Discover South Africa

Modern human beings have inhabited South Africa for more than 100 000 years. Some of the oldest archaeological sites in Africa can be found within the 'Cradle of Humankind' World Heritage Site at places such as the Sterkfontein, Kromdraai and the Makapansgat caves. Extensive fossil remains suggest that various australopithecines existed in South Africa from about three million years ago. These were succeeded by various species including Homo Sapien - modern man.

The earliest inhabitants resident in the southern tip of the continent for thousands of years were the KhoiSan (a combination of the pastoral Khoikhoi Hottentots and the hunter-gatherer San Bushmen). By the fifth century the original KhoiSan people had been displaced and absorbed by Bantu-speaking people from the north, who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen. They slowly moved further south, and ironworks dating back to around 1050 can be found in KwaZulu-Natal. In today's Eastern Cape Province, the Xhosa people's language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier KhoiSan.

In 1487 the Portuguese explorer, Bartolomeu Dias, became the first European to reach the southernmost tip of Africa. The King of Portugal, John II, named it the Cabo da Boa Esperança - Cape of Good Hope - as it opened the route to trade with the Far East. With the discovery of the Cape Sea Route, a refreshment station was established at the Cape of Good Hope by Jan van Riebeeck on behalf of the Dutch East India Company in 1652, which later became Cape Town. Slaves were brought from Indonesia, Madagascar, and India as a labour source for the Dutch immigrants in Cape Town. Great Britain seized the Cape of Good Hope in 1795 to stop it falling into the hands of the French, and also to use Cape Town as a stop en route to Australia and India. They returned it to the Dutch in 1803, but soon afterwards the Dutch East India Company declared bankruptcy, and the British annexed the Cape Colony in 1806.

To the east the Zulu were conquering everything in their path, their leader was Shaka - King of the Zulu. Using the efficiency of his innovative horn-shaped attack formation, small hand-to-hand combat shield and highly effective short stabbing spear - the assegai, Shaka set about earning his reputation as the 'Black Napoleon', conquering and dispossessing in all directions. By 1819 the newly forged Zulu nation was the largest and most populous ever seen in southeastern Africa. In 1828 Shaka was murdered by his half-brother Dingane, who in turn, was eventually defeated by the Boers at the 'Battle of Blood River'.

European settlement expanded during the 1820s as the Boers (original Dutch settlers) and the British 1820 Settlers claimed land in the north and east of the country. As they expanded east, the settlers eventually met the Xhosa and Zulu, and conflicts arose between the inhabitants of the land and the new European settlers. A series of wars, called Cape Frontier Wars, ensued, mainly caused by conflicting land and livestock interests. Britain continued the frontier wars against the Xhosa, pushing further eastward, establishing a line of forts along the Fish River and consolidating the frontier by encouraging British settlement