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70-643: The Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope functioned as the legislature of the Cape Colony , from its founding in 1853, until the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, when it was dissolved and the Parliament of South Africa was established. It consisted of the House of Assembly (the lower house) and the legislative council (the upper house). Prior to responsible government ,

140-493: A broad alliance, run on liberal principles but incorporating several easterners and support from the Cape's Afrikaner and Black communities. The new government's inclusive policies extinguished the separatist league, but the ideology and interests of the frontier settlers survived and resurfaced years later. In the Cape Times 1876-1910 history, the 1870s was referred to as last decade before the onset of formal party divisions: "But in

210-564: A cabinet composed entirely of Eastern frontier white settlers, but contributed to a new pro-imperialist ideology that was not tied to any particular region of the Cape, or indeed, of southern Africa. The attempted annexations of the Boer republics and perceptions of exclusion in the Cape Colony caused growing resentment in the Afrikaner or " Cape Dutch " population. This led to the second key event, which

280-555: A decade later, as many of the Huguenot arrivals had little experience with agriculture and had become a net burden on the colonial government. There was a degree of cultural assimilation due to Dutch cultural hegemony that included the almost universal adoption of the Dutch language. Many of the colonists who settled directly on the frontier became increasingly independent and localised in their loyalties. Known as Boers , they migrated beyond

350-461: A drive to register the many new potential voters, particularly the rural Xhosa people of the frontier region, who were mostly communal land owners and therefore eligible for suffrage. Opportunistic politicians soon followed, to campaign for Black African voters. The new government based itself in the halls of the Masonic Lodge where the previous parliaments had sat. This relatively humble building

420-428: A large community of vrijlieden , also known as vrijburgers ('free citizens'), former VOC employees who settled in the colonies overseas after completing their service contracts. Vrijburgers were mostly married citizens who undertook to spend at least twenty years farming the land within the fledgling colony's borders; in exchange they received tax exempt status and were loaned tools and seeds . Reflecting

490-464: A more grandiose edifice were constructed. A brief controversy arose about this need to build a more stately Parliament, as Prime Minister Molteno was not an ostentatious man, and had little interest in spending tax money on what he saw as essentially an expensive vanity project (At the time an enormous countrywide programme was underway, of building schools, public transport and communications infrastructure, and funds were consequently in tight demand). He

560-481: A separate white "Eastern Cape Colony" under direct imperial control, with Port Elizabeth as its capital. For much of this time they were led by the representative of Port Elizabeth, John Paterson . They were known as the "Easterners" or the "Separatist League". This decades long struggle was brought to an end in 1872, with the apparent triumph of the liberal faction and the achievement of responsible government. The newly elected Molteno government then brought together

630-666: A territory of 100,000 square miles. Most lived in Cape Town and the surrounding farming districts of the Boland , an area favoured with rich soils, a Mediterranean Climate and reliable rainfall. Cape Town had a population of 16,000 people. In 1814 the Dutch government formally ceded sovereignty over the Cape to the British , under the terms of the Convention of London . The British started to settle

700-455: A third official language, would also be acceptable, but only once sufficient "Native" parliamentarians were elected. From the beginning of Responsible Government, there were increasingly vocal complaints from members of parliament about the humble appearance of their venue. MPs increasingly complained that the Parliament would not attract sufficient respect from "the public and strangers", unless

770-520: A united country of "South Africa". The Convention met in the Cape Assembly's chamber of the Cape Parliament building, and it was here that the new constitution for South Africa was drawn up. The Union of South Africa was proclaimed the following year, in 1910, and the old Cape Parliamentary building became the home of the new Parliament of South Africa . The provincial government of the Cape, now

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840-744: A way to better control the seas in order to stop any potential French attempt to reach India . The British sent a fleet of nine warships which anchored at Simon's Town and, following the defeat of the VOC militia at the Battle of Muizenberg , took control of the territory. The United East India Company transferred its territories and claims to the Batavian Republic (the Revolutionary period Dutch state) in 1798, and went bankrupt in 1799. Improving relations between Britain and Napoleonic France , and its vassal state

