History of South Africa

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Part of a series on the
History of South Africa
Pre-colonial Middle Stone Age Late Stone Age Bantu expansion Kingdom of Mapungubwe Kingdom of Mutapa Kaditshwene
Dutch colonisation Dutch Cape Colony
Zulu Kingdom Shaka kaSenzangakhona Dingane kaSenzangakhona Mpande kaSenzangakhona Cetshwayo kaMpande Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo 1887 Annexation (British)
British colonisation Cape Colony Colony of Natal Transvaal Colony Orange River Colony
Boer Republics South African Republic Orange Free State Natalia Republic
Boer Wars First Boer War Jameson Raid Second Boer War
Union of South Africa World War I World War II
Apartheid Legislation South African Border War Angolan Civil War Bantustans Internal resistance Apartheid referendum
Post-apartheid Mandela presidency Mbeki presidency Motlanthe presidency Zuma presidency Ramaphosa presidency
Topic Economic history Inventions and discoveries LGBT history Military history Political history Religious history Slavery
Timeline
List of years in South Africa
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Part of a series on the
Culture of South Africa
History Timeline Years Early history Kingdom of Mapungubwe Kingdom of Mutapa Kaditshwene Dutch Cape Colony Mthethwa Paramountcy Ndwandwe Cape Colony Zulu Kingdom Orange Free State Transvaal Republic First Boer War Second Boer War Great Depression World War II Apartheid Border War Democratic South Africa
People
Languages Afrikaans English Ndebele Northern Sotho Sotho Swazi Tswana Tsonga Venda Xhosa Zulu
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Literature Comics Poets Writers
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Media Television Cinema
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Monuments World Heritage Sites
Symbols Flag Coat of arms National anthem
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Historical states in present-day South Africa
before 1600 Kingdom of Mapungubwe (1050–1270) Kingdom of Mutapa (1430–1760)
1600–1700 Dutch Cape Colony (1652–1795)
1700–1800 Mthethwa Paramountcy (c.1780–1817) Ndwandwe (c.1780–1817) Swellendam (1795) Graaff-Reinet (1795–1796) Cape Colony (1795–1802)
1800–1850 Dutch Cape Colony (1802–1806) Cape Colony (1806–1910) Waterboer's Land (1813–1871) Zulu Kingdom (1818–1897) Adam Kok's Land (1825–1861) Winburg (1836–1844) Potchefstroom (1837–1848) Natalia Republic (1839–1843)
1850–1875 South African Republic (1852–1902) Orange Free State (1854–1902) Republic of Utrecht (1854–1858) Lydenburg Republic (1856–1860) Griqualand East (1861–1879) Griqualand West (1870–1880) Diggers' Republic (1870–1871)
1875–1900 Stellaland (1882–1885) Goshen (1882–1883) Nieuw Republiek (1884–1888) Klein Vrystaat (1886–1891)
1900–present Cape Colony (1806–1910) Union of South Africa (1910–1961) Transkei (1976–1994) Bophuthatswana (1977–1994) Venda (1979–1994) Ciskei (1981–1994) Republic of South Africa (1961–present)
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Republic of South Africa

Use	Civil and state flag, civil and state ensign
Design	The flag of Republic of South Africa was adopted on 26 April 1994. It replaced the flag that had been used since 1928, and was chosen to represent multiculturalism and ethnic diversity in the country's new, post-apartheid democratic society.

The very first modern humans are believed to have inhabited South Africa more than 100,000 years ago.^[1] In 1999, Unesco designated the region the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site.^[2] South Africa's first known inhabitants have been referred to as the Khoisan, the Khwe and the San. Starting in about 1,000 BCE, these groups were then joined by the Bantu tribes who migrated from Western and Central Africa during what is known as the Bantu expansion.

European exploration of the African coast began in the 13th century when Portugal sought an alternative route to the silk road to China. In the 14th and 15th century, Portuguese explorers traveled down the west African Coast, detailing and mapping the coastline and in 1488 they rounded the Cape of Good Hope.^[3] The Dutch East India Company established a trading post in Cape Town under the command of Jan van Riebeeck in 1652,^[4] European workers who settled at the Cape became known as the Free Burghers and gradually established farms in the Dutch Cape Colony.^[5] Following the Invasion of the Cape Colony by the British in 1795 and 1806, mass migrations collectively known as the Great Trek occurred during which the Voortrekkers established several Boer Republics in the interior of South Africa.^[6] The discoveries of diamonds and gold in the nineteenth century had a profound effect on the fortunes of the region, propelling it onto the world stage and introducing a shift away from an exclusively agrarian-based economy towards industrialisation and the development of urban infrastructure. The discoveries also led to new conflicts culminating in open warfare between the Boer settlers and the British Empire, fought for control over the nascent South African mining industry.^{[citation needed]}

Following the defeat of the Boers in the Anglo–Boer or South African War (1899–1902), the Union of South Africa was created as a self-governing dominion of the British Empire on 31 May 1910 in terms of the South Africa Act 1909, which amalgamated the four previously separate British colonies: Cape Colony, Colony of Natal, Transvaal Colony, and Orange River Colony. The country became a fully sovereign nation state within the British Empire, in 1934 following enactment of the Status of the Union Act. The monarchy came to an end on 31 May 1961, replaced by a republic as the consequence of a 1960 referendum, which legitimised the country becoming the Republic of South Africa.

From 1948–1994, South African politics was dominated by Afrikaner nationalism. Racial segregation and white minority rule known officially as apartheid were implemented in 1948.

On 2 February 1990, FW de Klerk, then president of South Africa and leader of the Nationalist Party, unbanned the African National Congress (ANC) and freed Nelson Mandela from life imprisonment on Robben Island. The CODESA talks negotiated the creation of a new non-racial democratic South Africa, for which de Klerk and Mandela were later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

These negotiations led to the creation of a democratic constitution for all South Africa. On 27 April 1994, after decades of ANC led resistance to white minority rule, armed guerrilla struggle, and international opposition to apartheid - which ended in crippling sanctions against the minority white government, the ANC achieved a majority in the country's first democratic election. Since then, despite a continually decreasing electoral majority, ^[7] the ANC has ruled South Africa. The ANC has notionally been in alliance with the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions since 1994.^{[citation needed]}

High rates of crime, corruption, unemployment, low economic growth, an ongoing energy crisis, and poorly maintained infrastructure are some of the problems challenging contemporary South Africa.