Seventeenth-Century Cape Town

Timeline

1. 1652Table Bay landing site · Western CapeAfter the VOC fleet reached Table Bay, van Riebeeck immediately organized a party to establish a temporary camp with a wooden palisade, vegetable gardens, and water storage. This initial settlement was the direct predecessor of modern Cape Town and the first permanent European settlement in southern Africa.
2. 1653–1657Table Bay harbor district · Western CapeAs warehouses, an infirmary, anchorage, and supply points were completed, the number of VOC ships calling at Table Bay steadily rose to several dozen each year. The settlement's population also grew with the addition of garrison soldiers, medical staff, and administrators, and the embryonic city functions of Cape Town became increasingly complete.
3. 1657–1660Settlements around the Castle of Good Hope · Western CapeAfter the free burgher system was established in 1657, the first European farmers settled inland of Table Bay, forming a pattern of scattered farms. From 1658 large numbers of slave laborers arrived; together with the indigenous Khoikhoi and Dutch employees, they formed Cape Town's earliest multi-ethnic urban society, a pattern that profoundly shaped the trajectory of race relations in South Africa over three centuries.