave population forms approximately 50% of the total population within little more than 50 years of the founding of the refreshment station. The VOC administration establishes a slaving post at Lorenço Marques, the present day Maputo. The VOC opens a slaving station at Delagoa Bay. The Company (VOC) reinstates the ban on free trading with the Khoikhoi that it had suspended in 1704. In an attempt to enforce its control over the maintenance of borders in the eastern regions of the Cape Colony, the Company establishes an administrative post at Ziekenhuys.
	1728	Cape Colony: Conflict between trekboers and the indigenous population escalates into a full-blown skirmish as the Khoikhoi are systematically and with violent means robbed of their land and livestock. Twelve Khoikhoi are killed by gunshot in this skirmish
	1730	The VOC begins the systematic trading for slaves in Moçambique and Zanzibar. Phalo assumes rule over the AmaXhosa. During his forty-five year reign power struggles between two of his sons, Gcaleka and Rharhabe, lead to a deep political rift in his kingdom. Cape Colony: A commando attacks a group of Khoisan whom they suspect of having lifted cattle. Apart from six Khoisan being shot dead by the commando, the commando takes a woman and three children captive. This is the first record of indigenous women and children being taken captive and forced into domestic labour by Dutch colonists as booty of warfare. It was to become a characteristic practice in the ensuing clashes and skirmishes between the Dutch and the indigenous population.
	1732	Cape Colony: In an attempt to contain the expansionist lawlessness and movement of the trekboers and to enforce payment of rent on the leningplaatsen, the VOC revises the land tenure system. It introduces the quitrent system, which allows the farmer land tenure for fifteen years. If after a tenure of the agreed fifteen years the farm is returned to the Company, the farmer is reimbursed for all fixed improvements made to the farm
	1734	The Company (VOC) sets up an administrative post in the East at Rietvlei. The Great Brak River is declared the eastern boundary of Cape colony. Cape Colony: Georg Schmidt, a Moravian missionary, is granted permission by the VOC to establish a mission station for landless Khoikhoi at Baviaanskloof, today known as Genadendal. This marks the beginning of protestant missionary expansionism in South Africa.
	1739	South-western Cape Khoikhoi take up arms against the Dutch in protest against the colonial seizure of their land. This is their last organised rebellion. After it is suppressed, the defeated Khoikhoi are absorbed as unskilled farm labourers into the colonial economy
	1742	Cape Colony: Georg Schmidt baptises five Khoikhoi. This causes upheaval, as politically it is still not clear whether converts to Christianity from the indigenous population should be accorded equal civil and political rights as colonists. The Council of Policy therefore forbids such baptisms by Schmidt, citing the excuse that he is not an ordained minister. Two years later, in 1744, Schmidt leaves the Cape for Holland in order to be ordained, and hence be allowed to baptise Khoikhoi. In his absence no missionary activity takes place. He also does not return to the Cape
	1743 - 1745	Governor-General Baron van Imhoff inspects the Cape Colony. He changes the land tenure system to discourage migrant pastoralism among the border Dutch, as the introduction of the quitrent system proves ineffectual. Additionally, he establishes the district of Swellendam, and also orders the establishment of Dutch reformed churches in areas that are to become known as Malmesbury and Tulbagh
	751 - 1771	Ryk Tulbagh is made Governor of the Cape. During his twenty-year reign he establishes the Colony's first library and a plant and animal collection in the gardens of the Company
	1752	Ensign Friedrich Beutler explores the eastern coastal region of South Africa with a team comprising a surveyor and cartographer, a surgeon, a botanist, a wainwright and a blacksmith. He returns to the Company (VOC) with descriptions of the Nguni inhabitants of the Keiskamma River region
	1753	Cape Colony: Tulbagh initiates the codification of slave law
	1754	A census of the Cape reveals that its non- indigenous population comprises 510 colonists/settlers and 6 279 slaves. Cape Colony: Khoisan groups attack and raid farms in the Roggeveld area.
	1755	The second great smallpox epidemic breaks out at the Cape
	1760	Hendrick Hop and Willem van Reenen complete a successful exploratory expedition into Namaqualand as far north as Walvis Bay and Keetmanshoop. They discover evidence of copper in that region
	1762	Jacobus Coetzee undertakes an exploratory expedition north of the Orange River
	1765	The Meermin sails from the Cape to purchase slaves in Madagascar. Due to a mutiny by the slaves on the return journey, the journey fails
	1767	The Cape frontier is pushed further eastward, beyond the Gamtoos River into the land of the AmaXhosa. Armed confrontations between the AmaXhosa and the Dutch colonists ensue. Cape Colony: Trekboers reach the Swartkops River to the east and Bruintjieshoogte to the north. The third great smallpox epidemic breaks out at the Cape.
	1775	The death of Phalo increases the political tensions and strife within the AmaXhosa people. Consequently they split into two groupings: into followers of Gcaleka and of Rharhabe, two of the sons of Phalo. The Council of Policy of the VOC extends the borders of the districts of Stellenbosch, Drakenstein and Bruintjieshoogte as part of its policy of expanding the Cape Colony.
