Problems faced by the early Dutch Settlers at the Cape

Problems faced by the early Dutch Settlers at the Cape

On their arrival the Dutch settlers had several problems as a result of little knowledge about the geographical conditions and economic potentials of the territory;

The Dutch were very far away from their home of origin, that is Holland! Netherlands and thus they suffered from homesickness.

The settlers did not have dependable geographical knowledge and economic potentials of the area. They did not know what to grow on the land apart from vegetables, fruits and cattle herding.

They suffered from malnutrition, scurvy and generally poor health caused by the unexpected and prolonged droughts.

Their living conditions were very hard, as they did not have good permanent housing. During winter, they suffered a lot because of the cold and wet weather conditions and in most cases; their houses were poor with leaking roofs.

During the wet seasons, they suffered from dysentery. They were always weak, unhealthy and they could not withstand an attack of dysentery as many died. By 1652, only 116 men and 5 women were still alive and of this, only half were capable of doing constructive work.

During the long periods of drought, white the inhabitants were forced to move away from the coast to better grazing areas to get water, Thus the settlers could run short of supplies and viable land.

They faced some natural and human obstacles. In the northwest, they found that land was arid; in the northeast they faced raids carried out by the San.

On some occasions, the inhabitants were not ready to give the settlers as many cows as they wanted. Therefore cattle and sheep were not always available for barter trade at the time.

Since they were few in number and weak, they lacked enough food, for there was no one to grow it.

The crops grown, like wheat and barley needed much care and a lot of money. Thus production was costly and brought no profits in the early years.

Labor was a problem, as the Khoisan could not supply the needed labor, but where nomadic and many a time not used to manual labor.

At first the settlers were too few for the task of growing food, which they were expected to grow in order to supply the passing ships at the Cape.

The settlers also faced a problem of paying high annual rent that the Dutch East India Company wanted. These left them with small funds, which could not enable them, obtain the required necessities.

The early Dutch settlers did not have enough women for wives. This led to increased cases of homosexuality and mixed or intermarriages with the local Africans.

They lacked education facilities for their children.

The revolts of 1795 in the name of liberty, equality and fraternity affected the settlers.

Attacks from the Khoisan and Kaffir took the settlers life.

The Company failed to provide the settlers with enough land for cultivation.

he social conduct of the Dutch discredited them before the Africans and as a result most Africans feared to offer their labor services to them.

Boers mistreated the Khoikhoi and this caused racial conflict with the Africans. They paid the Khoikhoi very low ages, gave them little food and even sold them as slaves.

How the problems were overcome/ how the DElCO attempted to solve the problems faced by the early Dutch Settlers at the Cape

Jan Van Riebeeck and the DElCO attempted to solve the problems and improve on the situation in a number of ways;

He expanded the settlement by bringing in more land under cultivation. This increased agricultural production and solved the problem of food.

He increased the number of workers to provide labor to the settlers who were mostly Africans

More men were also recruited for defense and this was done to protect the settlers and discourage African workers or servants from running away.

Slave labor was also introduced to meet the labor demands. They brought 12 slaves who came in 1657 from Java and Madagascar. In 1658, 185 slaves were imported from West Africa and by 1708 there were 1,258 slaves at the Cape.

A large Castle was built for defense purpose.

In order to make the colony self sufficient in food supply and defense, Simon Der Stel, Commandant (Governor) of the Colony increased the number of settlers by making it easier for immigrants to come to South Africa as colonists between, 1679 - 1699.

The new workers had to be free men and employees of the Company. They were also given land- free of charge. This encouraged them to grow more food.

In 1658, the Dutch colonists protested against the Company regulations. They threatened to strike and demanded that the price for crops should be fixed before they could cultivate more farmlands. As a result, prices of grain and other locally produced crops were slightly increased and this reform was implemented.

The farmers were allowed to sell grain and other locally produced commodities to sailors of visiting ships.

In 1707, a large hospital was built to cater for the health of the settlers especially protecting them from such diseases such as dysentery, and malaria, leprosy and small pox.

The immigrants were given free passage and free land. The Company employees and former soldiers were encouraged to resign and become farmers.

Governor Williem Adrian-Van-Der-Stel (1699-1707) and other corrupt Company officers were dismissed. The Company confiscated all their land and property in the Cape Colony.

Larger water reservoirs were built for use in drought periods (seasons) and in order to protect farmers for both human and cattle consumption.

Elementary schools were built and the church expanded. The parish clerks were the sons of the settlers.

Orphan girls were imported from Holland to marry the settlers, which increased their Dutch population

Every man between 16 and 10 years and so had to help in defense of the Dutch settlements and farms.

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