__NOTOC__ This is a timeline of the history of the area in present-day South Africa.
Pre-colonial era→The Dutch Cape Colony→The British Cape Colony→The Great Trek→The Boer Republics→Union of South Africa→Apartheid→The Rainbow Nation
Pre-colonial era
~4 000 000 BP
Australopithecus arrives in South Africa.
~2 500 000 BP
Australopithecus africanus arrives in South Africa, of which Mrs. Ples and the Taung Child are the most famous fossils.
~1 500 000 BP
Homo ergaster arrives in South Africa.
~200 000 BP
The Border Cave is occupied, with the oldest sedimentary ash and grass bedding found here.
~170 000 BP
Homo sapiens arrive in South Africa.
117 000 BP
The oldest known human footprints, Eve's footprint, is left on the shore of Langebaan Lagoon.
73 000 BP
The earliest known rock drawing is made with ochre crayon in the Blombos Cave.
61 000 BP
The earliest bone and stone arrows are left at the Sibudu Cave, along with the earliest needle, and earliest use of heat-treated mixed compound gluing.
60 000 BP
Howieson's Poort Shelter is occupied.
~15 000 BP
The San people arrive in South Africa.
~3 000 BP
Stilbaai Tidal Fish Traps are made on the coast of Stilbaai.
~2 200 BP
The Khoikhoi people arrive in South Africa.
~200 CE
The Bantu peoples of South Africa arrive in South Africa. Start of the Iron Age in South Africa.
249
Beginning of agriculture in South Africa.
~800
Start of the mass Bantu migration. The Khoisan people are driven by the Bantu to the dry corners of the continent.
300
Early Iron Age communities are established in the northern and eastern regions of Southern Africa.
500
A group of Bantu-speaking tribes migrate southwards and reach present-day KwaZulu-Natal.
696
The Lemba people interact with Arab traders.
~1000
Founding of the Bantu Kingdom of Mapungubwe in the Limpopo.
1400
Founding of the capital settlement of Kweneng by the Sotho-Tswana people in what is now the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, south of Johannesburg.
1488
The Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias becomes the first European to reach the Cape of Good Hope.
1497
The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama circumnavigates the Cape of Good Hope and discovers Natal on Christmas Eve.
1501
Portuguese navigator Pêro de Ataíde left an account of losing much of his fleet in a storm at the Post Office Tree.
1503
The Portuguese explorer António de Saldanha reaches Table Bay and explores Table Mountain.
1510
At Table Bay, the Khoikhoi come to blows with the Portuguese. Portuguese explorer Francisco de Almeida and 64 Portuguese sailors are killed. This becomes the first military encounter between Europeans and indigenous South Africa people.
1575
The Portuguese cartographer Manuel de Mesquita Perestrelo makes a first attempt to map the coast of South Africa.
1580
Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the Cape of Good Hope.
1647
The Dutch ship Nieuwe Haerlem runs aground at the Cape of Good Hope. Under the leadership of Leendert Janszen, the stranded Dutch seamen stay at the Cape for a year. After their return to the Netherlands, Leendert Janszen and Matthijs Proot are commissioned by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to write a report on their findings on the feasibility of the Cape as a refreshment station.
1649
Leendert Janszen and Matthijs Proot submit their Remonstrantie, which describes their positive findings of the Cape of Good Hope. Jan van Riebeeck, who was on the ship that rescued the two, was asked to comment on the Remonstrantie and responded positively. The Gentlemen Seventeen, the board of the VOC, then decide that a refreshment station should be established at the Cape. The Dutch Cape Colony
1652
Jan van Riebeeck founded the Cape Town refreshment station on behalf of the VOC. Beginnings of the Dutch Cape Colony. Bernert Willemsz Wijlant is the first white child born in South Africa. The Company's Garden opens as South Africa's oldest garden.
1655
Beginnings of maize and viticulture in South Africa.
1657
The first European farmers arrive in Rondebosch.
1658
The first slaves are deposited in the Cape Colony by the Dutch. Some of them being the first Muslims in South Africa.
1659
The First Khoikhoi-Dutch War breaks out. (Then still called strandlopers by the Dutch)
1660
Van Riebeeck's Hedge of indigenous wild almond is planted.
1663
The Prince Edward Islands are discovered.
1664
This is the first recorded crossing of Sir Lowry's Pass into the interior.
1665
Foundation of the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa.
1666
Start of construction on Castle of Good Hope.
1673
The Second Khoikhoi–Dutch War breaks out. (After their click language, the strandlopers are now called the racial term, hottentots).
1679 Governor Simon van der Stel founds Stellenbosch.
1682
The Tuynhuys is built which would later become the Cape Town office of the President of South Africa.
1685
Cape Governor Simon van der Stel gives settlers land near the Boschendal farm. Groot Constantia is built; becoming the oldest colonial manor house in South Africa.
1687
Paarl is established as the third-oldest town in South Africa.
1688
The first Huguenots arrive in the Cape Colony and found Franschhoek.
1701
Koopmans-de Wet House is built; becoming the oldest house museum in South Africa.
1706
The Free Burgher Adam Tas files a complaint against Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel and is imprisoned.
1713
A smallpox epidemic strikes the Cape Colony; many khoikhoi die from this.
1751
Governor Hendrik Swellengrebel founds Swellendam.
1755
A second smallpox epidemic strikes the Cape Colony.
1761
Governor Rijk Tulbagh establishes South Africa's first library.
1767
A third smallpox epidemic strikes the Cape Colony.
1773
Cape farmer Wolraad Woltemade drowns after rescuing 14 castaways.
1779
The First of the Xhosa Wars breaks out between the Dutch and the Xhosa. Dutch explorer Robert Jacob Gordon names the Orange River after the House of Orange-Nassau.
