Treaty of Westminster ends the Third Anglo-Dutch War

Jan van Riebeeck left the Cape for Batavia after directing the VOC station for a decade. The settlement outlasted its founding commander and continued its expansion into Khoikhoi territory, with...

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...

Dutch authorities formally returned New Netherland to England under the postwar settlement. The transfer ended Dutch political rule in the colony but preserved European settler claims and systems of...

The charter dated 23 September 1682 formalized a company shared by the Dutch West India Company, Amsterdam, and the Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck family. It organized plantation expansion and rule in a...

The VOC directors decided to send French Huguenot refugees to the Cape. Their settlement served the company’s demand for skilled farmers and reinforced colonial expansion. The Cape was already...

About 180 Huguenots arrived aboard the Voorschoten. Their settlement added to the European population and agricultural footprint of the VOC colony. The Cape was not vacant: Khoikhoi and San...

French minister Pierre Simond accompanied Huguenot settlers to the Cape under VOC direction. The company promoted a Protestant settler population to develop farming and strengthen its provisioning...