Cape Province

Cape Province, in full, Cape of Good Hope Province, former province of South Africa in the area of the British Cape Colony, now divided into the three modern provinces of Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, and Western Cape. For geography of the region, see under these separate headings.

European colonization of the region began in 1652, when the Dutch East India Company established a settlement called Cape Colony on Table Bay, near modern Cape Town. Dutch immigration to the colony increased during the 18th century. In 1795, during the French Revolution, British military forces seized the colony. It was returned to Dutch control in 1803 but was ceded to the British in 1806 and formally became a colony of Great Britain in 1814.

Various reforms, including the abolition (1833) of slavery, were instituted by the British, but the first few decades of their rule were marked by a series of wars with the Xhosa and other Bantu-speaking peoples and by growing antagonisms between the Dutch, or Boers, and the British sections of the population. Feeling oppressed under British rule, the Boers began the Great Trek, eventually establishing republics in the Transvaal (now Limpopo Province and Mpumalanga) and Orange Free State (now Free State province).

The discovery (1867) of diamonds in Griqualand West, then part of the Transvaal, brought renewed hostility between the Boers and the British. The Cape Colony annexed Griqualand West in 1871, and the next year was granted responsible self-government, except in foreign and economic affairs, by the British government. The colony annexed the Boers' South African Republic (Transvaal) in 1877 but, meeting fierce resistance, withdrew in 1881.

In 1890 Cecil Rhodes became prime minister of the Cape Colony, and relations between the British and the Boers deteriorated. Rhodes resigned in 1896, but three years later the South African War (Boer War) began. The British victory created conditions favourable to the establishment of a federal dominion in South Africa. In 1910 the British colonies in South Africa were confederated as the Union of South Africa (now the Republic of South Africa), and Cape Colony became the Province of the Cape of Good Hope (or Cape Province). In 1994, at the time of South Africa's first free elections, the Cape Province was roughly divided into three provinces: Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, and Western Cape.