History of Cape Colony Before 1806 - Further Expansion

Further Expansion

The Cape colonists gradually acquired all of the land of the Khoikhoi to the north and east of their base at Cape Town. Besides those who died in warfare, whole tribes of Khoikhoi were severely disrupted by smallpox epidemics in 1713 and 1755. A few remaining tribes maintained their independence, but the majority of the Khoikhoi took jobs with the colonists as herdsmen. The Dutch East India Company government passed a law in 1787 subjecting the remaining nomadic Khoikhoi to certain restrictions. The direct effect of this law was to make the Khoikhoi even more dependent upon the farmers, or to compel them to migrate northward beyond the colonial border. Those who chose the latter encountered the hostility of their old foes, the Bushmen, who inhabited the plains from the Nieuwveld and Sneeuwberg mountains to the Orange River.