While resupply had been accomplished in the years before the establishment of the colony by barter with local Khoikhoi (‘Hottentots’) pastoralists, who willingly and skillfully traded cattle, fresh water and vegetables for European craftwork and assorted goods, the Dutch colonial empire was rapidly expanding in southeast Asia during a period of unprecedented economic success, and a more reliable base was called for to ensure the regular operation of passing-by ships.
Cape Colony was accordingly established by the Dutch to serve as a base of resupply between the newly founded Asian colonies and Europe. The Portuguese were the first to brave a new route, establishing bases of trade and influence on the Indian subcontinent by the early 16 th century after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, most notably at Goa, while the Dutch pushed beyond, adventuring into Indonesia and Java. The Europeans, having innovated new vessels capable of long distance travel such as the caravel and galleon, sought to increase their power by maximizing profits from Eastern trade, by bypassing the long and unreliable silk road, now occupied by the Turks, traveling to Asian dominions directly by sea. European colonization of South Africa was the inevitable consequence of the rise of the colonial empires.
0 kommentar(er)
