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Article: South Africa, Relations with
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SOUTH AFRICA, RELATIONS WITH
SOUTH AFRICA, RELATIONS WITH.
In 1652 the Dutch East India Company established the first European settlement in South Africa. By the early 1700s they had crushed the indigenous Khoikhoi and usurped their land. The population of Dutch settlers, known as Afrikaners, gradually increased. In the 1790s traders and whalers from New England visited South Africa regularly and trade increased in the mid-1800s. Ships sailed from Boston with barrel staves for the vineyards on South Africa's Western Cape and returned to New England loaded with cowhides for the shoe industry. International interest in South Africa exploded in the late nineteenth century with the ...