post-1806 Dutch South Africa

yofie

Banned
In real life, the British took over the Cape Colony for good in 1806. If the Dutch had kept the Cape Colony then, what would have happened to the rest of southern African history? To maintain a stop along the way to India and so on, would the British have kept a garrison post like Simon's Town for themselves, or would they have colonized the Natal area?
 
I think that the Afrikaans language will today be more like a dialect of Dutch, due to continuing close contact with the Netherlands, unlike OTL.
 
South Africa would be a lot smaller. There would be less need for the Boer treks, so I don't think people would settle in Transvaal and possibly not in the Orange Freestate. Afrikaans would remain a Dutch dialect, with less English influence, with a relation with Dutch like American or Australian English has with British English. I believe that the Netherlands will give the Cape colony a dominion-like status in the late 19th century,after the British example.

If the British can't make a deal with the Dutch for the use of the capecolony as a half-way station, it would either try to make that deal with the Portuguese or start their own colony in either Natal or Madagascar.
 
A big question is whether the Dutch would promote emmigration into their South Africa. IOTL, Rotterdam and Antwerp were two of the major harbours for emmigrants from central Europe, particularly Germany. If the Dutch decide to provide incentives to go to Dutch South Africa, they could get a decent share of these emmigrants going to South Africa.
 

yofie

Banned
South Africa would be a lot smaller. There would be less need for the Boer treks, so I don't think people would settle in Transvaal and possibly not in the Orange Freestate. Afrikaans would remain a Dutch dialect, with less English influence, with a relation with Dutch like American or Australian English has with British English. I believe that the Netherlands will give the Cape colony a dominion-like status in the late 19th century,after the British example.

If the British can't make a deal with the Dutch for the use of the capecolony as a half-way station, it would either try to make that deal with the Portuguese or start their own colony in either Natal or Madagascar.

In that case, what would happen with respect to the discovery of diamonds and gold in the South African interior?
 
In that case, what would happen with respect to the discovery of diamonds and gold in the South African interior?
My guess, if the British own Natal, they would fall into British hands (or if another major power, like France controls Natal it falls in their hands). If not, it will be a race between the Dutch at the Cape and Portuguese in Mocambique and the wealthiest, best connected, etc of the two wins. Although it probably ends that some mines, closer to the cape colony, end up Dutch and others, closer to Mocambique, end up Portuguese.
 
Probably South Africa will develop more or less allong the lines it developed today. A Boer trek will occour since there will be a more centralised goverment in Cape town, which will impelement rules and laws some of the Boers do not want to obey, so deciding to move. The British would build their half way station in Natal, but this will lose importance after the complecion of the Suez Canal, which they build earlier?
There would also be some influx of European immigrants who prefered to go tho the Cape instead of the USA, or were misled and took the wrong boat. The gouverment no doubt would encorrage immigration, in contradiction of the previous owner of the Cape colony, the VOC.
Don't know if Boer will proclaim independent nations or perhaps state control will follow the Boers after them, giving some Boers reason to move even more East and North inland.
Things would be interesting when gold is discovered
 
A Boer trek will occour since there will be a more centralised goverment in Cape town, which will impelement rules and laws some of the Boers do not want to obey, so deciding to move.
Don't know if Boer will proclaim independent nations or perhaps state control will follow the Boers after them, giving some Boers reason to move even more East and North inland.

If there is a Boer trek, I think it be along the line of the pioneers in America. They want to be left alone, but not leave the nation. Instead of a wild west you get a wild south. The boers remain Dutch and part of the Netherlands, but with more freedom, until the law and order of the Cape colony catches up with them. Still I suspect they won't go as far as they OTL did, as there is less need to flee the British opressors.
 
I think the Boers will continue their trek, to escape from the control of a goverment, which in their beleaves is heretic. It does not matter if it were a Brittish or Dutch central goverment. The rules and laws these goverment are edditing were in the eyes of the hard line Calvinist Boers a violation of their ''devine''way of living. So the whole 19th century a part of these Boer will try to escape central gouverment and outlanders.
It were people who were used to live and care for them selve, strenghted by a verey orthodox Calvinist believe, and the only thing they know from a central rule (VOC) were taxes and rule and regulations which limited their development and lives. There for a large part of them were already developing a semi nomadic live at the outskirts of the Cape colony during the 18th century.
 
