Alternate Cape Colony

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Deleted member 67076

Suppose some other power decided to establish a colony in the Cape instead of the Netherlands, such as France or Portugal. How would such things be run and what long term effects on policy would they have?
 
It would depend on which nation it is. France would probably use it just for material/resources and not many French settlers would come. Portugal would probably use as an alt-Mozambique and there would be a sizable European population. I also don't see other countries (barring international disputes) moving into the interior to the extend the Boers did.
 
The Cape was interesting, being that it was what would be considered a "secondary colony" much like New France or New England when it was founded. Meaning that it did not provide the material wealth that the East and West Indies did. Its primary objective was to provision ships heading towards the East Indies (the jewel in the crown).

One of the unique things about the Netherlands during its 1600-1700 golden age and up until the French Revolution, it was a prosperous country able to provide an adequate standard of living for its citizens. Not only that, but it became the home to thousands of immigrants from Germany, Scandinavia, French Huguenots and Jews.

To that end, during the 1500-1760 period a mere 25,000 Dutch left their homelands permanently for the colonies. Even the sailors from the Dutch East India Company (VOC), were overwhelmingly from Norway, as that country had an abundance of sailors and the Dutch dominated the Baltic Trade.

Even if we look at the number of migrants in South Africa who had children, these can be called the founders, people who settled between 1652 and 1806, they are small in number, however they constitute the ancestors of the vast majority of present 3 million Afrikaners. In this respect, they are similar to the French Canadian population with a small founder population that grew exponentially due to a high birthrate.

Between 1652-1806 in South Africa there settled
976 Germans
832 Dutch
167 French
69 Scandinavians
2,044

What is interesting is that most immigrants came early on with the majority of whites in the colony being born there by the early 18th century and few coming after 1735. By 1794 there was not a single white female in South Africa not born there.

Born in South Africa
White Males vs White Females
1687 34% vs 68%
1711 69% vs 86%
1735 89% vs 99%
1765 97% vs 0.3%
1794 99% vs 0%

Like the French Canadians, the Afrikaner population shared one of the world's highest birth rates during this period. Coupled with a lower mortality rate than that of Europe's this gave the European population a growth rate of 2.8% per annum during the 1735-1819 period. British North America during the same period was 2.5% per annum, and Western Europe 0.5% per annum.

The white population in South Africa had some immigration early on, with the 1679-1692 period being the most significant. I would like to point out the three severest epidemics of smallpox effecting the colony in 1713, 1756 and 1767. The white population declined due to them, with 1713's being the most serious however, growth resumed shortly thereafter.

White Population of South Africa
1657 38
1679 259
1692 954
1700 1,223
1713 2,068
1714 1,585
1755 5,697
1756 5,031
1767 7,572
1768 7,540
1794 14,575
1819 45,007

France too had a fairly prosperous period for the majority of its inhabitants during the 1500-1760 period and few chose to leave their country. The majority of the Frenchmen who emigrated permanently between that period is around 50,000, with the majority of them going to the West Indies.

Portugal on the other hand, had around 1.5 million people leaving the country between 1500-1820, with 600,000 alone between 1700-1760. The reasons being the country was isolated from the rest of Europe making the voyage overseas often less expensive than going to the heart of Europe. The Azores was already overpopulated by the mid-16th century and provided many of the settlers for Brazil, Madeira would follow suit in the 18th century. Northern Portugal too became a major source of emigration during the 18th century with two-thirds of the settlers to Minas Gerais coming from Northeastern Portugal.

In contrast to the Netherlands and France, emigration from Portugal was so high that the government in the mid-18th century sought to restrict it. Once gold was discovered in Brazil, that became a major source of attraction. By 1790 there were over 1 million Portuguese settlers in that country, despite it having a much lower rate of natural growth due to tropical diseases (with the exception of the far southern regions).

Angola for instance received more settlers during its 1575-1585 period than the Dutch Cape did during the 1652-1806 period, however the tropical diseases here took a toll. During the 18th century alone a net of 20,000 Portuguese went to Angola, most looking to make their fortune in the slave trade, however most died after a few years in the colony of malaria, typhoid, dysentery, etc.
 
It would depend on which nation it is. France would probably use it just for material/resources and not many French settlers would come. Portugal would probably use as an alt-Mozambique and there would be a sizable European population. I also don't see other countries (barring international disputes) moving into the interior to the extend the Boers did.

Mozambique consisted of settlements from Sofala up the the island of Mozambique. The purpose of colony there was to trade slaves in the Indian Ocean along with Ivory. Some of the slaves even went to the Americas. The Cape would probably be used just as provisioning for ships on the way to the Indies as the Dutch used it in OTL. Wool being a secondary export.

As for moving into the interior, one has to remember that only around 14% of the Western Cape is arable land (some 7,000 square miles). In a fully agrarian settler society this could at most support 300,000 people. Eventually they'd move inland. Much more arable land can be found to the Northeast of the Karoo. In what became the Transvaal for instance around half of the land is arable and suited for agriculture. The region that became the Natal colony also is 38% arable, and much of it suitable for sugarcane (a prized commodity during the 18th century).
 
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