First hundred years

There isn't much history of South Africa that we know of before 1652 other than the colonization in the 17th century when The Dutch East India Company expedition under Jan Van Riebeck reached the Cape of good hope.

From the time 1652 till 1815 we find out in the South African history that the Portuguese people, although not showing any interest in colonization, used The Cape for navigation and tradement.

In the year 1647, when a Dutch vessel called The Haarlem wrecked in the present-day at Table-Bay, after being rescued the marooned crew recommended that the station should be permanent and established in the bay.

The Dutch East India Company, one of the big trading houses in all of Europe, where sailing the spice route, the place where you got spices for your food, to the Eastern side, they had no intention of begging a colonization in the area, but they wanted to establish a base camp for passing ships and hungry sailors.

In the end a small VOC group lead by Jan Van Riebeck reached a place called the Table Bay in 1652.