The area now known as Cape Town was originally settled by the San and Khoikhoi. In 1652, the Dutchman Jan van Riebeeck went ashore in Table Bay and established a supply station there for the trading ships of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie; short: VOC) on their route to India. The location had been chosen because a sheltered bay offered itself as a natural harbour. The Dutch expelled the natives who had previously inhabited the area and immediately built Fort de Goede Hoop - today's Castle of Good Hope - for their own protection. Since the natives refused to trade with and work for the conquerors, the VOC imported people from their trading areas in Madagascar, India, Malaysia and Indonesia to keep as slaves. However, since there was not only a shortage of labor but also of women in the fledgling colony, female slaves were exploited in two ways: for labor and sexual relations. The resulting intermingling of Europeans, slaves and the African natives is the origin of today's coloured population (Cape Coloureds).
During the 150 years of Dutch rule, the settlement grew into an important and lively port. The port of Cape Town was also called the tavern of the sea, as it provided rest and stopover for the many ships that sailed between Europe and Asia. When the VOC was nearly bankrupt at the end of the 18th century, the city became easy prey for British imperialists seeking to expand their sphere of influence in the region. After the defeat of the Dutch by the British in 1806 at Bloubergstrand, about 25 kilometres north of Cape Town, the colony was declared a British Crown Colony on 13 August 1814 and slavery was abolished.
The discovery and first mining of diamonds and gold on the Highveld in the interior of the country in the years between 1869 and 1890 changed Cape Town very quickly. The city was now no longer the colony's sole and dominant major city, but gained wealth and prosperity as the country's largest port, while more and more industries settled in the city. At this time, the prime minister of the Cape Colony, CecilRhodes, who lived in Cape Town at the time, was making great profits with his corporation De Beers, still the largest diamond miner in the world today.
The bubonic plague in 1901 served as an excuse for the colony's government at the time to introduce racial segregation. The black population was deported to two areas, one near the docks at the harbour and the other in Ndabeni on the east side of Table Mountain. The doctor and health politician Jane Elizabeth Waterston dealt with the catastrophic health and hygiene situation in these districts at the time.
After the National Party's election victory in 1948, the already limited rights of Cape Town's non-white population were further curtailed, among other things by evicting them to districts farther from the city centre, where they lived segregated by skin colour. The measures led to violent confrontations and court cases, with which the apartheid state enforced its policies.
For decades, the white government tried to remove black slum settlements because they were seen as the source of resistance movements against their apartheid regime. A prominent example of this in Cape Town is District Six. This neighbourhood was a thorn in the side of the city administration with its very colourful ethnic and religious mix and the lively life along Hanover Street, which was known for its jazz bars. After being deliberately allowed to deteriorate, the neighborhood was declared a redevelopment area in 1966 due to "unsustainable sanitary conditions." Residents were dispersed to newly established townships such as Gugulethu, Nyanga, Mitchells Plain and later Khayelitsha, which were built in the Cape Flats area. In 1984, the last houses were demolished. Today, much of the area is wasteland or used by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, established in 1982.
A last attempt was made in 1986, when about 70,000 people were to be forcibly resettled. Since even these radical measures did not lead to the desired success, the government bowed and began to improve living conditions in the poor quarters.
On February 11, 1990, just hours after his release from prison, Nelson Mandela delivered his first public speech in decades from the balcony of Cape Town City Hall, announcing the dawn of a new era in South Africa. Cape Town has changed radically since the end of apartheid. Property prices have developed rapidly, the city centre is safer and many neighbourhoods have been developed through generous redevelopment programmes.
Nevertheless, the majority of Cape Town's inhabitants still live in the same, now income-segregated, Cape Flats neighbourhoods and continue to suffer from the same economic, social and health problems. Apart from an emerging small coloured and black financial upper class, the hoped-for socio-economic improvements have been elusive. Problems such as AIDS and a high crime rate remain unresolved.
Until 2004, Cape Town was the seat of the South African Parliament during the summer months. Since then, the parliament meets there all year round.
In June 2012, a gathering of members of the Khoisan community took place in Cape Town to commemorate their late traditional ruler Dawid Kruiper. He had been an active representative of his San ethnic group and had campaigned for their minority rights as well as for the preservation of their own language. Before the immigration of Bantu, Europeans and Asians, their common former ancestors had been the inhabitants of large parts of South Africa and neighbouring countries. In the course of this event it was suggested that Cape Town should in future be renamed their language. It should be called //Hui !Gaeb in future. This means as much as "Where the clouds gather". From their historically derivable self-image, they regard all other demographic groups living in South Africa as "foreigners".
