Theme
Settlement
Events involving settlement, colonisation, community formation, and movement into contested land.
Initial theme stub generated from the nineteenth-century event dataset.
Events
c. 1480 (before Dias)Khoekhoe pastoral communities occupy the Cape before recorded Portuguese contactc. 1489Early Bokoni homestead occupation is dated at Komati Gorgec. 1600Thulamela walled centre shows late sixteenth-century occupation1615Attempt to leave English convicts at the Cape fails1619Anglo-Dutch joint settlement at the Cape is proposed1632Autshumato establishes a trading base on Robben Island1647–1648Nieuwe Haerlem survivors maintain a temporary Cape campMarch 1647Nieuwe Haerlem wrecked in Table Bay1649Janssen and Proot recommend a VOC station at the Cape1651VOC directors authorise a permanent Cape refreshment station6 April 1652Jan van Riebeeck arrives at Table BayFebruary 1657First free burgher farms established along the Liesbeeck River1 May 1659First burgher militia establishedAugust 1672VOC establishes an agricultural outpost at Hottentots Holland1680Stellenbosch settlement founded1687Upper Berg River Valley opened to free-burgher settlement1743Swellendam is founded1778VOC extends eastern boundary to the Fish and Bushmans rivers1786Graaff-Reinet is founded18201820 British settlers arrive in the eastern Cape1829Kat River Settlement established1835–1840The Great TrekNovember 1838Potchefstroom founded1890Pioneer Column occupies Mashonaland and founds Salisbury