Editing History of the Netherlands (section)

=== The Dutch in Africa ===
{{Main|History of Cape Colony before 1806|History of South Africa (1652–1815)|Afrikaners|Afrikaans}}
[[File:Charles Bell - Jan van Riebeeck se aankoms aan die Kaap.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Painting of an account of the arrival of [[Jan van Riebeeck]], by [[Charles Bell (surveyor)|Charles Bell]]]]
In 1647, a Dutch vessel was wrecked in the present-day [[Table Bay]] at [[Cape Town]]. The marooned crew, the first Europeans to attempt settlement in the area, built a [[fort]] and stayed for a year until they were rescued. Shortly thereafter, the [[Dutch East India Company]] (in the Dutch of the day: ''Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie'', or VOC) decided to establish a permanent settlement. The VOC, one of the major European trading houses sailing the [[Spice trade|spice route]] to East Asia, had no intention of colonizing the area, instead wanting only to establish a secure base camp where passing ships could shelter, and where hungry sailors could stock up on fresh supplies of meat, fruit, and vegetables. To this end, a small VOC expedition under the command of [[Jan van Riebeeck]] reached [[Table Bay]] on 6 April 1652.<ref name="Noble-141">{{Cite book |last=Noble |first=John |url=https://archive.org/stream/illustratedoffic00nobliala#page/141/mode/1up |title=Illustrated Official Handbook of the Cape and South Africa; A résumé of the history, conditions, populations, productions and resources of the several colonies, states, and territories |publisher=J.C. Juta & Co. |date=1893 |page=141 |access-date=25 November 2009}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=October 2011}}

To remedy a labour shortage, the VOC released a small number of VOC employees from their contracts and permitted them to establish farms with which they would supply the VOC settlement from their harvests. This arrangement proved highly successful, producing abundant supplies of fruit, vegetables, wheat, and wine; they also later raised livestock. The small initial group of "free burghers", as these farmers were known, steadily increased in number and began to expand their farms further north and east.

The majority of burghers had Dutch ancestry and belonged to the [[Calvinist Reformed Church of the Netherlands]], but there were also numerous Germans as well as some Scandinavians. In 1688 the Dutch and the Germans were joined by French [[Huguenots]], also Calvinists, who were fleeing religious persecution in France under [[Louis XIV of France|King Louis XIV]]. The [[Huguenots in South Africa]] were absorbed into the Dutch population but they played a prominent role in South Africa's history.

From the beginning, the VOC used the cape as a place to supply ships travelling between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. There was a close association between the cape and these Dutch possessions in the far east. Van Riebeeck and the VOC began to import large numbers of slaves, primarily from [[Madagascar]] and Indonesia. These slaves often married Dutch settlers, and their descendants became known as the [[Cape Coloureds]] and the [[Cape Malays]].

[[File:Aernout Smit Table Bay, 1683 William Fehr Collection Cape Town.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Table Bay|De Tafelbaai]] by Aernout Smit, 1683]]
During the 18th century, the Dutch settlement in the area of the cape grew and prospered. By the late 1700s, the [[Dutch Cape Colony|Cape Colony]] was one of the best developed European settlements outside Europe or the Americas.<ref name="Smith">Smith, Adam (1776), [http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/adam-smith/Wealth-Nations.pdf Wealth of Nations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020042323/http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/adam-smith/Wealth-Nations.pdf |date=20 October 2013}}, Penn State Electronic Classics Edition, republished 2005, p. 516</ref> The two bases of the Cape Colony's economy for almost the entirety of its history were shipping and agriculture. Its strategic position meant that almost every ship sailing between Europe and Asia stopped off at the colony's capital [[Cape Town]]. The supplying of these ships with fresh provisions, fruit, and [[South African wine|wine]] provided a very large market for the surplus produce of the colony.<ref name="Smith" />

Some free burghers continued to expand into the rugged hinterlands of the north and east, many began to take up a semi-nomadic [[pastoralism|pastoralist]] lifestyle, in some ways not far removed from that of the [[Khoikhoi]] they had displaced. In addition to its herds, a family might have a wagon, a tent, a Bible, and a few guns. As they became more settled, they would build a mud-walled cottage, frequently located, by choice, days of travel from the nearest European settlement. These were the first of the [[Trekboer]]s (Wandering Farmers, later shortened to [[Boer]]s), completely independent of official controls, extraordinarily self-sufficient, and isolated from the government and the main settlement in [[Cape Town]].

[[File:TrekBoers crossing the Karoo.jpg|thumb|left|200px|An account of the first [[trekboer]]s]]
[[Dutch language|Dutch]] was the official language, but a dialect had formed that was quite distinct from Dutch. The [[Afrikaans]] language originated mainly from 17th-century Dutch dialects.<ref>[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/afrikaans.htm "Afrikaans"], Omniglot.com. Retrieved 9 October 2011.</ref><ref>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/8437/Afrikaans-language "Afrikaans language"], ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 9 October 2011.</ref>

This Dutch dialect sometimes referred to as the "kitchen language" (''kombuistaal''),<ref>Alatis, James E., Heidi E. Hamilton and Ai-Hui Tan (2002). ''Linguistics, language and the professions: education, journalism, law, medicine, and technology''. Washington, DC: University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-87840-373-8}}. p. {{Page needed|date=October 2011}}</ref> would eventually in the late 19th century be recognised as a distinct language called [[Afrikaans]] and replace Dutch as the official language of the [[Afrikaners]].

As the 18th century drew to a close, Dutch mercantile power began to fade and the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] moved in to fill the vacuum. They seized the Cape Colony in 1795 to prevent it from falling into French hands, then briefly relinquished it back to the Dutch (1803), before definitively conquering it in 1806. British sovereignty of the area was recognised at the [[Congress of Vienna]] in 1815. By the time the Dutch colony was seized by the British in 1806, it had grown into an established settlement with 25,000 slaves, 20,000 white colonists, 15,000 [[Khoisan]], and 1,000 freed black slaves. Outside Cape Town and the immediate hinterland, isolated black and white [[pastoralists]] populated the country.

Dutch interest in South Africa was based chiefly on the strategically located VOC port. Yet in the 17th and 18th centuries the Dutch created the foundation of the modern state of South Africa. The Dutch legacy in South Africa is evident everywhere, but particularly in the Afrikaner people and the Afrikaans language.