Editing Cape Colony (section)

===VOC settlement===
{{main|Dutch Cape Colony}}
An expedition of the VOC led by [[Jan van Riebeeck]] established a trading post and naval victualing station at the [[Cape of Good Hope]] in 1652.{{sfn|Hunt|2005|pp=13-15}} Van Riebeeck's objective was to secure a harbour of refuge for VOC ships during the long voyages between Europe and Asia.{{sfn|Hunt|2005|pp=13-15}} Within about three decades, the Cape had become home to a large community of {{lang|nl|vrijlieden}}, also known as {{lang|nl|vrijburgers}} ('free citizens'), former VOC employees who settled in the colonies overseas after completing their service contracts.{{sfn|Parthesius|2010|p=}} {{lang|nl|Vrijburgers}} were mostly married citizens who undertook to spend at least twenty years farming the land within the fledgling colony's borders; in exchange they received tax exempt status and were loaned [[tools]] and [[seeds]].{{Sfn|Lucas|2004|pp=29-33}} Reflecting the multi-national nature of the early trading companies, the VOC granted {{lang|nl|vrijburger}} status to Dutch, Swiss, Scandinavian and German employees, among others.{{sfn|Worden|2010|pp= 94–140}} In 1688 they also sponsored the immigration of nearly two hundred French [[Huguenots|Huguenot]] refugees who had fled to the Netherlands upon the [[Edict of Fontainebleau]].{{Sfn|Lambert|2009|pp=32-34}} This so-called "Huguenot experiment" was deemed a failure by the colonial authorities a decade later, as many of the Huguenot arrivals had little experience with agriculture and had become a net burden on the colonial government.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shell |first1=Robert C.-H. |date=8 May 2007 |title=Immigration: The Forgotten Factor in Cape Colonial Frontier Expansion, 1658 to 1817 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17533170500106201?src=recsys |journal=Safundi |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=1–38 |doi=10.1080/17533170500106201 |s2cid=219717224 |access-date=28 February 2023}}</ref> There was a degree of cultural assimilation due to Dutch cultural hegemony that included the almost universal adoption of the Dutch language.{{sfn|Mbenga|Giliomee|2007|pp=59-60}}

Many of the colonists who settled directly on the frontier became increasingly independent and localised in their loyalties.{{sfn|Ward|2009|pp=322–342}} Known as ''[[Boer]]s'', they migrated beyond the Cape Colony's initial borders and had soon penetrated almost a thousand kilometres inland.{{sfn|Greaves|2013|pp=36-35}} Some Boers even adopted a nomadic lifestyle permanently and were denoted as {{lang|nl|[[trekboers]]}}.{{sfn|Stapleton|2010|pp=4-6}} The VOC colonial period had a number of bitter, genocidal conflicts between the colonists and the [[Khoekhoe|Khoe-speaking indigenes]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Adhikari |first1=Mohamed |date=27 September 2010 |title=A total extinction confidently hoped for: the destruction of Cape San society under Dutch colonial rule, 1700–1795 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623528.2010.508274 |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |volume=12 |issue=1–2 |pages=19–44 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2010.508274 |pmid=20941880 |s2cid=43522981 |access-date=10 April 2022}}</ref> followed by the [[Xhosa people|Xhosa]], both of which they perceived as unwanted competitors for prime farmland.{{sfn|Stapleton|2010|pp=4-6}}

VOC traders imported thousands of [[slavery|slaves]] to the Cape of Good Hope from the [[Dutch East Indies]] and other parts of Africa.{{sfn|Worden|2010|pp= 40–43}} By the end of the eighteenth century the Cape's population swelled to about 26,000 people of European descent and 30,000 slaves.{{sfn|Lloyd|1997|pp=201-206}}{{sfn|Cana|Gibson|Hillier|1911}}