910-621: Is now Namibia . It united with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa in 1910, and was accordingly renamed the Province of the Cape of Good Hope . South Africa became a sovereign state in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster . In 1961, it became the Republic of South Africa . Following the 1994 creation of the present-day South African provinces , the Cape Province was partitioned into

980-496: The Batavian Republic (which Napoleon would subsequently abolish and directly administer later the same year). The British , who set up a colony on 8 January 1806, hoped to keep Napoleon out of the Cape, and to control the Far East trade routes. The Cape Colony at the time of British occupation was three months' sailing distance from London . The White colonial population was small, no more than 25,000 in all, scattered across

1050-669: The Batavian Republic , led the British to hand the Cape of Good Hope over to the Batavian Republic in 1803, under the terms of the Treaty of Amiens . In 1806, the Cape , now nominally controlled by the Batavian Republic , was occupied again by the British after their victory in the Battle of Blaauwberg . The temporary peace between the UK and Napoleonic France had crumbled into open hostilities, whilst Napoleon had been strengthening his influence on

1120-615: The Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806, and British possession affirmed with the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 . The Cape of Good Hope then remained in the British Empire , becoming self-governing in 1872. The colony was coextensive with the later Cape Province , stretching from the Atlantic coast inland and eastward along the southern coast, constituting about half of modern South Africa: the final eastern boundary, after several wars against

1190-530: The British government granted the Cape Colony a rudimentary and relatively powerless Legislative Council in 1835. The British attempt to turn the Cape into a penal colony for convicts, similar to Australia , resulting in the Convict crisis of 1849, mobilised the local population in the 1840s and threw up a generation of local leaders who believed that far-away Britain was not capable of understanding local interests and issues. This group of politicians, which included

1260-583: The Cape Province , was set up in a new building nearby, the Pronvisiale-gebou . The parliament's executive governments ("Ministries") dated only from 1872, when the Cape first attained responsible government . Prior to that parliament worked under a Governor, who was appointed by the Colonial Office in London. The post of prime minister of the Cape Colony also became extinct on 31 May 1910, when it joined

1330-495: The Cape of Good Hope . It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa , then became the Cape Province , which existed even after 1961, when South Africa had become a republic, albeit, temporarily outside the Commonwealth of Nations (1961–94). The British colony was preceded by an earlier corporate colony that became an original Dutch colony of

1400-532: The Eastern Cape , Northern Cape , and Western Cape , with smaller parts in North West province. An expedition of the VOC led by Jan van Riebeeck established a trading post and naval victualing station at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. Van Riebeeck's objective was to secure a harbour of refuge for VOC ships during the long voyages between Europe and Asia. Within about three decades, the Cape had become home to

1470-634: The German Empire , Austria-Hungary , the Kingdom of Italy , and the Netherlands also presented at the fair. Individual exhibitors included: Wertheim safes; Taylor's sewing machines, who won a medal; Sheffield-based Samuel Marshall, who showed hooks, hay knives, scythes and sheep shears; and linen manufacturers Rylands & Sons , who won a prize (followed by another a year later at the Paris exhibition ). After

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1540-672: The Xhosa , stood at the Fish River . In the north, the Orange River , natively known as the ǂNūǃarib (Black River) and subsequently called the Gariep River, served as the boundary for some time, although some land between the river and the southern boundary of Botswana was later added to it. From 1878, the colony also included the enclave of Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands , both in what

1610-520: The eastern-western division was largely laid to rest. The system of multi-racial franchise also began a slow and fragile growth in political inclusiveness, and ethnic tensions subsided. In 1877, the state expanded by annexing Griqualand West and Griqualand East – that is, the Mount Currie district ( Kokstad ). The emergence of two Boer mini-republics along the Missionary Road resulted in 1885 in

1680-736: The "Union Party of the Cape") merged with the Progressive Association of the Transvaal and the Constitutional Party of the Orange Free State to form the Unionist Party . The Democratic Alliance traces its origins to these parties through numerous successors. Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( Dutch : Kaapkolonie ), also known as the Cape of Good Hope , was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after

