Cape colony

   Founded in 1652 under the direction of Jan van Riebeeck as a small settlement of the Dutch East India Company for the benefit of eastbound ships, the Cape Colony expanded in the late 18th century to the north and east of South Africa. Since then, further expansion by traders, hunters, missionaries, and Boers along its boundaries was a constant feature of the Cape Colony. In 1795, as a result of the Batavian Revolutionand the alliance between the new Batavian Republic and France, the Cape was occupied by the British. Following a short Batavian interval (1803–1806), Great Britain again occupied the colony, which remained in its possession after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Cultural and religious repression and the abolition of slavery compelled the Boers to trek and leave the colony in quest of an independent existence. The Dutchspeaking Boers founded the new republics of the Orange Free State (now the province of Free State) and Transvaal (abolished as a province in 1994); Natal (now KwaZulu Natal) was established as a British settlement. After the Boer War of 1899–1902, the four regions were united under the British crown. Meanwhile, part of the Dutch-speaking people had developed a language of its own, Afrikaans, which in 1925 was recognized as one of the two official languages (with English) of the Union of South Africa. It is now the mother tongue of 6 million people (and 10 million secondary speakers) in South Africa.