Editing History of South Africa (section)

===Colonization===

====Portuguese role====
{{See also|Portugal in the Age of Discovery|Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India|l2=Discovery of the sea route to India|Bartolomeu Dias|Vasco da Gama|Portuguese Empire}}
[[File:Bartolomeu Dias, South Africa House (cut).JPG|thumb|right|Statue of Bartolomeu Dias at the High Commission of South Africa in London. He was the first European navigator to sail around the southernmost tip of Africa.]]
The Portuguese mariner [[Bartolomeu Dias]] was the first European to explore the coastline of South Africa in 1488, while attempting to discover a trade route to the Far East via the southernmost cape of South Africa, which he named ''Cabo das Tormentas'', meaning [[Cape of Storms]]. In November 1497, a fleet of Portuguese ships under the command of the Portuguese mariner [[Vasco da Gama]] rounded the Cape of Good Hope. By 16 December, the fleet had passed the [[Great Fish River]] on the east coast of South Africa, where Dias had earlier turned back. Da Gama gave the name [[Early history of Natal|Natal]] to the coast he was passing, which in Portuguese means Christmas. Da Gama's fleet proceeded northwards to Zanzibar and later sailed eastwards, eventually reaching [[India]] and opening the [[Cape Route]] between Europe and Asia.<ref>Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, ''Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration'', New York: Norton 2006, pp. 177–178.{{ISBN|0-393-06259-7}}</ref> Many Portuguese words are still found along the coast of South Africa including Saldanha, Algoa, Natal, Agulhas, Benguela and Lucia.

====Dutch role====
{{Expand section|date=May 2017}}
{{See also|:Category:Dutch exploration in the Age of Discovery|l1=Dutch Republic in the Age of Discovery|:Category:Maritime history of the Dutch East India Company|l2=Maritime history of the Dutch East India Company|Dutch East India Company|l3=Dutch East India Company (VOC)|First Dutch Expedition to Indonesia|Second Dutch Expedition to Indonesia|Brouwer Route|Jan Huyghen van Linschoten}}
[[File:Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie spiegelretourschip Amsterdam replica.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Replica of an [[East Indiaman]] of the [[Dutch East India Company]]/[[United East Indies Company]] (VOC). The Dutch East India Company was a major force behind the [[:Category:Dutch exploration in the Age of Discovery|Golden Age of Dutch exploration]] (c. 1590s–1720s) and [[Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography|Netherlandish cartography]] (c. 1570s–1670s).]]