Cape Colony May 1910, when it joined the Union of South Africa. Population Figures for the 1904 Census. Source: Cape Colony The Cape of Good Hope, also known as the Cape Colony (), was a British colony in present-day South Africa, named after the Cape of Good Hope. The British colony was preceded by an earlier Dutch colony of the same name, the "Kaap de Goede Hoop", established in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company. The Cape was under Dutch rule from 1652 to 1795 and again from 1803 to 1806. The Dutch lost the colony to Great Britain following the
History of the Cape Colony before 1806 and again in 1801 they rose in revolt. In February 1803, as a result of the Peace of Amiens, the colony came under the control of the Batavian Republic. History of the Cape Colony before 1806 The written history of the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa began when Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias became the first modern European to round the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. In 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed along the whole coast of South Africa on his way to India, landed at St Helena Bay for 8 days, and made a detailed description