1480s – Portuguese navigator Bartholomeu Dias is the first European to travel round the southern tip of Africa.
1497 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama lands on Natal coast.
1652 – Jan van Riebeeck, representing the Dutch East India Company, founds the Cape Colony at Table Bay.
1795 – British forces seize Cape Colony from the Netherlands. Territory is returned to the Dutch in 1803; ceded to the British in 1806.
1816-1826 – Shaka Zulu founds and expands the Zulu empire, creates a formidable fighting force.
1835-1840 – Boers leave Cape Colony in the ‘Great Trek’ and found the Orange Free State and the Transvaal.
1852 – British grant limited self-government to the Transvaal.
1856 – Natal separates from the Cape Colony.
Hibberden: the British colonisation of Natal.
Gouache on 1/50.000 topographical map (59X77 cm)
British settlers arrived in Natal by sea. They have created numerous coastal resorts [grey patches originally mapped], demarcated farmland [white sections with black limits] and removed African people into native reserves [black sections]
Late 1850s – Boers proclaim the Transvaal a republic.
1867 – Diamonds discovered at Kimberley.
1877 – Britain annexes the Transvaal.
1879 – British defeat the Zulus in Natal.
Blackburn: the British colonisation of the Zulu Kingdom.
Gouache on 1/50.000 topographical map (59X77 cm)
After the annexation of Zululand, British settlers have created domains [Perseverance, Endurance…] and farms [white sections with black limits and pieces of original map] and encircled Zulu people into native reserves [colourful section]. The green section corresponds to a former royal hunting area of king Shaka Zulu transformed into a protected forest.
Mid 1880s – Gold is discovered in the Transvaal, triggering the gold rush.
Mtubatuba: the British colonisation of the Zulu forest.
Gouache on 1/50.000 topographical map (59X77 cm)
After the annexation of Zululand, the British colonisers have created small industrial service-towns [Mtubatuba and River View are noticeable on pieces of the original map], have demarcated various plots of sugar cane farms [white sections with black limits] and removed Zulu people into native reserves [colourful section located at the outskirts of Hluhluwe-Mfolozi game reserve].
1910 – 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.
1912 – Native National Congress founded, later renamed the African National Congress (ANC).
1913 – Land Act introduced to prevent blacks, except those living in Cape Province, from buying land outside reserves.
1914 – National Party founded.
1918 – Secret Broederbond (brotherhood) established to advance the Afrikaner cause.
1919 – South West Africa (Namibia) comes under South African administration.
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