Jan van Riebeeck
Jan Van Riebeek was born as Johan Anthonish Van Reibek in Culemborg, Netherlands on April 21,1619. In 1639, he had Joined VOC, the Dutch East India company and served as an assistant surgeon on their voyage to Batavia in April of 1639. Then after going to Japan, he served a number of posts and was also head of the VOC trading post in Tong king ( now Tonkin, Vietnam). However, after it was discovered that he conducting trade for his own account, he was taken off the post in Tonkin. Furthermore, in 1651, he was requested to the Initial Dutch settlement in South Africa after the Amsterdam Chamber of DEIC were impressed with the Cape on the sea to the indies. Riebeek wanted to provide provisions (food, drinks, Equipment) because the deaths en route was very high. In addition, he was the first Commander of the Cape from 1652 to 1662(after this he never returned to live in the Netherlands) and was promoted to secretary to the Governor-general off the Dutch East indies and served them from 1665 to 1677. He was charged with building a fort, improving the natural anchorage at Table Bay, planting cereal, fruits and vegetables and keeping livestock from the Indigenous Khoi people. Riebeek didn't want to colonize the Cape but build a fort, to up a flag pole for signaling to passing ships and to build pilot boats to escort passing ships into the bay. Likewise, the Cape of Good Hope was considered a region known for growing grapes for wine, so when Riebeek set up the settlement he improved wine cuttings from Europe and as the desire for agriculture increased, and the settlements spread, the Khoikhoi, called Hottentots were forced to move further North. Riebeek wrote reports recommending that 'free Burgher' (a person who lives in a particular town.) should be allow to trade, farm and help with defense. Today, the first fort that he built that was made of clay, mud, and timber became a pentagonal structure known as The Castle of Good Hope and the "company gardens" were vegetables were grown is now a park in the middle of Cape Town. He also reported the first comet discovered from South Africa, C/1652Y1.
Dutch East India company (VOC)
Vereengde Oost-Indisch Compagnie (VOC) the Dutch East India Company was chartered by the States- General of the Netherlands to expand trade and make sure that they had a close relationship between the government and its colonial enterprises In Asia. The VOC was granted government charter which allowed it to spice trade monopoly in East Asia, and they had the power to colonize any colony it wanted and enslave the indigenous people according to market requirements and VOC political imperatives. It impelled many suffering on indigenous people in those country who would not provide them with tea and spices( known as the crop-cash economy), and determined its price of raw materials, and their production and availability and who could participate in their trade. in addition, it was also established in 1602 to profit from the Mulukan Spice Trade and in 1619 it established a capital in South Africa in port city of Jakarta( now Batavia). It was the first company to issue stocks in Amsterdam and the first mega corporation(able to wage wars, imprison, coin money, negotiate treaties and establish a colonies). Likewise, the company was granted a monopoly( when a specific person is the only supplier of a particular commodity)East of the Cape of Good Hope and West of the Strait of Magellan. VOC restrained local leaders and drove the British and Portuguese from Indonesia, Malaya, and Ceylon and took in ports as trading bases. Furthermore, the company found admiration for the land and refined nutmeg and started to grow it using slave labor from neighboring countries. Today, the leadership of the VOC is being celebrated in The Netherlands as the golden age of Dutch Commerce. However,countries like South Africa, and Indonesia have to deal with the European economy and is still struggling to come to terms with the violent legacy of the VOC.
The Boers
The word Boer comes from the language Afrikaans which was created by the Boer people and means farmer of Dutch. The Boers were farmers who lived a nomadic life and settled within the lands of Cape town . They owned farms and were able to maintain them with the forced laboring of slaves from Africa. After the cape was taken over by the British in 1806 from the Dutch to prevent the occupation of the French's during the Napoleon wars, the British gradually tried to changed the Boers way of life and many issues formed when the British made English the official language and abolished slavery in 1864. The Boers felt that the equality of Whites and Africans were against the order that God had made and their racism became known as apartheid in South Africa. Displeased with the British, the Boers started to migrate north beyond the British territory, and this was known as the Great Trek and when the British and the African tribes started to convey hostility toward the Boers, they were forced to move in lands beyond the orange and Vaal River. There they established the Orange Free State and the south African Republic who's independence was recognized by the British in 1864.
Fights With Dutch
In South Africa, the Dutch's were involved with many fights. These included The Dutch-Portuguese War. The dutch forces were in the formed of the VOC who were against the Portuguese Empire because the Dutch were invading their colonies in the America's, Africa, and India. Another war was the Anglo-Dutch Wars which were continuous between the English(British) and the Dutch during the 1700's and 1800;s because they both wanted control over the seas and the trade routes. In addition, After four years of Jan van Riebeek's arrival at the Cape, the first war between the Khoikhoi and Dutch broke out because the Khoikhoi were trying to drive away the Dutch and into less fertile land. However, soon the colonial project continued and because the importation of slaves mainly from Dutch East Asia became a system, the Cape became a slave-based economy. Europeans and Whites were the master, while the Indigenous population were discriminated or suffered slavery(racial hierarchical social order). Furthermore, the First Anglo-Boer War which took place between the Transvaal Boers and the British because the British rule re-established their Independence. Likewise, the Second Anglo-Boer War ended the conversion of the Boer republics into British colonies which later formed part of the Union of South Africa.
Smallpox Epidemic
The smallpox epidemic was the greatest impact on the Indigenous Khoisan people. The disease was brought by the dirty linen of the crew of a Dutch ship on February 1713. The white settler farmers were the first to be hit by the disease and the white colonist become affected while 25% of the white population in the Cape died off while . Likewise, medical supplies had to be imported from Batavia while the suffering for whites gradually ended at the end of 1713. Even more, by May 1713, the smallpox disease had reached extreme heights to where there were not even enough coffins for the dead. The death rate was about 8 people a day, and even though the disease was contained by June 1713, the Indigenous Khoisan people weren't fortunate. They had no source to the Indigenous medicines that could threat the foreign disease and only 10% of the original khoi population of the south-western had survived. By February 1714, the Khoi survivors weren't able to rebuild back their clan, their names were lost and the Khoikhoi's instead became known as the Hottentots. The epidemic had an impact on the Khoi economic strengths which then eroded and settler farmers moved into the areas with the pursue to form a new life with the help of the Cape government.
By: Azanna Clemmings