Cape Colony (redirected from Governor of the Cape Colony)

Cape Colony: see Cape Province.

---

Cape Province

 or Cape of Good Hope, formerly Cape Colony

Former province, South Africa. Occupying the southern extremity of the African continent, it comprised the southern and western portions of South Africa; its capital was Cape Town. The black state of Ciskei and parts of two others, Transkei and Bophuthatswana, lay within its boundaries. Its name refers to the Cape of Good Hope, 30 mi (50 km) south of Cape Town. The original inhabitants included Bantu, San, and Khoekhoe peoples. Bartolomeu Dias, en route to India in 1488, became the first European to visit the area. A colony was founded by the Dutch at Table Bay in 1652; it was ceded to the British in 1814. It joined the Union of South Africa in 1910 and the Republic of South Africa in 1961. The province ceased to exist in 1994, when it was split roughly into Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and Western Cape provinces.

---

Cape Colony

the name from 1652 until 1910 of the former Cape Province of South Africa

---

Cape Colony 

(Dutch Kaapkolonie, from Kaap de Goede Hoop), a Dutch and later an English possession in Southern Africa.

Cape Colony was founded in 1652 on the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch East India Company. In 1795 it was seized by Great Britain; from 1803 to 1806 it again came under the control of the Dutch, but in 1806 it was again captured by Great Britain. The Cape Colony territory continued to expand at the expense of the Africans’ lands (Bushmen, Hottentots, and Bantu). By 1894, after a number of aggressive wars waged by Boer and English colonizers (Kaffrarian wars), the Cape Colony’s eastern border had reached the Umtamvuna River. In 1895 the southern part of Bechuanaland, annexed in 1884—85, was included in the colony. Cape Colony was made a part of the Union of South Africa after the creation of the latter in 1910 (Republic of South Africa after 1961).

REFERENCE

Walker, E. A. A History of Southern Africa, 3rd ed. London, 1959.