South Africa - Trine, Line og Anne

By annesvama@hotmail.com
  • Apr 16, 1480

    Europeans in Africa

    Portuguese navigator Bartholomeu Dias is the first European to travel round the southern tip of Africa.

  • Dutch people in South Africa

    Jan van Riebeeck founds the Cape Colony at Table Bay

  • British people in South Africa

    British forces seize Cape Colony from the Netherlands.

  • Territory returns to the Dutch

    Territory is returned to the Dutch in 1803

  • Netherland cedes the territory to England

  • Zulu founds and expands the Zulu empire

    Shaka Zulu founds and expands the Zulu empire, creates a formidable fighting force.

  • Natal separates from the Cape Colony

  • Diamonds discovered at Kimberley

  • British defeat the Zulus in Natal

  • Gold is discovered in the Transvaal, triggering the gold rush.

  • Native National Congress founded

    later renamed the African National Congress (ANC).

  • National Party founded

  • South West Africa (Namibia) comes under South African administration.

  • Policy of apartheid (separateness)

    adopted when National Party (NP) takes power.

  • Population classified by race

    Group Areas Act passed to segregate blacks and whites. Communist Party banned. ANC responds with campaign of civil disobedience, led by Nelson Mandela.

  • ANC banned

    Seventy black demonstrators killed at Sharpeville

  • International pressure against government begins

    South Africa excluded from Olympic Games.

  • ANC leader Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment

  • More than 3 million people forcibly resettled in black 'homelands'

  • FW de Klerk replaces PW Botha as president

    He meets Mandela. Public facilities desegregated. Many ANC activists freed.

  • ANC unbanned

    Mandela released after 27 years in prison. Namibia becomes independent.

  • ANC wins first non-racial election

    Mandela become president, Government of National Unity formed, Commonwealth membership restored, remaining sanctions lifted. South Africa takes seat in UN General Assembly after 20-year absence.

  • ANC wins general elections, Thabo Mbeki takes over as president.