	1778	The Cape Colony's eastern border is extended to the Upper (Greater) Fish and Bushmans Rivers by decree of the VOC Council of Policy. This lays for the foundation for a series of anti-colonial wars by the AmaXhosa and skirmishes that are to last until the end of the nineteenth century. Gcaleka, the paramount chief of the AmaXhosa dies. Ngqika succeeds him under the regency of Ndlambe, the son of Rharhabe. Rharhabe uses Gcaleka's death to extend his own power. This includes attempting to form an alliance with the Colony. In the ensuing strife Rharhabe and his AmaRharhabe are banished to the north of the Eastern Cape.
	1779	Cape Colony: Adriaan van Jaarsveld is instructed to implement the establishment of the eastern border of the Colony (Greater Fish and Bushman's Rivers) by enforcing a relocation of all AmaXhosa chiefdoms living to the west of the Greater Fish River. Under the pretence of bringing the AmaMdange a gift of goodwill, Van Jaarsveld orders his commando to attack the unsuspecting and unarmed AmaMdange, killing many. Other chiefdoms are similarly attacked. In addition to defeating the AmaXhosa, Van Jaarsveld nets almost 6 000 head of cattle. Numbers for other livestock are not known. This commando attack goes down in history as the First War of Dispossession between the AmaXhosa and Dutch colonists. It is the first of a series of nine wars waged by various colonial administrations against the AmaXhosa in attempts to dispossess them of their land and livestock and to settle colonists there
	1780 - 1783	War between The Netherlands and England hastens the end of the commercial and political influence of the Dutch East India Company, which had started to decline in the early second half of the eighteenth century
	1781	In an attempt to avert a British threat to Dutch control at the Cape, the French who are allies of the Dutch, station troops at the Cape. They remain there for three years
	1782	The chief of the AmaXhosa and brother of Gcaleka, Rharabe, dies
		Cape Colony: The rix dollar becomes the unit of paper currency, gradually replacing gold and silver
	1785	Shaka, the future king of the AmaZulu, is born
	1786	The Fish River is proclaimed the Cape's eastern border
		Moshoeshoe, the future king of the Basotho, is born
		Cape Colony: Graaff-Rheinet is established as a district and as the location from which the colonial administration implements its policy of separation of trekboers and AmaXhosa and enforcing the border that they had drawn up
	1789	Merino sheep are imported from The Netherlands. This marks the start of the lucrative wool industry in the Cape Colony. It is also a significant reason for ensuing battles for the land of the indigenous people, as settler merino farmers demand more grazing land
		The first overseas mail service in South Africa is inaugurated
		Ngqika, who makes an unsuccessful bid for the supreme leadership of the AmaXhosa, defeats Ndlambe. By the end of the decade Ndlambe moves west of the Fish River, back to their ancestral land. Mzilikazi, future leader of the AmaKhumalo and later of the AmaNdebele, is born near Mkuze, Zululand. He dies in Ingama, Matabeleland in 1868.
	1790	Cape Colony: The Second War of Dispossession begins as burgher commandos of the Graaff-Rheinet area force AmaXhosa chiefdoms across the Fish River and pillage their cattle. The war ends three years later in a truce that does not appease the burghers' demand for more land than already taken from the AmaXhosa
	1791	Cape Colony: Burghers are successful in their demands for the slave trade to be open to private enterprise
	1792	Cape Colony: Three ordained Moravian missionaries Hendrik Marsveld, Daniel Schwinn and Christian Kuehnel arrive at Baviaanskloof (Genadendal) to revive the work begun by Georg Schmidt in 1737. The missionaries find an aged woman named Lena, who had been a member of Schmidt's original congregation. Together the four people re-build the mission station. The VOC government, although more sympathetic to missionary activity than the government under which Georg Schmidt had served, nonetheless forbids the missionaries from erecting a church and a school. Religious and school instruction is given either in the homes of the missionaries or under trees
	1793	Cape Colony: H.C.D. Maynier is appointed the landdrost (magistrate) of Graaff-Rheinet. Rebellion by the ?republics? of Swellendam and Graaff-Rheinet against the policies of the Cape government that prohibit the plundering of land and livestock of the indigenous population.
	1794	Tuan Guru founds the Auwal Masjid (mosque) in Dorp Street, Cape Town, the first Muslim place of worship in southern Africa
	1795	With the first British occupation of the Cape, the rule of the VOC there comes to an end. General J Craig is appointed Commanding Officer. The British authorities outlaw torture in the Cape colony. Cape Colony: Moravian missionaries are granted the freedom to pursue the full range of missionary activities amongst the Khoikhoi and Khoisan, a privilege that they could not secure from the Dutch administration. Cape Colony: Maynier is driven out of Graaff-Rheinet by burghers who accuse him of not dealing effectively with the ?kaffir? problem, that is, of not siding with the demand of the burghers for the land and livestock of the indigenous population. They lose their short-lived independence because their settlements are economically not viable without the support of the Cape government.
	1798	The VOC is officially dissolved. A fire devastates large areas of Cape Town. The construction of the Cape Colony's first post office begins. The Reverend J.T. van der Kemp comes to the Cape as a missionary of the London Missionary Society to work among the AmaXhosa. He begins his activities in collaboration with the Chief of the AmaXhosa, Ngqika.
	1799 - 1802	Khoisan rise up in an unsuccessful but protracted rebellion in the eastern districts of the Cape in what becomes known as the Third War of Dispossession between the Khoisan of the colonial authorities