Netherlands keeps South Africa

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There wasn't a huge amount of migration from Britain in this period, OTL. IIRC, a lot of the 5000 that were sent in one group, ended up moving on reasonably quickly.
 
Below is a map showing the expansion of Cape Colony. As mentioned before, the colony received few settlers during the 18th century. The few that did arrive were mostly Germans. However, the white population increased at a high rate than the mother country(much like most pioneer societies of the 17th and 18th centuries). This put pressure on the population to expand out of the Western Cape. Below is a map showing how the colony expanded far more during the second-half of the 18th century than during its previous 100 years.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Dutch_Cape_Colony.png/220px-Dutch_Cape_Colony.png

I believe the Dutch settlers would continue to trek eastward simply because the country was relatively underpopulated and the Western Cape is prone to droughts. It would be natural that people whose livelihoods depend on the abundance of arable land would seek areas with more rainfall. One only has to look at the map of South Africa to see where agriculture would prosper.

By 1806 the white population of the colony was 25,757 (34% of the total), with 77% being Dutch, 20% German and 3% French in origin. By 1819 this population had increased to 42,217 (42% of the total). The Dutch South African population had doubled in number every quarter of a century (similar to New France and New England). By 1910, the Afrikaner population numbered just under 800,000 and this was after suffering the Boer wars.

I believe the Boers would still act as agents of colonization expanding the border further inland, especially into the fertile lands of Eastern South Africa where agriculture can expand. To think the Dutch government would be content with the 1795 borders would be absurd. Even the much weaker Portuguese Empire expanded inland in Africa throughout the 19th century.

Though the Dutch were past their prime as a great power, they still managed to conquer Sumatra, Borneo, New Guinea and several other areas during the 19th century. In a scenario where they have settler eager for land, the country will expand. If the British establish a colony on the Natal coast, it is probable that the Dutch will use the Zulu as a proxy to drive them out and establish their own colony.

Below is a map showing Dutch colonial expansion during the 19th century.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped.../300px-Evolution_of_the_Dutch_East_Indies.png
 
then South Africa would have a White Majority so Boer Wars and Apartheid would Never Happened and South Africa would be Like Australia
 

Germaniac

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then South Africa would have a White Majority so Boer Wars and Apartheid would Never Happened and South Africa would be Like Australia

You really want that white majority in south Africa don't you... No It is probably less likely immigrant population will be coming from the smaller dutch.
 
There would have been a Zulu war. If Shaka still is born and rises to control the Confederacy, and spread Zulu culture over this confederacy, then after time the Dutch would see the Zulus as ripe pickings, just as the British did in real life.

As for Dutch/black relations, well apartheid may have very well been worse than in reality. The British, as most Europeans of their era, didn't have much care for non-whites of any description let alone blacks. Nonetheless, they did at least provide some measure of autonomy for black peoples in what is now Ghana, Nigeria or other former UK colonies. I'm not sure, actually I doubt, that the Dutch would follow similar patterns.
 
By 1806 the white population of the colony was 25,757 (34% of the total), with 77% being Dutch, 20% German and 3% French in origin.

Hmm, I thought the German and French contributions were larger than that. French names seem to be pretty common among Afrikaners today.
 
Hmm, I thought the German and French contributions were larger than that. French names seem to be pretty common among Afrikaners today.

Some probably are Huguenots, which might have lived one or more generations in the Netherlands before moving there, by that point they might not have been that different from their fellow Dutch Calvinists.

@ Pompejus: instead of bog colonies in Drenthe and other migrations, the Dutch migration might end up being focused on South Africa and less on other places under which the US.
 
Hmm, I thought the German and French contributions were larger than that. French names seem to be pretty common among Afrikaners today.

The total net immigration of Europeans between 1652-1806 in South Africa amounted to the following.
976 Germans
832 Dutch
167 French
69 Scandinavians
2,044
 
@ Pompejus: instead of bog colonies in Drenthe and other migrations, the Dutch migration might end up being focused on South Africa and less on other places under which the US.
Possibly, but how many Dutch people did move to the USA and how many would have gone to the Cape Colony? Some certainly, most? Probably, but all? For example would non calvinists go to South Africa? I believe that Catholics and Anabaptists would be less welcome in South Africa than in the USA.

BTW I just realised this is quite on old thread, maybe it should be locked for necromancy.
 
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