Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T14:45:12.076Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - The Cape Cauldron: Strategic Site in Transoceanic Imperial Networks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Kerry Ward
Affiliation:
Rice University, Houston
Get access

Summary

The “Cape Cauldron” evokes the nautical perspective of the turbulent meeting of the southeast Atlantic and southwest Indian Ocean waters, a treacherous zone for ships sailing between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and a region where they had to touch land to take on fresh water and supplies. It was perilous to attempt this voyage without reprovisioning. Thus the Cape of Good Hope and other safe harbors for anchoring in this oceanic zone became strategically vital nodes in European transportation networks throughout the age of sail. The Cape had a long history of being one of these sites. After its settlement by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, it eventually developed into the Company's sole settler colony outside the Indies archipelago that resulted in a Dutch-speaking elite and slave-based society that survived the break up of the Company empire. The Cape Cauldron also refers metaphorically to the unsettling and destabilizing effects the forced migration of convicts, exiles, and slaves had on the settler society at the Cape of Good Hope.

From the outset the VOC settlement of the Cape aimed to produce victuals and supplies for Company fleets plying the oceans between Europe and the Indies. Company officials at the Cape had to negotiate relationships with established Khoekhoe polities in the region. They used various strategies from cooperation to outright hostility to fulfill the Company's basic requirements from this imperial node.

Type
Chapter
Information
Networks of Empire
Forced Migration in the Dutch East India Company
, pp. 127 - 178
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Knox-Johnston, Robin, The Cape of Good Hope: A Maritime History. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1989, pp. 1–48Google Scholar
Worden, Nigel, Heyningen, Elizabeth, Bickford-Smith, Vivian, Cape Town: The Making of a City. Cape Town: David Phillip, 1998, chapters 1 and 2, pp. 11–84Google Scholar
Burman, Jose, The Saldanha Bay Story. Cape Town: Human and Rousseau, 1974, p. 14Google Scholar
Penn, Nigel, “Robben Island, 1488–1805,” in Deacon, Harriet, ed., The Island: A History of Robben Island, 1488–1990. Bellville: Mayibuye Books, University of the Western Cape, and Cape Town: David Phillip Publishers, 1996, pp. 1–14Google Scholar
Herport, Albrecht, 1659, quoted in Raven-Hart, R., ed. and trans., Cape of Good Hope 1652–1702. The First Fifty Years of Dutch Colonisation as Seen by Callers, vol. 1. Cape Town: A. A. Balkema, 1971, p. 55Google Scholar
Gaastra, Femme S., The Dutch East India Company: Expansion and Decline. Zutphen, Netherlands: Walburg Pers, 2003, pp. 81–91
Bentley, Jerry, Bridenthal, Renate, and Wigen, Kären, Seascapes: Maritime Histories, Littoral Cultures, and Transoceanic Exchanges. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007, pp. 137–152Google Scholar
Kiewiet, C. W., A History of South Africa: Social and Economic. London: Oxford University Press, 1941, p. 4Google Scholar
Thom, H. B., ed., Journal of Jan van Riebeeck, Vol. 1: 1651–1655. Published by the Van Riebeeck Society. Cape Town: A. A. Balkema, 1952, pp. xvi–xxvi
Picard, Hymen, Masters of the Castle: A Portrait Gallery of the Dutch Commanders and Governors of the Cape of Good Hope. Cape Town: C. Struik, 1972, pp. 15–39Google Scholar
Böeseken, A. J., Jan van Riebeeck en Sy Gesin. Kaapstad: Tafelberg, 1974, pp. 1–50Google Scholar
Evans, Grant, “Between the Global and the Local There Are Regions, Cultural Areas, and National States: A Review Article,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 33(1), February 2002, pp. 147–162CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolters, O. W., History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives, Revised Edition. Ithaca, 1999Google Scholar
Boucher, Maurice, The Cape of Good Hope and Foreign Contacts 1735–1755. Pretoria: University of South Africa, 1985, p. 10Google Scholar
Miller, Joseph C., Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade, 1730–1830. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Axelson, Eric, Portuguese in South-East Africa, 1600–1700. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1969, p. 129Google Scholar
Moodie, Donald, comp., trans., and ed., The Record, Or a Series of Official Papers Relative to the Condition and Treatment of the Native Tribes of South Africa, Part 1. 1649–1720. Originally published in 1838. Photostatic reprint published: Amsterdam and Cape Town: A. A. Balkema, 1960, p. 252
Alexandrowicz, C. H., An Introduction to the History of the Law of Nations in the East Indies (16th, 17th and 18th Centuries). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967, p. 41Google Scholar
Andaya, Leonard, The World of the Muluku: Eastern Indonesia in the Early Modern Period. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993Google Scholar
Hanna, Willard A., Indonesian Banda: Colonialism and its Aftermath in the Nutmeg Islands. Philadelphia, PA: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1978Google Scholar
