What european power colonized south africa?
The Portuguese were the first historical Europeans to round the Cape. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company founded a refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope- this grew into Cape Town. There were successive waves of migrants, Huguenot French, Portuguese, German and Angolan, Madagaskan slaves along with prisoners of war from the East Indies. The British took over finally in 1814 after the Napoleonic wars and after the Zulu and Boer Wars gained control over the present territory of South Africa, formalised by the Union of South Africa (under dominion status) in 1910. Queen Elizabeth II was the last British head of state of South Africa, it was declared a republic and thrown out of the commonwealth under the government of Verwoerd in the 1960’s . On rejoining the Commonwealth, post-Mandela, South Africa remained a republic.
