Viewing South Africa
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3 million-100,000 years ago Early hominids of the species Australopithecus africanus (Southern African ape-man) and Homo erectus (upright man) roam the country. 40,000 BC South Africa's earliest fully human occupants, the Bushmen, follow a hunter-gatherer way of life. Their earliest rock art dates to 26000 BC. 300 BC Some Bushmen acquire domesticated animals and become pastoralists, known later as the Khoikhoi ('Hottentots'). AD 250 onwards Iron-Age Bantu-speaking people settle in northern, central and eastern South Africa. 1488-1650 Starting with Portuguese navigator Bartholomeu Dias's rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, encounters occur between the indigenous people of South Africa and Portuguese, Dutch and English explorers. 1580 Englishman Sir Francis Drake rounds the Cape. 1652 The Dutch establish a refreshment station for the Dutch East India Company trading ships passing the Cape. 1688 The number of European settlers at the Cape increases with the arrival of French Huguenots, escaping religious persecution. 1778 After repeated clashes between Dutch settlers and the Xhosa people, the Great Fish River is fixed as the eastern border of the Cape. 1795 The British occupy the Cape. 1815 Shaka, illegitimate son of a minor chief, begins to consolidate scattered tribes into the powerful Zulu kingdom. 1820 Five thousand British immigrants settle in the eastern Cape. 1835-54 Dissatisfied with British rule the Afrikaner Voortrekkers leave the Cape and establish republics in the area of the present Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Northern Province. They clash with the black tribes of the interior. 1860 The first indentured labourers are brought from India to work the sugar-cane plantations in Natal. Eventually 152,000 arrive, of whom half choose to remain. 1866 Diamonds are discovered near the Vaal River. 1886 Gold is discovered on the site of the future Johannesburg. 1879-87 After several wars the Zulu are defeated and their kingdom is annexed by Britain. 1893 A young Indian lawyer, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi arrives in South Africa. After many years of political activism, he finally returns to India in 1914 where he is given the honorific 'Mahatma' (Great Soul). 1899-1902 The Anglo-Boer War is fought between Britain and the Boer republics. 1910 The various colonies and former republics of the country come together to form the Union of South Africa. But by excluding blacks the Union fails to unite all South Africans and prepares the way for many decades of black resistance. 1912 The South African Native National Congress is founded, later becoming the African National Congress (ANC). 1948 The Afrikaner-dominated National Party wins the white parliamentary election and begins to implement its policy of apartheid (racial separation). 1960 Police open fire on black protestors at Sharpeville, killing 69 people. ANC outlawed by the government. 1962-63 Nelson Mandela, who leads the ANC in a policy of armed resistance, is arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island. 1976-90 Resistance to white rule intensifies after Soweto uprising of 1976. Low-level guerrilla warfare and civil disturbances persist, and the National Party government is economically and politically isolated by the international community. 1990 President F W de Klerk lifts the ban on the ANC and other outlawed organisations. Nelson Mandela is released after 27 years in jail. 1994 South Africa's first democratic election is won by the ANC with a large majority. Nelson Mandela becomes president. 1999 The ANC increases its majority in the second election. Nelson Mandela retires, and Thabo Mbeki becomes president.
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