Elphick, Richard, Kraal and Castle: Khoikhoi and the Founding of White South Africa. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977, p. 109Google Scholar
Marks, Shula, “Khoisan Resistance to the Dutch in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” Journal of African History, 13(1), 1972, pp. 55–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malherbe, V. C., Krotoa, Called “Eva”: a woman between. Cape Town: Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town. Communication No. 19, 1990Google Scholar
Schoeman, Karel, Early Slavery at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652–1717. Pretoria: Protea Book House, 2007, pp. 27–28Google Scholar
Yap, Melanie and Man, Dianne Leong, Colour Confusion and Concessions: The History of the Chinese in South Africa. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1996, pp. 5–6Google Scholar
Leibbrandt, H. C. V., ed., Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope. Letters and Documents Received, 1649–1662. Part II. Cape Town: W. A. Richards & Sons, Government Printers, 1896, pp. 2–5
Andrade, Tonio, How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch Spanish and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006Google Scholar
Blussé, Leonard, Strange Company: Chinese Settlers, Mestizo Women and the Dutch in VOC Batavia. Dordrecht, Holland: Foris Publications, 1986, chapter 4Google Scholar
Shell, Robert C.-H., Children of Bondage: A Social History of the Slave Society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652–1838. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1994Google Scholar
Heese, Hans F., Groep sonder Grense: Die rol en status van de gemengde bevolking ann die Kaap, 1652–1795. Belville: Wes Kaaplandse Instituut vir Historiese Navorsing, 1984Google Scholar
Westra, Piet, and Armstrong, James C., eds., Slave Trade with Madagascar: The Journals of the Cape Slaver Leijdsman, 1715. Cape Town: Africana Publishers, 2006
Shell, Robert, ed., From Diaspora to Diorama. Cape Town: Ancestry24, 2003
Harries, Patrick, “Making Mozbiekers: History, Memory and the African Diaspora at the Cape,” in Zimba, Benigna, Alpers, Edward, and Isaacman, Allen, eds., Slave Routes and Oral Tradition in Southeastern Africa. Eduardo Mondlane University. Maputo, Mozambique: Filsom Entertainment, 2005, pp. 91–123Google Scholar
Worden, Nigel and Groenewald, Gerald, eds., Trials of Slavery: Selected Documents Concerning Slaves from the Criminal Records of the Council of Justice at the Cape of Good Hope, 1705–1794, second series no. 36. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society for the Publication of South African Historical Documents, 2005, pp. Xi–xii
Sleigh, D., Die Buiteposte: VOC-buiteposte onder Kaapse bestuur 1652–1795. Pretoria: Haum Uitgevers, 1993, pp. 639–679Google Scholar
Vaughan, Megan, Creating the Creole Island: Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Mauritius. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005, pp. 4–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dooling, Wayne, “The Castle: Its place in the History of Cape Town in the VOC Period,” in Heyningen, Elizabeth, ed., Studies in the History of Cape Town, vol. 7. Cape Town History Project in association with the Center for African Studies. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 1994, pp. 9–31Google Scholar
Seeman, U. A., Fortifications of the Cape Peninsula 1647–1829. Cape Town: Castle Military Museum, 1997Google Scholar
Curtin, Philip, Cross-Cultural Trade in World History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984, pp. 1–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Robin, Global Diasporas: An Introduction. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997. p. 178CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, Robert, A Concise History of South Africa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 23Google Scholar
Linder, Adolphe, The Swiss at the Cape of Good Hope 1652–1971. Basel: Basel Afrika Bibliographien, 1997Google Scholar
Bruijn, J. R., Gaastra, F. S., and Schoffer, I., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the 17th and 18th Centuries, vol. 1. Rijks geschiedenkundige publicatien, grote serie, nos. 165–167. Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979–1987, pp. 143–172CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Botha, C. G., History of Law, Medicine and Place Names in the Cape of Good Hope. Collected Works, vol. 2. Cape Town: C Struik, 1962, p. 157Google Scholar
Dooling, Wayne, “‘The Good Opinion of Others’: Law, Slavery and Community in the Cape Colony, c.1760–1830,” in Worden, Nigel and Crais, Clifton, Breaking the Chains: Slavery and Its Legacy in the Nineteenth-Century Cape Colony, Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1994Google Scholar
Penn, Nigel, The Forgotten Frontier: Colonist and Khoikhoi on the Cape's Northern Frontier in the 18th Century. Athens, OH.: Ohio University Press, 2005Google Scholar
Kan, J.De Bataviasche Statuten en de Buitencomptoiren,” BKI, 100, 1941, pp. 255–282Google Scholar
Hattingh, J. L., “Grondbesit in die Tafelvallei. Deel 1: De Eksperiment: Vryswartes as Grondeienaars, 1652–1710,” Kronos, 10, 1985, p. 32Google Scholar
Spilhaus, M. W., Company's Men. Cape Town: John Malherbe, 1973, pp. 109–110Google Scholar
Halo, H. R. and Kahn, E., South African Legal System and Its Background. Cape Town: Juta, 1968, pp. 537–539Google Scholar
