The first European country to colonize South Africa was the Netherlands. The Dutch were looking for a place where they could dock ships on long voyages so they could resupply. Dutch interest was piqued after 1647, when two employees of the Dutch East India Company were shipwrecked there for several months. On their return to the Netherlands, they reported favorably on South Africa's potential as a checkpoint for ships making long voyages. In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck established a station at the Cape of Good Hope, in what would today be the Cape, on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. The colony had begun to be home to a large population of "vrijlieden", also known as "vrijburgers", who were former employees of the Dutch East India Company who remained in Dutch territories abroad after serving time. their contract. Dutch traders also imported thousands of slaves to this thriving colony from Indonesia, Madagascar, and parts of East Africa. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayThe eastward expansion of Dutch settlers marked the start of a series of wars with the Xhosa tribe migrating to the southwest, known as the Xhosa Wars, as the Dutch and Africans fought over the pastures needed to graze their cattle near the river. Vrijburgers who acquired their own land and became independent farmers were known as Boers. The Boers formed amateur militias, which they called commandos, and forged alliances with Khoisan groups (an indigenous group in South Africa) to repel Xhosa raids. Both the Boers and the Xhosa launched bloody but ineffective offensives, and unnecessary violence, often accompanied by cattle rustling, remained common for several decades. Then came the era of British colonization. The British occupied Cape Town between 1795 and 1803 to prevent it from falling under French control. Although South Africa returned to Dutch rule under the Batavian Republic in 1803, the Cape was again occupied by the British in 1806. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, it was ceded to Britain as compensation and became an integral part of it. of the British Empire. The British began immigrating to South Africa around 1818. The new settlers were encouraged by the British to settle for many reasons, primarily to increase the size of the European workforce in Africa and increase the number of troops in the border regions against Xhosa attacks. During the first 20 years of the 19th century, the Zulu people grew in power and expanded and expanded their territory under the leadership of their leader, Shaka. In the early 1800s, specifically in 1835, many Dutch settlers left the Cape Colony, where they had been subject to British control. It was called the Great Trek. The Great Trek was a movement of Dutch-speaking settlers into the interior of southern Africa in search of a land where they could establish their own homeland, independent of British rule. The Boers founded the Boer republics: the South African Republic, the Natalia Republic and the Orange Free State. The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1884 in the interior of South Africa sparked the mineral revolution. This increased economic growth and immigration to the region. This discovery intensified British efforts to 1994.