QUESTION 2: COLONIALISM
What was the impact of Dutch colonisation on the Cape Colony in the 17th century and
early 18th century?
Study sources 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D and answer the following questions:
2.1
Refer to Source 2A
2.1.1 Give a definition of colonialism.
(1x3) (3)
2.1.2 Which continent in particular was involved as the colonial masters or
colonial powers during the period of colonialism?
(1x2) (2)
2.1.3 Which new sea routes led to the age of modern colonialism in 1500?
(2x1) (2)
2.1.4
Name the three ways in which the colonial powers spread their influence. (3x1) (3)
2.2
Study Source 2B – 1 and 2B – 2
2.2.1 Which continent is called, “The Unknown”?
2.2.2 Why did they call it “The Unknown” continent?
(1x2) (2)
(2x2) (4)
2.2.3
Refer to Source 2B-1 and say how Source 2B-2 challenge the idea of Africa as ‘the
unknown’ continent.
(2x2) (4)
2.2.4
According to Source 2B-2, which role will the Khoi play in the next 150 years?
(2x1) (2)
2.3
Refer to Source 2C
2.3.1
What happened to the original communities at the Cape in the first 50 years of Dutch
occupation?
(2x1) (2)
2.3.2
How do we know that the Khoi did not approve of the Dutch occupation? (2x2) (4)
2.3.3
Explain why was it important for the Khoi to take the away the plough-oxen from the
Dutch.
(2x2) (4)
2.3.4
According to the text, why did the Khoi attack the Dutch during rainy days? (1x2) (2)
2.3.5
How does Source 2C support Source 2A?
2.4
Study Source 2D
2.4.1
Why did the Dutch regard the labour of slaves as important?
2.4.2
Explain the extract from the source, “......the arrival of the Dutch settlers proved to be
a major turning point” for the Khoisan.
(1x3) (3)
(2x2) (4)
(1x3) (3)
2.5
Use your knowledge and ALL the sources write a paragraph of about 8 lines
(60 words) in which you explain colonialism and its impact on the people of the Cape
Colony during the 17th and early 18th centuries.
(6) [50]
ESSAY
Discuss the slavery at the Cape during the 17th and 18th centuries.
[50]
OR
Discuss the impact of Portuguese expansion and conquest on the Indian Ocean
Trade.
QUESTION 2
What was the impact of Dutch colonisation on the Cape Colony in the 17th century and
early 18th century?
SOURCE 2A
Source 1A: Colonialism as a system of discovery, conquest and settlement
An extract from: "Colonialism, Western." Encyclopædia Britannica. Deluxe Edition.
Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008.
Colonialism: A political-economic phenomenon whereby various European nations
explored, conquered, settled, and exploited large areas of the world.
The age of modern colonialism began about 1500, following the European
discoveries of a sea route around Africa's southern coast (1488) and of America
(1492).
With these events sea power shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic and to
the emerging nation-states of Portugal, Spain, the Dutch Republic, France, and
England.
By discovery, conquest, and settlement, these nations expanded and colonized
throughout the world, spreading European institutions and culture.
SOURCE 2B - 1
Africa: The Unknown continent through the eyes of the Europeans that always regarded
Africa as a continent with people far inferior to them.
Great Stock Photographic Library from Shuters History Grade 10, Nsizwa Dlamini et al,
Shuter & Shooter, Cape Town, 2005
SOURCE 2B - 2
Southern Africa was not empty and unknown
An extract from The Shaping of South African Society, 1652 – 1840, Elphick and
Malherbe
Jan van Riebeeck did not find the Cape Colony as an empty land. In 1652, when he
set foot on the shores of Table Bay, the territories to the north and east had been
occupies for centuries by the herders - Khoikhoi (‘Hottentots’) and for millennia by the
Hunter – gatherers (‘Bushmen’).
For the next 150 years the colony’s expansion would both be hindered and assisted
by these peoples.
SOURCE 2C
Khoi resistance in the 17th century in the Cape Colony to Dutch occupation
Adapted from Wits notes from Shuters History Grade 10, Nsizwa Dlamini et al,
Shuter & Shooter, Cape Town, 2005 and from http://www.sahistory.org.za/southafrica-1652-1806/history-slavery-and-early-colonisation-sa, page=2, accessed in May
2013
As the Dutch settlement expanded, independent Khoikhoi communities were placed
under unbearable pressure. Within 50 years of the establishment of the Dutch
settlement, the original communities near Table Bay, despite heroic (brave) struggles
on their part, had been driven out of their lands and their independent means of
existence had come to an end.
Two wars with the Khoi were fought during the middle of the 17th century. From being
the first collaborators (people working with the enemy – Van Riebeeck and the
Dutch), the Hottentots, Doman and Herry, now became the leading resisters to the
Dutch presence, although Herry spent most of the period of the wars a prisoner on
Robben Island.
For the following years the Khoi, by stealing the plough-oxen, and by attacking the
Dutch on rainy days when the Dutch muskets would not fire, brought agricultural
work in the small colony virtually to a standstill. It is not generally realised how the
near the Khoi were to successfully challenging the new settlers.
SOURCE 2D
Arrival of the slaves at the Cape
Taken from: http://www.sahistory.org.za/south-africa-1652-1806/history-slavery-andearly-colonisation-sa, page=2, accessed in May 2013
It soon became apparent that if the free burghers were to be successful as agricultural
producers, they would need access to substantial labour. The indigenous peoples with
whom the Dutch first came into contact, the Khoikhoi, had been settled in the region for at
least a thousand years before the Dutch arrived, and were an unwilling labour force.
Individual Khoikhoi men and women became incorporated into colonial society as low-status
servants. Beyond the mountains of Table Valley, communities of Khoisan (as the Khoikhoi
and the indigenous hunter-gatherer San are collectively called) survived until the end of the
eighteenth century, but there can be little doubt that for the indigenous populations of the
Cape the arrival of the Dutch settlers proved to be a major turning point.
The Dutch settlers were therefore forced to look elsewhere for their labour needs. In 1658, a
year after the first free burghers had been granted their plots of land, the first slaves were
imported into South Africa, specifically for agricultural work. These slaves arrived at the
Cape on 28 March 1658 on board the Amersfoort and had been captured by the Dutch from
a Portuguese slaver en route to Brazil. Of the 250 slaves captured, only 170 survived the
journey to the Cape. Most of these slaves were originally captured by the Portuguese in
present-day Angola. On 6 May 1658, 228 slaves from another group of slaves arrived at the
Cape on board the Hassalt, from Ghana. From 1710 onwards, the adult slave population
outnumbered the adult colonial population by as much as three to one.