1750-406: The 1865, 1875, 1891 and 1904 censuses. Groups marked "nd" are Not Distinguished in the censuses for those years. * Includes both free Coloured people and Whites South African International Exhibition The exhibition was held inside a custom-made building that was constructed out of glass and iron in a style reminiscent of The Crystal Palace that housed London's Great Exhibition . It

1820-459: The 1870s, there were still no clearly defined political parties in the Cape Parliament. Responsible government had been granted in 1872 and the first Prime Minister, J.C. Molteno, was still in office. Saul Solomon, in spite of his diminutive size and physical handicap, was at the height of his powers and was probably the outstanding figure in the House, noted for his outspoken liberalism and his concern for

1890-464: The African franchise. As fast as the African voters mobilised, their numbers were diminished through discriminatory legislation. The Parliamentary Registration Act (1887) removed traditional African forms of communal land-ownership from the franchise qualifications, thus disenfranchising a large portion of the Cape's Xhosa population. Rhodes's Franchise and Ballot Act (1892) finally succeeded in raising

1960-573: The Afrikaner Bond, Het Volk of the Transvaal and Orangia Unie of the Orange River Colony, to form a new Union-wide South African Party . After this merger, the policies of the larger Afrikaner parties came to predominate and the distinctive liberalness of the original South African Party was subsumed, as South Africa began its long slide into Apartheid. Meanwhile, the Progressives (renamed

2030-680: The Boers felt against this social change, as well as the imposition of English language and culture , caused them to trek inland en masse. This was known as the Great Trek , and the migrating Boers settled inland, eventually forming the Boer Republics . British Immigration continued in the Cape, even as many of the Boers continued to trek inland, and the ending of the British East India Company 's monopoly on trade led to economic growth. At

2100-447: The British colonists and the Boers. Rhodes also brought in the first formal restrictions on the political rights of the Cape of Good Hope's black African citizens. The Cape of Good Hope remained nominally under British rule until the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, when it became the province of the Cape of Good Hope, better known as the Cape Province . The districts of the colony in 1850 were: Population figures for

2170-420: The British government. In the 1860s and early 70s, an alliance of parliamentarians came together in support of " Responsible Government ". These parliamentarians were general opposed to continued imperial control, desired greater local independence; sought a greater focus on internal development rather than expanding the colony's boundaries; and professed a strong commitment to racial and regional unity throughout

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2240-518: The Cape Colony's initial borders and had soon penetrated almost a thousand kilometres inland. Some Boers even adopted a nomadic lifestyle permanently and were denoted as trekboers . The VOC colonial period had a number of bitter, genocidal conflicts between the colonists and the Khoe-speaking indigenes , followed by the Xhosa , both of which they perceived as unwanted competitors for prime farmland. VOC traders imported thousands of slaves to

2310-660: The Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch East Indies and other parts of Africa. By the end of the eighteenth century the Cape's population swelled to about 26,000 people of European descent and 30,000 slaves. In 1795, France occupied the Seven Provinces of the Dutch Republic , the mother country of the Dutch United East India Company . This prompted Great Britain to occupy the Cape Colony in 1795 as

2380-490: The Cape's Prime Minister in 1890, he instigated a rapid expansion of British influence into the hinterland. In particular, he sought to engineer the conquest of the Transvaal, and although his ill-fated Jameson Raid failed and brought down his government, it led to the Second Boer War and British conquest at the turn of the century. The politics of the colony consequently came to be increasingly dominated by tensions between

2450-511: The Cape. Prominent leaders were William Porter, Saul Solomon, John Molteno, Hercules Jarvis and Charles Lennox Stretch . This alliance later became known as the "Westerners" due to their headquarters in Cape Town , or by the nickname of the "responsibles". Opposing them were a group of parliamentarians representing mainly white settler constituencies in the Eastern Cape near the frontier. Close to

2520-482: The Union of South Africa. For much of the Cape's history, the parliament operated without formal political parties. Instead, parliamentarians aligned temporarily – according to specific issues. Nonetheless, informal alliances began to form according to the constituencies' overall attitude to long-standing issues, such as Responsible Government , the multi-racial franchise , territorial expansion, separatism and relations with

