The Cape of Good Hope (also called Cape Province) was formerly the largest of four traditional provinces in South Africa, occupying the southern extremity of the African continent. The first European settlement in southern Africa was established in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company at Table Bay (which became Cape Town). In 1806 Great Britain established control of the region. In 1814 the Dutch permanently ceded the Cape settlement to Britain and it was renamed the Cape of Good Hope Colony. The new British settlers clashed with the Dutch settlers precipitating the Great Trek (1835). The British attempt to incorporate Transvaal and Orange Free State into a single state with Natal and Cape Colony resulted in the South African War (1899-1902). In 1910 Cape Colony became a province of the Union of South Africa. From 1961, when it became a province in the Republic of South Africa, the Cape Colony was called the Cape Province. In ca.1994, Cape Province was split up into three new provinces - Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.
From the guide to the Cape Colony Letters, 1795-1880, (The Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House)
