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In the fourth century, other migrant groups joined the San in southern Africa. From about 900 to 1300—during the time of the Dark Ages in Europe—Mapungubwe on the northern border of present-day South Africawas the largest kingdomin theAfrican subcontinent. It was an important center for tradewithChina, India, andEgypt, especially the trade of gold and ivory. As theysought todiscovernewtraderoutes between Europe and the Far East, European explorers came in contact with South Africa in the 1400s. The Dutch established the first permanentEuropeansettlement atCapeTown in 1652, where it became an outpost for the Dutch East India Trading Company. Dutch settlers came over to help farm the land and began to expand throughout the country. In 1806, the British took control of Cape Town after defeating the Dutch at the Battle of Blaauwberg. TheBritish imposedEnglish- language laws, spurring many of the Dutch to leave the Cape Town colony and form their

Cape Town A glance at a picture of

Cape Town, South Africa, on the southwest coast, gives a great example of the drama and diversity of the country’s landscape. The flat-topped Table Mountain rises in the background, flanked by two other mountains, Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. Below spread the lights of the City Bowl, a metropolis bounded by Ta- ble Bay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. The Cape Town Stadium, built in 2010 when South Africa hosted the World Cup, domi- nates the northwestern part of the city with its strikingly mod- ern design. Beyond the city’s boundaries, mountain ranges, vineyards, and the desert of the Great Karoo add to the region’s biodiversity.

own republics to the north and east. After the British took over one of these republics, the Boers (as the Dutch settlers were called) rebelled, causing the First Boer War in 1880. The Boers won, but when the British continued to assert dominance over the region—hoping to control the Witwatersrand gold mines that had been discovered nearby—the Second Boer War broke out in 1899.

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