Cape Town Regional Overview

A brief historical background

A woman’s footprints were recently discovered just outside Langebaan, about 100km’s North of Cape Town. These prints were dated in 1997 as being 117 000 years old. Other stone age artefacts in caves in the area show that man existed here 27 000 years ago. Nomadic herding communities, such as the Khoi and the San roamed the Cape from as long as 2000 years ago. These nomads are responsible for a wide variety of rock art throughout the Cape.

Portuguese explorers set out in the late 1400’s to find an alternate trade route to the East because of wars in Europe and Asia. Explorer Bartholomew Dias discovered the Cape after a terrible storm. He returned to Portugal with news of the Cape of Storms. But to Portugal it was hope – and so the Cape of Good Hope became known.

It wasn’t until the Dutch East India Company sent Jan van Riebeek in 1652 to establish a midway trading post that construction on a small fort, a garden and a town began. The Castle of Good Hope construction was completed in 1666. Locals were not very plentiful and consequently slaves were shipped in from Madagascar and Indonesia to supply the labour.

The British fought the Dutch for the city in 1795 and gained control. It was then given back to the Dutch in the terms of a peace treaty and fought over again in 1806 and finally incorporated into the British Empire in 1814.

Diamonds and Gold were then discovered in the Witwatersrand which prompted mass migration to create the area now known as Johannesburg. Boers, who were mainly made up of the descendants of the Dutch and French Hugenots had left Cape Town to escape oppressive British rule and had set up farming communities in these areas. The Boers fought the British in two wars after Britain sought to annex the Boer state Transvaal. The British eventually gained control of the diamond and gold industries and unified the regions of South Africa and named Cape Town its capital in 1910.

In 1948 the National Party gained power while the world rebuilt itself after World War 2. They began racially segregating the city in a movement called Apartheid. Many political activists opposed to the policies of Apartheid were imprisoned on Robben Island, including Nelson Mandela. His release and speech on top of the Cape Town City Hall in 1990 signified the end of Apartheid over 40years later. Since then the city´s economy - especially the tourism industry - has ballooned. Let us hope that balloon never pops...

Cape Town is alive with possibility.

So whether you have chosen to visit Cape Town for the first time - or you are a local that has decided to explore the beautiful city that you call home - Cape Town awaits.