1602
20 March, The Dutch East India Company (VOC) comes into being.
1652
Jan van Riebeeck, a representative of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), establishes a station at the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern tip of Africa.
1656
The first conflict between the Dutch and local Khoi erupt at the Cape.
1657
The first 12 free burghers settle along the Liesbeeck River in the Cape to cultivate land to provide ships stopping at the station with fresh food.
1659
The Khoi at the cape attempt to regain their territory from the Dutch settlers at the Cape but are unsuccessful and lose many men in the conflict.
1662
Jan van Riebeeck leaves the Cape to become commander at the new post at Malacca. There are 40 free burghers with about 15 women and 20 children settled at the Cape to cultivate land to provide ships stopping at the station with fresh food.
1672
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) takes over the Hottentots Holland, False Bay and Saldanha Bay areas.
1673
The Khoi at the cape attempt to regain their territory from the Dutch settlers at the Cape but are unsuccessful and lose many men in the conflict.
1713
8 April, A smallpox epidemic breaks out among the slaves at the Cape Colony.
1755
A smallpox epidemic breaks out in the Cape Colony and wreaks devastation among the Khoikhoi.
1767
A smallpox epidemic breaks out in the Cape Colony and wreaks devastation among the Khoikhoi and nearly eradicates them. Those who survive become westernised, Christianised and learnt to speak Dutch, which later became Afrikaans, and dress in European clothes.
1795
September, The British win The Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch.
1795 - 1854
British annexation of the Cape continueds intermittently during this period.
1787
The Philadelphia Convention takes place in America and the different American states? representatives draw up a federal constitution.
1789
Serious conflict develops between Spain and Britain over the American fur trade.
1794
The American representative John Jay is sent to Britain and concludes the Jay Treaty.
1803
The American state of Ohio is established. American Prseident, Thomas Jefferson, dispatches Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, with a Corps of Discovery, to find a water route to the Pacific and to explore the uncharted west of America.
1809
The expansion of the Cape Colony?s borders to the Orange River comes up for the first time. An American Indian chief, Tecumseh, from Canada forms an alliance of tribes to try to halt American expansion.
1811
The American Congress meets and President James Madison decides to declare war on Britain for Canadian territory.
1812
The Anglo American War breaks out.
1814
The British war against France is won. British war veterans are sent to the Canadian/American border to protect British land. Peace negotiations commence between Britain and America at Ghent and in the resulting Treaty neither side gains any territory. Large numbers of European settlers arrive in America after the Napoleonic War.
1816
Indiana becomes part of the United States of America.
1817
Mississippi becomes part of the United States of America.
1818
Illinois becomes part of the United States of America.
1819
Alabama becomes part of the United States of America.
1818 - 1819
The British are involved in a second conflict wit Xhosa forces for the territory east of the Great Fish River.
1820
British settlers arrive at the Cape of Good Hope and the extension of the Colony?s borders to the Orange River becomes more necessary.
1822
The Cape Colony's borders are redefined to accommodate the influx of European settlers and now extends to the Orange River in the north and towards the east it stretched to the Stormberg Spruit.
1825
Plagues of locusts and drought result in farmers in the Orange River area being allowed to extend their grazing over the river as an emergency measure.
1826
Rainfall allows most of the farmers who had grazed their cattle across the Orange River in 1825, as an emergency measure against drought, to return their cattle.
1828
Another drought in the territory of the Cape Colony next to the Orange River breaks out and contributes to the permanent settlement north of the Orange River.
1829
The 1828 drought in the territory of the Cape Colony to the Orange River continues and contributes to the permanent settlement north of the Orange River. Andrew Jackson becomes president of the United States of America.
1830/31
Thaba Bosiu, the Basotho stronghold under Moshoeshoe, is attacked by the Ndebele, who are defeated.
28 May, American President Andrew Jackson's suggestion of relocating all Indians to the west, over the Mississippi River, becomes law.
1832
American Indian chief Black Hawk is captured after years of waging war on white settlers.
1834
Griqua, Kora and Rolong forces, in the company of Wesleyan missionaries arrive at Moshoeshoe?s, king of the Basotho, borders.
1838
American Indian chief Black Hawk dies in detention.
1867
Most of Moshoeshoe's land is overrun by Boers from the Orange Free State and he appeals to the British for protection.
1868
The Boers from the Orange Free State continue to overrun Moshoeshoe, king of the Basotho's, land.
March, Basutoland, which later becomes Lesotho, under king Moshoeshoe, becomes a British protectorate.
1966
Lesotho gains its independence from the British.

Collections in the Archives

Treks & Land conflicts timeline 1602-1966
Treks & Land conflicts 1600s-1800s