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Jan van Riebeeck arrived on behalf of the Dutch East India Company to establish the first permanent European settlement at the Cape of Good Hope.
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From 1652 to 1802, Boer farmers slowly spread out from Cape Town, acquire land along the way
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As the small but growing Afrikaner population spread steadily northward and eastward in the 1760s, they encountered more and more Bantu-speaking peoples.
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In 1806, the British took over the Dutch East India Company, which had become ban- rupt, and assumed control of the Cape Colony in South Africa.
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The trekboers were not moving to empty land. In fact, many African groups living on that land were undergoing a series of complex changes from the 1810s to 1830s.
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In 1820, the first large group of English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish settlers arrived.
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The arrival of the English changed the economic system of the Cape. New markets were good fro farmers, but whrn the British abolished slavery in all of its coloniesin 1834, the Boers lost their cheap labor supply.
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From about 1836 to 1850 whousands of Afrikaners migrated north out what was now the British Cape Colony.
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The Battle of Blood River was minor importance to South Africa History between the Zulu and Afrikaners, on December 16, 1838.
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From 1860 through 1866, six thousand Indians arrived Natal as indentured servants, making the beginning of what became a permanent and highly influenceial Indian community in South Africa.
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In 1867 Afrikaner prospectors discovered the first of several huge diamond deposits. These fidings marked the beginning of economic changes that would transform the conomy, the polliticas, and the race relations of South Africa.
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Because of the successful excavation of diamonds in Kimberley in 1871, and ggold in the 1880s, the British expanded the empire through violent conquest of African societies in order to develop this new industry.
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Mohandas Gandhi, later called the liberator of India, came to South Africa in 1893 to accept a position in an Indian law firm.
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In 1896 and 1897 and epidemic spread through the cattle population, killing 90 percent of the cattle and further damaging black African communities.
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Because the British govenment was concerned that it would lose the chance to control the largest known gold fields in the world, so they increased tension between the Afrikaner leadership. In 1899, Afrikaners lauched attacks against the British
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In 1910 the British colonies and Afrikaner Republics joined together as the Union of South Africa.
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In 1912 several hundred conservative African men formed the African National Congress (ANC).
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The 1913 Natives' Land Act became the first piece of major legislation creating separate areas of Europeans and Africans.
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In 1919, ANC organized a major nonviolent demonstration against the passbooks that blacks had to carry with them all the times.
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In 1936, the government repealed the limited voting rights some Africans had, and installed three white representatives to speak for all blacks.
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In 1944 young radical s within the ANC founded the Congress Youth League to encourage the ANC to adopt a more confrontational stance and to use mass action to achieve their goals.
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The victory of national party in the South African election of 1948 brought conservative Afrikaners to political power.
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The Prohibition of Mixed Marriaages Act said whites and members of other racial groups could not marry.
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The Population Registration created three official races in South Africa.
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The Group Areas Act began the process of designating every inch of land in South Africa for one of the three official race groups.
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The Suppression of Communism defined communism so broadly htat any resistance to apartheid policis could be equated with communism.
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Under the Immorality Acts, whites and other groups could not have sexual relations with each other.
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The ANC and SAIC launched the Defiance Campaign in 1952.
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The specific target of the Defiance Campaign was the decepetively named Natives Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents Act.
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The Criminal Law Amendent Act instituted high fines and up to three years in prison or flogging for violation of any law in protest against the govenment.
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The Public Safety Act provided the framework for the govenment to declare states of emergency.
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In 1954, the ANC took the lead in forming the Congress Alliance to take the campaign against aparteid a step further.
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This gave leades of the carious anti-apartheid organizations enormous amounts of time to plan strategies and to develop a strong sense of camaraderie.
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The Alexandra Bus Boycott demonstrated the power of the people united together against the system.
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The young radicals split form the ANC to form the Pan Africanist Congress.
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In June 1959 the govenment enacted the Promotion of Bantu Self-Govenment Act. Another deceptively named law, this established eight black homelands.
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On March 28th, Chief Albert Luthuli, the president of the ANC, called for a day of mourning and the start of a stay-at-home campaign.
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In June 1961, in secret, underground meetings, the leadership of the ANC had decided to launch Sabotage Campaigns against the government.
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In december 1961 the president of the ANC, Chief Albert Luthuli, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent struggle against apartheid.
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The Sabotage Act gave the govenment power to arrest anyone it believed threatened the sercurity of he country.
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The 90-Day Act allowed the govenment to detain people without charges or trials for up to 90 days.
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The police surprised several members of the ANC as they were looking over a proposal in their Rivonia headquarter in July 1963.
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On June12, 1964, Mandela and seven others were sentenced to life in prison.
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In June 1976 Soweto students staged a massive demonstration sgainst Afrikaans instruction.
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The movement was banned in 1977. Its leader, Steve Biko was killed in prison.
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More peaceful protests led to more black deaths, and the govenment declared a State of Emergency.
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In Auguust 1989, a new South African president assumed power.
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To the surprise of many around the world, de Klerk unconditionally release Nelson Mandela from prison.
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In February 1991, de Klerk removed key apartheid laws from the books.
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In 1993 the Noble Peace Prize was jointly awarded to Mandela and de Klerk for their parts in ending apartheid.
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In 1994, Nelso Mandela becam the first black president of South Africa, following the first truly democratic elections in that country,
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Part of the constitution called for the formation of a Truth Reconciliation Commision.