2590-614: The Warren Expedition, sent to annex the republics of Stellaland and Goshen (lands annexed to British Bechuanaland ). Major-General Charles Warren annexed the land south of the Molopo River as the colony of British Bechuanaland and proclaimed a protectorate over the land lying to the North of the river. Vryburg , the capital of Stellaland, became capital of British Bechuanaland, while Mafeking (now Mahikeng ), although situated south of

2660-450: The authority of the British governor did not relieve tensions in the colony between its eastern and western sections. In 1872, after a long political battle, the Cape of Good Hope achieved responsible government under its first Prime Minister, John Molteno . Henceforth, an elected Prime Minister and his cabinet had total responsibility for the affairs of the country. A period of strong economic growth and social development ensued, and

2730-491: The border. Peace and prosperity, in addition to the Convict crisis of 1849, led to a desire for political independence. In 1853, the Cape Colony became a British Crown colony with representative government. In 1854, the Cape of Good Hope elected its first parliament , on the basis of the multi-racial Cape Qualified Franchise . Cape residents qualified as voters based on a universal minimum level of property ownership, regardless of race. Executive power remaining completely in

2800-508: The eastern border of the Cape Colony, with the arrival in Port Elizabeth of the 1820 Settlers . They also began to introduce the first rudimentary rights for the Cape's Black African population and, in 1834, abolished slavery ; however, the government proved unable to rein in settler violence against the San, which continued largely unabated as it had during the Dutch period. The resentment that

2870-474: The faulty foundations, and see the project successfully through. Moreover, it ordered him to remove from the plan the statues, parapets, fountains, elaborate dome and other expensive flourishes. Building re-commenced, but was delayed – this time by the British annexation of the Transvaal in 1878, the ensuing First Boer War , and finally by the building company going bankrupt in 1883. Greaves tenaciously completed

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2940-525: The franchise qualification from £25 to £75, disenfranchising the poorest classes of all race groups (including poor whites) but effecting a disproportionately large percentage of the African voters. It also added literacy as a franchise qualification, intended to target the (still mostly illiterate) Xhosa voters of the Cape. Finally, the Glen Grey Act (1894) re-drew the laws on rural African land tenure and effectively disqualified nearly all rural Africans from

3010-454: The height of its power under Prime Minister Cecil Rhodes . Rhodes's orchestration of the Jameson Raid sharply polarised the Cape's politics to an unprecedented degree. The remaining liberal "westerners" formed the " South African Party " but were too weak to oppose Rhodes's Progressives alone, and so allied with the Afrikaner Bond to fight Rhodes's dominance. This controversial alliance with

3080-467: The interests of Africans." Two key events contributed to the rise of political parties. The first was the 1878 annexation of the Transvaal and the ensuing First Boer War . After dismissing the Transvaal government, the Cape Colony Governor installed a former separatist, John Gordon Sprigg , as the new Prime Minister, with instructions to implement the Colonial Office 's policies. Sprigg formed

3150-486: The job however, and the large, stately, but relatively unpretentious Parliament building was finally opened in 1884. Cape Prime Minister Thomas Scanlen , and Governor Hercules Robinson led the opening ceremony in the building, declared finally to be worthy of the country's Legislature. Over the years, as the Cape's early generation of political heavy-weights died or retired, power moved away from their liberal heirs, and towards right-wing opposition politicians who saw

3220-414: The likes of William Porter , Saul Solomon , John Fairbairn , John Charles Molteno , Andries Stockenström and Hercules Crosse Jarvis , shared not only a common belief in the importance of local self-government, but also an explicit commitment to a liberal, inclusive and multi-racial political system. This political elite successfully began the controversial drive for Cape independence which, unusually,

3290-404: The most dictatorial and aggressively expansionist leader in Cape history. The liberals (now on the defensive, as the opposition " South African Party ") attempted to further mobilise the Cape's Black population in a desperate attempt to find allies to the liberal & multi-racial cause. However they were outmanoeuvred by Rhodes and his allies, who imposed increasingly severe legal restrictions on

