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History of South Africa. The first modern humans are believed to have inhabited South Africa more than 100,000 years ago. [1] In 1999, UNESCO designated the region the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site. [2] South Africa's first known inhabitants have been referred to as the Khoisan, the Khwe and the San.
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.
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa.Its nine provinces are bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 miles) of coastline that stretches along the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean; [14] [15] [16] to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini.
In 1910 the Union of South Africa was created by the unification of four areas, by joining the two former independent Boer republics of the South African Republic (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek) and the Orange Free State (Oranje Vrystaat)with the British dominated Cape Province and Natal.
Boer republics and Griqua states in Southern Africa, 19th century. The Boer republics (sometimes also referred to as Boer states) were independent, self-governing republics formed (especially in the last half of the 19th century) by Dutch -speaking inhabitants of the Cape Colony and their descendants. The founders – variously named Trekboers ...
Like Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the Union of South Africa was a self-governing dominion of the British Empire. Its full sovereignty was confirmed with the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Westminster 1931. It was governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, with the Crown being represented by a governor-general.
The Status of the Union Act, 1934 (Act No. 69 of 1934) was an act of the Parliament of South Africa that was the South African counterpart to the Statute of Westminster 1931. It declared the Union of South Africa to be a "sovereign independent state" and explicitly adopted the Statute of Westminster into South African law.
The Orange Free State (Dutch: Oranje Vrijstaat [oːˈrɑɲə ˈvrɛistaːt]; Afrikaans: Oranje-Vrystaat [uəˈraɲə ˈfrɛistɑːt]) was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Empire at the end of the Second Boer War in 1902.