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Cape Colony

Dutch and British colony in Southern Africa

46 dated entries naming Cape Colony, drawn from 36 separate years between 1717 CE and 1905 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as British Cape Colony, Cape colony, Prime Minister of Cape Colony in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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18th century

  • 1717The total Cape Colony population is estimated at 744 officials, 2000 burghers, and 2700 slaves.source
  • 1800The Government Gazette started printing in the Cape Colony.source

19th century

  • 18068 January – British troops land at Losperds Bay, between Bloubergstrand and Melkbosstrand in the Cape Colony.source
  • 1814In the complex peace treaty, the Cape Colony is permanently taken from the Dutch by the United Kingdom.source
  • 18145 June - John Molteno, future first Prime Minister of the Capesource
  • 1816August 14 – The United Kingdom formally annexes the Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the southern Atlantic Ocean, ruling it from the Cape Colony.source
  • 1817Approximately 200 Scottish artisan immigrants are brought to the Cape Colony by Benjamin Moodie. Among them is David Hume, who becomes an explorer and big-game hunter.source
  • 181816 May – Willem Cornelis Janse van Rensburg, the second president of the South African Republic, is born on the farm near Beaufort West in the Cape Colonysource
  • 181917 September - Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, the first president of the South African Republic and founder of Pretoria, is born on the farm Pretoriuskloof in the Graaff-Reinet district of the Cape Colonysource
  • 1826Cape Colony passes legislation to reform the justice system, instituting the Cape Charter of Justice and introducing trial by jury.source
  • 1828Cape Colony's Ordinance 50 ensures legal equality, limits employer power, exempts Coloureds from carrying passes, and revises apprenticeship laws.source
  • 18309 April - The first issue of the Dutch newspaper De Zuid-Afrikaan in the Cape Colonysource
  • 183420 January - Petrus Jacobus Joubert, a South African Republic Triumvirate member, is born near Cango in the Oudtshoorn district of Cape Colonysource
  • 1834December 11 – The Sixth Xhosa War is characterized by severe clashes between white settlers and Bantu peoples in Cape Colony; Dutch-speaking settlers colonize the area north of Orange River.source
  • 1835The Voortrekkers start leaving the Cape Colony in what is called the Great Trek into the interior to escape British dominationsource
  • 1837Voortrekker leader Piet Retief publishes his Manifesto which sets out the reasons the Voortrekkers are leaving the Cape Colony.source
  • 1839The Cape Colony relinquishes Port Natal, and it is incorporated into the Natalia Republic.source
  • 1839Du Pré Alexander, Earl of Caledon and Governor of the Cape Colony, diessource
  • 1841Missionary David Livingstone arrives in the Cape Colony and proceeds to Kuruman before journeying through Central Africa.source
  • 1845Natal becomes an autonomous district of Cape Colonysource
  • 1849The British propose to ship convicts to the Cape Colony, but the Cape population strongly object during the Convict Crisis of 1849. The proposal is eventually squashed with the help of British MP Charles Bowyer Adderley and Heerengracht in Cape Town is changed to Adderley Street in honour.source
  • 1850The "Childe Herold", a British ship en route from Bombay to London is wrecked off Dassen Island, Cape Colonysource
  • 1851Xhosas clash with the white settlers on the Cape Colonys eastern boundary starting the 8th Cape Frontier War and ends in 1853 in South Africasource
  • 1852February 25 – HMS Birkenhead sinks near Cape Town, British Cape Colony. Only 193 of the 643 on board survive, after troops stand firm on the deck so as not to overwhelm the lifeboats containing women and children.source
  • 185225 February – HMS Birkenhead sinks near Cape Town, British Cape Colony. Only 193 of the 643 on board survive, after troops stand firm on the deck so as not to overwhelm the lifeboats containing women and children.source
  • 1856April – The Xhosa cattle-killing movement and famine begins in Cape Colony.source
  • 185615 July - Natal is made a separate British colony, after being part of Cape colony since 1843. Theophilus Shepstone becomes Secretary for Native Affairs.source
  • 185715 December – Anna Maria Truter, Cape Colony botanical artist and wife of Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet. (born 1777)source
  • 1861August 15 – Sir Robert Wynyard becomes acting Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa.source
  • 1862January 15 – Sir Philip Wodehouse becomes Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa.source
  • 1870May 20 – Charles Craufurd Hay becomes acting Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa.source
  • 1870December 31 – Sir Henry Barkly is appointed Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner for Southern Africa.source
  • 1872December 1 – Responsible government is granted to Cape Colony (South Africa). Sir John Molteno, first Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope, forms the first Cape Cabinet which immediately plans to establish Cape Government Railways and take over the operation of all private railways in the Colony.source
  • 1874The Molteno Government of the Cape passes a parliamentary act to redraw the provincial boundaries of the Cape Colony, from two provinces (Eastern and Western Cape) to seven.source
  • 1877The Cape Government establishes the Council of Education following the dramatic increase in the number of educational facilities, such as mission schools, on the eastern Cape frontier.source
  • 1880April – The government of Cape Colony sets a deadline for the Basuto people to surrender their weapons; non-compliance leads to the Basuto Gun War.source
  • 1882In the Cape Colony, the Dutch language is once again admitted as an official language alongside English.source
  • 1895December 15 – The railways of the Cape of Good Hope, Colony of Natal, the Orange Free State, the South African Republic and southern Mozambique are all linked at Union Junction near Alberton.source
  • 1895December 15 – The railways of the Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange Free State, the South African Republic and southern Mozambique are all linked at Union Junction near Alberton, completing the logistics supply lines for the British military invasion of the Boer Republics in the Second Boer War.source
  • 1896January 6 – Cecil Rhodes is forced to resign as Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope for his involvement in the Jameson Raid.source
  • 1896January 6 – Cecil Rhodes is forced to resign as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony for his involvement in the Jameson Raid.source
  • 1899June 26 – Joseph Chamberlain sets into motion the Second Boer War after receiving an appeal from the British Cape Colony in South Africa to help British subjects oppressed in the Transvaal Republic.source
  • 1899September 15 – Preparing for an attack on Britain's Cape Colony from the neighboring Transvaal Republic, Robert Baden-Powell arrives at the border town of Mafeking and begins recruiting volunteers and stockpiling munitions to prepare for an attack and siege.source
  • 1899November 21 – The Boers cut off all telegraph lines and seize the railway connecting Estcourt to the rest of the Cape Colony.source

20th century

  • 1901November 18 – Boer commandos invade the Cape Colony and come to within 50 miles of Cape Town.source
  • 1905Non-whites are not given voting rights, except in the Cape Colony.source

Named in the same entries