3360-511: The multi-national nature of the early trading companies, the VOC granted vrijburger status to Dutch, Swiss, Scandinavian and German employees, among others. In 1688 they also sponsored the immigration of nearly two hundred French Huguenot refugees who had fled to the Netherlands upon the Edict of Fontainebleau . This so-called "Huguenot experiment" was deemed a failure by the colonial authorities

3430-422: The multi-racial franchise as a threat to white political control . This racist opposition had its origins in the white Eastern Cape separatist movement who had been threatened by the political mobilisation of their Xhosa neighbours . It gained office under Prime Minister Gordon Sprigg , and eventually reached the height of its power as the pro-imperialist " Progressive Party " under Prime Minister Cecil Rhodes ,

3500-401: The neighbouring Xhosa lands, these politicians represented their constituents' fears of the more numerous Xhosa. They tended to support the continued status of the Cape as a colony, stronger policies regarding border defence and increased expansion into the north to open up lands for white settlement. They resented the political dominance of the more "liberal" Westerners and saw the solution to be

3570-465: The non-racial nature of its political system as one of its core values. The universal qualification for suffrage (£25) was sufficiently low to ensure that most owners of any form of property or land could vote; and there was a determination on the part of the Government not to raise it, on the understanding that rising levels of wealth would eventually render it obsolete. There were the early beginnings of

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3640-534: The original figure that the government had allowed for. The Cape government stepped in. Freeman was fired for incompetence and the Public Works Commission was re-structured. There was initially some discussion in parliament about abandoning the half-finished building. However, the government ordered the project completed, even though the budget was now calculated to be many times the original sum. In 1876 it appointed Henry Greaves to alter Freeman's plans, fix

3710-404: The performance of their representatives. The operating language of the parliament in the early years of Responsible Government was English, though Afrikaans was often spoken informally. Dutch was added by parliamentary act in 1882, by MP "Onze Jan" Hofmeyr with the powerful support of Saul Solomon . A statement was also made, on its introduction, that the recognition of a "Native" language, as

3780-450: The predominant issues of the day, with the Afrikaner Bond playing a central role as "King-maker": The liberals and the Bond agreed on the need to minimise imperial intervention in southern Africa, while the pro-imperialists and the Bond agreed on further restricting the rights of the Cape's black citizens. The pro-imperialist grouping was by now known as " Progressives ", and this movement reached

3850-500: The protectorate border, became the protectorate's administrative centre. The border between the protectorate and the colony ran along the Molopo and Nossob rivers. In 1895, British Bechuanaland became part of the Cape Colony. However, the discovery of diamonds around Kimberley and gold in the Transvaal led to a return to instability, particularly because they fuelled the rise to power of the ambitious imperialist Cecil Rhodes . On becoming

3920-556: The racist Bond caused many of the South African Party's black voters to abandon it. It came to power briefly under its liberal leader William Schreiner but overall the ensuing decades were dominated by the Progressive Party. In 1908, John X Merriman finally led the South African Party to electoral victory, a mere two years before the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910. After Union, the South African Party merged with

3990-610: The same name , which was established in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) . The Cape was under VOC rule from 1652 to 1795 and under rule of the Napoleonic Batavia Republic from 1803 to 1806. The VOC lost the colony to Great Britain following the 1795 Battle of Muizenberg , but it was ceded to the Batavia Republic following the 1802 Treaty of Amiens . It was re-occupied by the British following

4060-463: The same time, the long series of Xhosa Wars fought between the Xhosa people in the east and the government of the Cape Colony as well as Boer settlers finally died down when the Xhosa took part in a mass destruction of their own crops and cattle , in the belief that this would cause their ancestors to wake from the dead. The resulting famine crippled Xhosa country and ushered in a long period of stability on

4130-472: The small but stately Goede Hoop Masonic Lodge buildings. The old Legislative Council (now reconstituted as the Parliament's upper house) was housed at the nearby Old Supreme Court building (now the Iziko Slave Lodge Museum). Among the Cape's powerful local leaders, a radical faction under the leadership of John Molteno pushed for further independence in the form of " Responsible Government ". This

