Originally called the Heerengracht, for the canal in Amsterdam of that name, it was renamed Adderley Street in 1850. Other main roads paralleled it as the town grew. In Strand Street, on what once was the shore of Table Bay, stands the Castle of Good Hope, built by the company between 1666 and 1679.
Contents
When did Cape Town become a city?
1652
Cape Town
| Cape Town Kaapstad (Afrikaans) iKapa (Xhosa) | |
|---|---|
| Municipality | City of Cape Town |
| Founded | 1652 |
| Municipal government | 1839 |
| Government |
Who was the first person in Cape Town?
European settlement
It was the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias who became the first European to set eyes on what is now Cape Town after he rounded the Cape by ship in the late 1400s. But the Dutch colonist Jan van Riebeeck became the first European to set foot on its soil in 1652.
Why is Cape Town called the Mother city?
In the 1930s, a Cape Town newspaper claimed that the coastal city was the only city, in the country, that could be referred to as a metropolis. Derived from the Greek word ‘metros’, meaning mother and ‘polis’ meaning city, the public enthusiastically took to it and the nickname “Mother City” was born.
How was the sea pushed back in Cape Town?
However, most people don’t know that it was first inhabited by Stone Age people thousands of years ago before the last Ice Age, when the sea levels were much lower than they are today. The melting of ice caps from the Ice Age caused the land around the island to be flooded by the rising sea levels.
Why are they called Boers?
The term Boer, derived from the Afrikaans word for farmer, was used to describe the people in southern Africa who traced their ancestry to Dutch, German and French Huguenot settlers who arrived in the Cape of Good Hope from 1652.
When did black people arrive in Cape Town?
Settlers saw the Khoikhoi as a source of cheap labour and moved to regulate them. In the 1820s and 1830s Africans began arriving in the Cape Colony in search of work. The British administration in the Cape moved to also regulate Africans through legislation.
How was Cape Town named?
Named after Simon van der Stel, who surveyed the bay in 1657, ships were safe here under the lee of the Peninsula highlands. Nowadays in the 21st century, Cape Town has evolved quite a bit and is fully embracing technology.
Where did the Khoisan come from?
Some 22,000 years ago, they were the largest group of humans on earth: the Khoisan, a tribe of hunter-gatherers in southern Africa. Today, only about 100,000 Khoisan, who are also known as Bushmen, remain.
What was South Africa called before 1652?
The South African Republic (Dutch: Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek or ZAR, not to be confused with the much later Republic of South Africa), is often referred to as The Transvaal and sometimes as the Republic of Transvaal.
Who was the first race in South Africa?
The Khoisan were the first inhabitants of southern Africa and one of the earliest distinct groups of Homo sapiens, enduring centuries of gradual dispossession at the hands of every new wave of settlers, including the Bantu, whose descendants make up most of South Africa’s black population today.
What is Durban’s nickname?
Durbs
Durban (/ˈdɜːrbən/ DUR-bən) (Zulu: eThekwini, from itheku meaning ‘the port’), nicknamed Durbs, is the third most populous city in South Africa after Johannesburg and Cape Town and the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal.
When did the Portuguese arrive in the Cape?
1488
The first Europeans to reach the Cape were the Portuguese. Bartholomeu Dias arrived in 1488 after journeying south along the west coast of Africa. The next recorded European sighting of the Cape was by Vasco da Gama in 1497 while he was searching for a route that would lead directly from Europe to Asia.
Has the name Cape Town changed?
The department also confirmed plans to rename Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) has however been abandoned, three years after the process was initiated. No consensus was reached after the public consultation process.
Cape Town unlikely to change | More SA name changes to be submitted.
| Old name | Berlin |
|---|---|
| New name | Ntabozuko |
| Area | Buffalo City |
| Meaning / cultural significance | Xhosa origin |
Did you know facts about Cape Town?
Fun Facts You Didn’t Know About Cape Town
- THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT CAPE TOWN.
- Cape Town is South Africa’s tobogganing hub.
- Two couples get hitched on Table Mountain every month.
- Cape Town was appointed the best place in the world to visit by the New York Times in 2014.
- The Castle of Good Hope once had a sea view.
Who is the first white person to arrive in South Africa?
Jan van Riebeck
1. The first white settlement in South Africa occurred on the Cape under the control of the Dutch East India company. The foothold established by Jan van Riebeck following his arrival with three ships on 6th April 1652 was usually taken in Afrikaner accounts to be the start of the ‘history’ of South Africa.
Are Afrikaans white?
Afrikaners make up approximately 5.2% of the total South African population, based upon the number of white South Africans who speak Afrikaans as a first language in the South African National Census of 2011.
Distribution.
| Province | Mpumalanga |
|---|---|
| Afrikaners | 164,620 |
| % Afrikaners | 83.5% |
| All whites | 197,078 |
What religion are Afrikaans?
Afrikaner religion comes from Protestant practices of the seventeenth-century Reformed Church of Holland. The British brought English-speaking ministers to South Africa in the early 1800s. Next, French settlers brought the ideas of Swiss reformer John Calvin (1509–1564) to South Africa.
When did the Zulu arrive in South Africa?
Zulu settlement and early life in Natal. It is thought that the first known inhabitants of the Durban area arrived from the north around 100,000 BC.
Who lived in South Africa before 1652?
Before the arrival of Europeans, the area was inhabited by San and Khoikhoi peoples. In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck established a small colony on the Cape of Good Hope as a refreshment station for the Dutch East India Company.
Who lived in South Africa before the Dutch?
These were the indigenous people of this part of the continent. The Khoisan consisted of two main groups, called the San (they were called Bushmen by the Dutch – cf. Giliomee & Mbenga 2007:19) and the Khoi-Khoi, also called the Khoekhoe or Khoekhoen, whom the Dutch referred to as Hottentots (Giliomee & Mbenga 2007:19).