If there is a Boer trek, I think it be along the line of the pioneers in America. They want to be left alone, but not leave the nation. Instead of a wild west you get a wild south. The boers remain Dutch and part of the Netherlands, but with more freedom, until the law and order of the Cape colony catches up with them.

I fully agree with this.

Still I suspect they won't go as far as they OTL did, as there is less need to flee the British opressors.

As I said before, that depends on the number of new immigrants. If the Dutch offer incentives to go to the Cape for those european immigrants which left from their harbours at home, they might be able to increase immigration to South Africa substantially. Therefore, the Cape expands faster and so does the "Wild South".

After the Napoleonic wars, the Dutch know that they cannot defend the Cape. They might have the idea to increase the local population, so that they are able to defend themselves - at least for some time until the european theatre allows a peace treaty.
 
Suppose the Cape colony is returned to the Dutch after Napolen left the stage, it will be gouverned more or less as the Brittish did.
VOC discorrage settlement and kept the colonist economic depended on the VOC.
The new goverment would do the opposite, and will encourage immigration.
Since the Netherlands is by then in economic crisses and there is socila unrest in the whole of Europe there will be enough candidates who could chose the Cape as a new home. All these immigrants will be regarded and outlanders with herretic believes and customs by the ''Boers'' and will feed the need to move away, just as with the Brittish rule.
Who knows there is an other kind of Cecil Rhodes among those immigrants.
 

yofie

Banned
Based on what I read here and elsewhere, I'm proposing an alternate history for Dutch South Africa:

In 1806, the Dutch defeat the British near Cape Town, and the Cape Colony is kept under Dutch control as a result. The Cape Colony keeps on expanding slowly, and undergoes numerous wars with the native tribes like the Xhosa. At the same time, the Cape Colony attracts migrants first mainly from the Netherlands, and then also from Germany, Scandinavia, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Trekboers would start making their migrations on a small scale for the time being, given their distrust towards authority. These would ultimately bring them to the Orange Free State and the Transvaal.

Either one of two things could happen in terms of territorial organization: The Cape Colony successfully rebels against the Netherlands sometime in the mid-19th century (cf. the American Revolution), or the Cape Colony eventually gets dominion-like status from the Netherlands (cf. Canada or Australia). In the first possibility, the OFS and Transvaal will go along with the Cape Colony, while in the second possibility, the Trekboer areas in the OFS and Transvaal just might split off from the Cape Colony in rebellion. During all this time, the British establish a colony in Natal (and OTL Durban is known here as Port Natal), along with keeping the area of Simon's Town.

When diamonds are discovered in and around Kimberley, the Cape Colony and any of the possible Boer republics claim the diamond areas, which ultimately are awarded to the Cape Colony. The Witwatersrand gold goes to the Transvaal (or to the Cape Colony, depending on the scenario). These discoveries are made 20-30 years later than OTL because of the delay in Trekker migrations. Both of these discoveries attract many migrants from the Netherlands and elsewhere.

The Portuguese, meanwhile, claim the area between present-day Angola and Mozambique - and hence colonize OTL Rhodesia and possibly also Bechuanaland, while the Germans colonize Namibia until World War I as OTL.

If the Cape Colony itself was awarded a dominion-like status, and the Boer republics split off, maybe all these would eventually federate into one country - and Natal would totally be its own country.

Today, the country resulting from the Cape Colony is more or less developed, though with lingering racism issues (never quite as bad as OTL apartheid) and poverty among the non-white majority. Same thing with Natal. Trying to think, though, whether Johannesburg still overtakes Cape Town as the largest city in the country. I think it should.

How does all this sound?
 
Plausible, though I question the part about the non-white majority, I think you might have seen a more American style approach to colonisation, i.e. beat the natives and push them out rather than keep them in the country. Additionally if greater than OTL migration is heading to just Witwatersrand and the Cape you might see the White majority the Boers dreamt about.
 
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