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1000 BCE
Bantu arrival
The new arrivals were mostly farmers and herders who spoke languages from a large African language group known as Bantu. As the migrants settled in various parts of the territory, people living in close proximity gradually developed distinct languages and cultures, creating new ethnic groups. -
Jan van Riebeeck
The arrival of Jan van Riebeeck, a Dutch navigator and colonial administrator, at Table Bay (Cape of Good Hope) marked the beginning of permanent European settlement in the region. -
Boer Settlement
Dutch colonists, known as Boers (the Dutch word for “farmers”), settled in the Cape of Good Hope region beginning in 1652 to provide fresh food and water for ships passing from Europe to Asia. -
Shaka Zulu
Under the leadership of several powerful kings, especially Shaka Zulu, who came to power in 1816, the Zulu conquered a number of neighboring groups. -
Indentured Laborers
People from the British colony of India began to arrive in South Africa in large numbers after the British abolished slavery throughout their empire in 1833 -
Berlin Conference
Hosted the scramble for Africa. This is where European powers met to divide and make their claims on the African continent, the British pushed farther into the interior of southern Africa, creating new colonies in what are today the countries of Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. -
Indian Natal Colony
The Indian population was concentrated in the Natal colony, where, by 1904, they had expanded enough to outnumber the white South Africans in the region. -
Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa, which was created in 1910 when the British brought together the Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange Free State, and Transvaal as a self-governing dominion of the British Empire -
South African Native National Congress
The most successful protest association, the South African Native National Congress, was founded in 1912 to protest the treatment of black South Africans. In 1919, the group changed its name to the African National Congress (ANC). -
Afrikaneer nationalist
In the 1920s, Afrikaner nationalists fought to replace Dutch, recognized
as one of the country’s official languages, with Afrikaans. -
Spark of the bloody revolt
A dispute between mine owners and 20,000 white laborers sparked the bloody 1922 Rand Revolt. -
Racial Superiority
In the 1930s, as Afrikaner nationalists were developing their own ideas of racial superiority, many came to admire Nazi Germany’s policies on “racial purity.” -
Representation of Natives Act
Segregation was reaffirmed in the Representation of Natives Act, the Native Trust and Land Act, and the Native Laws Amendment Act, passed in 1936 and 1937. -
Herenidge National Party
Handed a majority in the national House of Assembly on May 26, 1948, the Herenigde National Party and its Afrikaner Party allies strengthened South Africa’s discriminatory laws, implementing the apartheid system to segregate the country’s races and guarantee the dominance of the white minority.