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1497
Portugese Explorer Vasco De Gama lands on the South African Coast
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Jan van Riebeeck, representing the Dutch East India Company, founds the Cape Colony at Table Bay in South Africa.
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Gold is discovered in South Africa, triggering the gold rush
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British troops gather on the South African border and ignore an ultimatum to disperse. The second Anglo-Boer War begins.
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The Union of South Africa enacts the Status of the Union Act which declares the country to be a "sovereign independent state"