4200-426: The top of Government Avenue, but eventually the current site was selected. Freeman was made resident architect and construction began on 12 May 1875, with Governor Henry Barkly laying the cornerstone. Almost immediately it was discovered that Freeman's plans were faulty. Freeman's errors were compounded by the presence of groundwater, and a recalculation of the budget revealed that the actual costs would be many times

4270-472: The tumults of the Second Boer War , the whole of southern Africa was finally under the control of the British Empire . The union of the various component states of the region was again discussed. Several previous attempts at union had failed, but in 1909 a National Convention was instituted in Cape Town, to unite the Cape of Good Hope with Natal , the Transvaal , and the Orange River Colony , to form

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4340-426: The upper house of the new parliament, and was elected according to the two main provinces of that Cape at the time. A new lower house, the Assembly, was also constituted. However, the parliament was weak and executive power remained firmly in the hands of the Governor who was appointed from London. The Governor opened this first parliament at his residence, "the Tuynhuys ", but the House of Assembly soon relocated to

4410-422: The vote. The result was that, by the end of Rhodes's Ministry, only a small portion of relatively wealthy, educated, urban Black Africans were still permitted to vote. Decades later, with the rise of Apartheid after Union, all restrictions were removed for White voters, meaning that the remaining qualifications of the Cape Qualified Franchise only applied to non-whites. In the early twentieth century, following

4480-429: Was attained in 1872, after a political struggle that lasted a decade. "Responsible Government" brought all branches of the Cape's government under local control by making the Executive directly "responsible" to Parliament and electorate for the first time. There followed a brief boom period in the history of the Cape, with the economy surging, the frontiers stable and local democracy taking root. The new constitution held

4550-499: Was attained in the end through gradual evolution, rather than sudden revolution. Queen Victoria granted the Cape its first Parliament in 1853, and the local leadership were permitted to draft a constitution. This was a relatively liberal document that prohibited race or class discrimination, and instituted the non-racial Cape Qualified Franchise , whereby the same qualifications for suffrage were applied equally to all males, regardless of race. The pre-existing Legislative Council became

4620-562: Was located on the grounds of the Freemasons ' Lodge de Goede Hoop , which was being used as the Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope at that time. During 1876, Signor Cagli had canvassed American and European industries to exhibit “manufactures of all kinds”, which were to be grouped in 10 classes: alimentation , chemicals (perfume, medicine and surgical equipment), furniture, fabric and jewelry, transport vehicles and equipment, hardware, machinery, agriculture, science and education, and miscellany such as fire extinguishers. Cagli's proposal

4690-432: Was over-ruled by the legislature however, and the Commissioner of Public Works, Charles Abercrombie Smith , ordered a select committee to receive designs. The committee selected the elaborate proposal of the renowned architect Charles Freeman (architect)  [ af ] , at the time an officer in the Public Works Department. Sites that were mooted for the new building included Greenmarket Square , Caledon Square and

4760-413: Was seen as suitably central and close to the Legislative Council building. The large gardens of the Lodge soon became a popular venue for the public, with concerts, theatre and finally the " South African International Exhibition " which Molteno sponsored in 1877. The Parliamentary hall itself was open to members of the public, also explicitly "irrespective of class or colour" , should they wish to observe

4830-460: Was supported by the then- Colonial Secretary , Lord Carnarvon . The only countries and colonies with known recorded exhibitors include Great Britain , the Cape Colony , Natal , the Orange Free State , and Griqualand West . However, representatives of the exhibition organizers were present and accepting submissions during the preceding months in "Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Turin and Amsterdam." As such, it seems likely that exhibitors from France ,

4900-471: Was the founding of the Afrikaner Bond in 1881. The Afrikaner Bond was the Cape's first formal political party, headed by Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (Onze Jan) , and taking a strong stance for Afrikaner rights and (increasingly) against the political empowerment of the Cape's black citizens. The formation of the Bond severely weakened the liberal "Westerners" by splitting this bloc, and beginning their decline. The resulting three parties aligned differently according to

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