Dutch Settlers, the reasons and conditions of their migration, the developing conflicts

The Dutch were the first permanent residence in South Africa during the Atlantic slave
trade. Jan van Riebeeck was the pioneer of the Dutch migration into Cape Town. The Dutch

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 5
were seeking for spice producing island of Indonesia. Accessing the island was their primary
reason for migration (Joby, 2020, n.p). The increased Atlantic trade prompted Dutch people in
South African to engage in such a trade mainly to provide cheap labor for their ships. The release
of company officials from their contracts and their settlement along Liesbeeck River led to a
tribe named the Boers whose aims were to colonize South Africa and engage in the economy's
commercialization. Their success in agriculture came with the condition that they must seek
cheap labor. They settled in a land near the Khoikhoi who were the indigenous people in South
Africa (Joby, 2020, n.p). Since the Dutch settlers were agriculturalists mainly dealing with farm
produce and the Khoikhoi were majorly pastoralists, there was a conflict of interest and
supremacy between the two groups since the Khoikhoi failed to offer cheap labor in Dutch
agricultural lands.
The expansion of the Dutch settlement contributed to oppression meted upon the
Khoikhoi community. Loss of their lands to the Dutch settlers and their only means of income
and access to basic needs is pastoralism. The Khoikhoi people became low-level servants in the
Dutch residences due to their loss of economic and social power (Joby, 2020, n.p). Also, the
Dutch's migration into South African and their permanent settlements led to the violence and loss
of lives. Also, the Dutch presence in South Africa intensified the slave trade since colonies and
the indigenous Africans were dealing with slave commercialization. The slave trade system's
support by the Dutch-Roman rules also contributed to social conflicts among the African
indigenous people, the Dutch, and the British colonies. The settlement also led to the
development of South Africa due to the high-level the expertise of industrialization and trade
witnessed in South Africans today.