Dooling, Wayne, Law and Community in a Slave Society: Stellenbosch District, South Africa, c.1760–1820. Communication no. 23. Cape Town: Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, 1992, pp. 2–3Google Scholar
Böeseken, A. J., “Die Verhouding tussen Blank en Nie-Blank in Suid-Afrika aan die hand van die Vroegste Dokumente,” South African Historical Journal, 2, November, 1970, p. 10Google Scholar
Ross, Robert, “The Changing Legal Position of the Khoisan,” in Beyond the Pale: Essays on the History of Colonial South Africa. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1994, pp. 174–175Google Scholar
Ross, , “The Changing Legal Position of the Khoisan,” Beyond the Pale: Essays on the History of Colonial South Africa. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1994, pp. 166–182Google Scholar
Waterhouse, Gilbert, ed., Simon van der Stel's Journal of His Expedition to Namaqualand, 1685–1686. London: Longmans Green, pp. 3 & 113
Böeseken, A. J., Simon van der Stel en Sy Kinders. Kaapstad: Nasou Beperk, 1984Google Scholar
Fouché, Leo, ed., Böeseken, A. J., rev. and Smuts, J., trans., The Diary of Adam Tas 1705–1706. Van Riebeeck Society 2nd series, no. 1. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society, 1970Google Scholar
Toit, Andre du and Giliomee, Hermann, Afrikaner Political Thought: Analysis and Documents, Volume One: 1780–1850. Cape Town: David Philip, 1983, p. 5Google Scholar
Liebbrandt, H. C. V., ed., Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope: The Defense of Willem Adriaan van der Stel. Cape Town: Government Printers, 1897, p. 60
Botha, C. G., “The Common and Statute Law at the Cape of Good Hope during the 17th and 18th Centuries,” in History of Law, Medicine and Place Names in the Cape of Good Hope. Cape Town: C. Struik, 1962, p. 46Google Scholar
Hancock, David, “The British Atlantic World: Co-ordination, Complexity, and the Emergence of an Atlantic Market Economy, 1651–1815,” Itinerario, 2, 1999, p. 10Google Scholar
“The circular transmission of human experience from Europe to Africa to the Americas and back again corresponded to the same cosmic forces that set the Atlantic currents in motion.” Linebaugh, Peter and Rediker, Marcus, The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000. p. 2Google Scholar
Abu-Lughod, Janet, Before European Hegemony. The World System A.D. 1250–1350. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989Google Scholar
Chaudhuri, K. N., Asia Before Europe: Economy and Civilization of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990Google Scholar
Hall, Richard's popular history does make an attempt to traverse the length and breadth of the ocean. Empires of the Monsoon: A History of the Indian Ocean and Its Invaders. New York: Harper Collins, 1998Google Scholar
Tagliocozzo, Eric, “Trade, Production and Incorporation: The Indian Ocean in Flux, 1600–1900,” Itinerario, 1, 2002, pp. 75–106CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, Michael, “Littoral Society: The Case for the Coast,” The Great Circle, 7, 1985, pp. 1–8Google Scholar
Broeze, Frank, ed., Gateways of Asia: Port Cities of Asia in the 13th to the 20th Centuries. London: Columbia University Press, 1997
Broeze, Frank, ed., Brides of the Sea: Port Cities of Asia from the 16th to the 20th Centuries. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989
Kathirithamby-Wells, J. and Villiers, John, eds., Southeast Asian Port and Polity – Rise and Demise. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1990
Reid, Anthony, “The City and Its Commerce,” in Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450–1680, vol. 2: Expansion and Crisis. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993, pp. 62–131Google Scholar
Ross, Robert and Telkamp, Gerard, “Introduction,” in Ross, Robert and Telkamp, Gerald, eds., Colonial Cities: Essays on Urbanism in a Colonial Context. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1985, p. 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornton, John, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800, 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boucher, Maurice, “The Cape and Foreign Shipping, 1714–1723,” South African Historical Journal, 6, November 1974, p. 5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worden, Nigel, “Cape Town and Port Louis in the Eighteenth Century,” in Campbell, Gwyn, ed., The Indian Ocean Rim: Southern Africa and Regional Co-operation. London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003. pp. 42–53Google Scholar
Teelock, Vijayalakshmi, Mauritian History: From Its Beginnings to Modern Times. Moka, Mauritius: Mahatma Gandhi Institute, 2001Google Scholar
Moree, P. J., A Concise History of Dutch Mauritius 1598–1710. London: Columbia University Press, 1998Google Scholar
Welch, Sidney, Portuguese and Dutch in South Africa 1641–1806. Cape Town: Juta Press, 1951, pp. 216–217Google Scholar
Seed, Patricia, Ceremonies of Possession in Europe's Conquest of the New World, 1492–1640. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995Google Scholar
Bialuschewski, Arne, “Pirates, Slavers and the Indigenous Population in Madagascar, c1690–1715,” International Journal of African Historical Studies, 38(3), 2005, pp. 401–425Google Scholar
Thunberg, Carl Peter quoted in Boxer, Charles, The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800. Middlesex, 1973, p. 273Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×