Land and Climate
Total area: 1,219,912 square kilometers
Total land boundaries: 4,862 kilometers
Border countries: Botswana (1,840 km), Lesotho (909 km), Mozambique (491 km), Namibia (967 km), Swaziland (430 km), and Zimbabwe (225 km)
Coastline: 2,798 kilometers
Terrain: vast interior plateau rimmed by rugged hills and narrow coastal plain
Land use: arable land (12.13%), permanent crops (0.77%), other (87.1%)
Irrigated land: 13,500 square kilometers
Climate: mostly semiarid; subtropical along east coast; sunny days, cool nights
CIA-The World Factbook 2002--South Africa
www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook
History
3,000,000 BCE Australophithecus africanus lives in central South Africa
1,000,000 Homo erectus displaces earlier ape-like hominids
117,000 BCE Early modern man settlement at Langebaan
AD 1 Nomadic Khoina herders, originally from Botswana, move southwest into Cape coastal territory
1498 Vasco de Gama discovers the route to India around the Cape of Good Hope
1510 Dom Francisco d/Almeida, viceroy of Portuguese India, and 57 of his men are killed by Khoina in Table Bay
1594 Portuguese barter with Khoina in Table Bay
1608 The Dutch barter with Khoina for food
1652 Jan van Riebeeck, who establishes a permanent settlement for the Dutch East India Company, and his wife, Maria de la Quellerie, arrive in Table Bay
1658 War against Khoina follows cattle raids and killing of settlers
1693 Sheik Yusuf is exiled to the Cape after instigating a rebellion in Java. His kramat (shrine) near Faure (Western Cape) is revered by Muslims
1713 Smallpox epidemic kills unknown hundreds of Khoina, as well as several white settlers
1751 Rijk Tulbaugh appointed Dutch Governor of the Cape (1751-71)
1779 Settlers and Xhosa clash at the Fish River (boundary of the Cape Colony), the first of nine frontier wars
1789 Merino sheep are imported from Holland and thrive in South Africa
1795 Battle of Muizenberg and first British occupation
1814 British occupation of the Cape is ratified by the Congress of Vienna
1818 Shaka's military conquests in Zululand begin
1815 The Slatger's Nek rebellion, led by anti-British frontiersmen, ends with judicial executions near Cookhouse (Eastern Cape)
1820 4,000 British settlers arrive in Grahamstown
1828 Shaka is murdered by his half-brother, Dingane
1829 The Khoina are released from having to carry passes. The Univesity of Cape Town is founded
1834 Slaves freed subject to four-year "apprenticeship." Sixth Frontier War erupts
1836 The Great Trek begins
1838 The Battle of Blood River follows the murder of Voortrekker leader, Piet Retief, and his men
1846 Seventh Frontier War (War of the Axe)
1850 Eighth Frontier War, in which the Kat River Khoina join the Xhosa
1852 The Cape is granted representative government by Britain
1854 Britain withdraws from the Orange River Sovereignty
1857 Thousands of Xhosa living in the Eastern Cape perish in a famine resulting from an ill-advised omen
1867 A 21-carat diamond is found near Hopetown in the Northern Cape
1871 Diamonds are found at Colesberg Kopje (Kimberly). Gold found in Pilgrim's Rest
1881 Boers defeat British army at Majuba
1886 Discovery of the Main Reef on Witwatersand (Gauteng)
1893 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi arrives in Durban to practice law
1896 Jameson Raid into Transval fails.
1899-1902 South African War
1904 President Paul Kruger dies
1905 Culligan Diamond found at Premier Diamond Mine
1910 Formation of the Union of South Africa
1912 South African Native National Congress founded (later becomes the ANC)
1914 South Africa declares war on Germany. Boer rebellion put down by Union government. The first National Party formed in Bloemfontain
1922 Miners' rebellion breaks out at coal mines in Witbank
1928 University of South Africa founded
1927 Compulsory racial segregation declared in many urban areas
1939 South Africa declares war on Germany
1948 National Party elected as the country's government
1949 Prohibition of Mixed Marriage Act, the first of many apartheid laws, is passed by Parliament
1958 Hendrik Verwoerd becomes prime minister of South Africa
1960 Police shoot 69 demonstrators at Sharpeville. Whites-only referendum opts for republic
1961 South Africa becomes a republic outside the British Commonwealth
1962 Nelson Mandela arrested. UN sanctions isolate South Africa politically and economically.
1966 Prime Minister Verwoerd assassinated
1967 Christian Barnard carries out first heart transplant
1976 Soweto riots erupt. Flight of foreign capital from South Africa
1980 ANC bombs Sasolburg Oil Refinery in the Free State
1984 New constitution for tricameral parliament
1990 ANC, PAC, and SACP unbanned. Nelson Mandela released
1992 National referendum held regarding FW de Klerk's policy of change. South Africa, for the first time since 1960, participates in the Olympics
1994 ANC wins SA's first democratic elction. State President Nelson Mandela inaugurated
1998 Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings begin
1999 Second democratic election
Dos Santos, Claudia. Eyewitness Travel Guides South Africa. New York: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 1999.
