Van Riebeeck departs the Cape

The VOC captured Colombo from the Portuguese after a long siege, extending Dutch control over Sri Lanka’s coast. The Dutch had allied with Kandy against Portugal, but the company’s takeover imposed...

The ship Hasselt arrived with 228 enslaved people from Popo, in the Gulf of Guinea region. The voyage shows the Cape’s integration into Dutch slavery routes spanning West Africa and the Indian...

Autsumao (Herry), a Khoikhoi leader who resisted Dutch expansion, was banished to Robben Island. Colonial punishment sought to suppress opposition to settler land and livestock claims. His actions and...

Khoikhoi groups raided settler herds, beginning a period of open conflict. The action opposed the loss of grazing land and colonial restrictions on livestock and movement. Dutch records called such...

Zacharias Wagenaer took over the Cape station as Van Riebeeck’s successor. The change in leadership came as VOC settlement and agricultural expansion increasingly constrained Khoikhoi land and...

Dutch officials surrendered New Netherland to an English fleet, and New Amsterdam became New York. The transfer changed the European ruler but left Indigenous land claims and African enslavement...

The treaty ending the Second Anglo-Dutch War formalized territorial exchanges: England retained New Netherland while the Dutch retained Suriname. The agreement treated colonized territories as...

The VOC launched an attack against Cochoqua communities, beginning a new phase of conflict in the Cape region. The campaign aimed to secure colonial access to land, cattle, and trade. Khoikhoi...

During the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Dutch forces retook New York and renamed it New Orange. The brief restoration of Dutch rule was another imperial transfer imposed over Indigenous homelands; it did...

The treaty ended the war and set the terms for the Dutch return of New Netherland to England. European powers formalized colonial possession through diplomacy, while Indigenous communities had no role...