1780
The Great Fish River is designated as the boundary of the Cape Colony.
1781
A French fleet prevents the British conquest of the Cape Colony.
1784
The Griqua cross the Gariep (Orange River) to the north under the leadership of Captain Cornelius Kok I.
1786
The founding of Graaff-Reinet.
1789
The Second of the Xhosa Wars breaks out. The Merino sheep is imported to the Cape Colony.
1792
Johan Isaac Rhenius opens a post office in a room next to the pantry at the Castle of Good Hope. This was the start of what becomes the South African Post Office.
1794 The Auwal Mosque is founded in Bo-Kaap. It is South Africa's first mosque. The British Cape Colony
1795
The United Kingdom captures the Cape Colony from the Netherlands in the Battle of Muizenberg. The Republic of Graaff-Reinet and Republic of Swellendam rebel but are annexed by the British Cape Colony.
1799
The London Missionary Society sends missionaries to South Africa. The Third of the Xhosa Wars breaks out.
1803
Peace of Amiens. The United Kingdom transfers the Cape Colony back to the Netherlands.
1804
Governor Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist founds Uitenhage.
1806
The United Kingdom conquers the Cape Colony from the Netherlands in the Battle of Blaauwberg, this time definitively.
1807
The slave trade to South Africa is abolished, but slavery remains legal.
1808
The first-ever recorded cricket match in South Africa takes place.
1809
The Hottentot Proclamation is a decree by the 2nd Earl of Caledon aimed at restricting the mobility of Khoikhoi in the Cape Colony.
1810
The Khoikhoi woman Saartjie Baartman is exhibited in London out of interest of her physique.
1811
The Fourth of the Xhosa Wars breaks out.
1812
Founding of Cradock and Grahamstown.
1813
The Griqua found Griqualand West.
1815
Rebellious Boers revolt against the British government at Slagtersnek, but are defeated.
1816
Five of the Slagtersnek insurgents are hanged in dramatic circumstances. Shaka founds the Zulu Kingdom.
1818
The Mthethwa king Dingiswayo is killed by the Ndwandwe king Zwide. The power vacuum is filled by the Zulu king Shaka. The Fifth of the Xhosa Wars breaks out.
1819
The Zulus defeat the Ndwandwe in the Ndwandwe–Zulu War.
1820
Beginning of the Mfecane. The Griqua captain Adam Kok II leaves Griqualand West and is succeeded by Andries Waterboer of the San. The Bergenaars split off from the Griqua. Thousands of 1820s British settlers arrive in the Cape Colony. Founding of Port Elizabeth. The South African Astronomical Observatory is established as the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope.
1822
Founding of Lesotho by Moshoeshoe I. The Dutch language is abolished in the civil service and court of the Cape Colony.
1823
Lieutenant Mzilikazi refuses to give up his loot to the Zulu king Shaka. He flees with his followers over the Drakensberg and conquers the Transvaal. Expansion of the Mfecane and rise of the Northern Ndebele people. The Oorlam people, led by Jonker Afrikaner, leave for south-west Africa. The missionary John Philip founds Philippolis, the first European settlement of the Transorangia.
1824
Founding of Port Natal, later called Durban. The Zulu king Shaka comes into contact with the white settlers. The South African Commercial Advertiser starts publication in Cape Town as South Africa's first independent newspaper.
1825
The South African pound is introduced in the Cape Colony. The Iziko South African Museum is founded. It moved to the company's Garden in 1897.
1828
The Zulu king Shaka is killed by his half-brother Dingane, who succeeds him as king.
1829
The University of Cape Town is founded as the South African College.
1830
Afrikaans is first written in Arabic.
1832
The Matabele king Mzilikazi is driven west by Dingane.
1834
Abolition of slavery in the Cape Colony. The Sixth of the Xhosa Wars breaks out. The Great Trek
1835
The Great Trek begins. The Voortrekkers Louis Tregardt and Hans van Rensburg leave the Cape Colony with their followers. Founding of British Kaffraria.
1836
More Voortrekkers leave the Cape Colony. Mzilikazi sends his army against them, but is defeated at the Battle of Vegkop. The Voortrekkers led by Hans van Rensburg are murdered in what is now Mozambique.
1837
Mzilikazi is driven out of the Transvaal by the Voortrekkers led by Hendrik Potgieter. He founds the Kingdom of Mthwakazi in modern-day Zimbabwe.
1838
The Voortrekker Piet Retief is murdered by the Zulu king Dingane; 532 of Retief's followers are killed in the Weenen massacre. The Voortrekker Piet Uys is killed in the Battle of Italeni. The Voortrekker Andries Pretorius avenges Retief at the Battle of Blood River, devastatingly defeating the Zulus. The Voortrekker Hendrik Potgieter founds Potchefstroom. First National Bank opens as the Eastern triocrees Province Bank in Grahamstown.
1839
The Voortrekkers found the Natalia Republic and Pietermaritzburg.
1840
The Voortrekkers support a successful coup by Mpande, the half-brother of the Zulu king Dingane. Dingane flees and is killed. Andries Pretorius crowns Mpande as Zulu king.
1841
The explorer David Livingstone arrives in Cape Town.
1842
The United Kingdom conquers the Natalia Republic. Many Voortrekkers leave Natal.
1843
The Port Elizabeth Cricket Club is founded, making it the oldest cricket club in South Africa.
1844
The Republic of Natalia is renamed the British Natal Colony. The Voortrekker Hendrik Potgieter founds the Winburg-Potchefstroom Republic.
1845
The Voortrekker Hendrik Potgieter founds Ohrigstad. Old Mutual is founded as a mutual insurance company by John Fairbairn, together with others including Saul Solomon.