That's because we build the best, safest societies. Hence the reason the rest of the world clamors to be a part of them.
European exploration of the African coast began in the 13th century when Portugal committed itself to discover an alternative route to the
silk road that would lead to China. In the 14th and 15th century, Portuguese explorers traveled down the west African Coast, detailing and mapping the coastline and in 1488 they rounded the
Cape of Good Hope.The
Dutch East India Company established a trading post in
Cape Town under the command of
Jan van Riebeeck in 1652, European workers who settled at the Cape became known as the
Free Burghers and gradually established farms in the
Dutch Cape Colony.
Following the
Invasion of the Cape Colony in 1795 and 1806, mass migrations collectively known as the
Great Trek occurred during which the Voortrekkers established several
Boer settlements on the interior of South Africa. The discoveries of diamonds and gold in the nineteenth century had a profound effect on the fortunes of the region, propelling it onto the world stage and introducing a shift away from an exclusively agrarian-based economy towards industrialisation and the development of urban infrastructure. The discoveries also led to new conflicts culminating in open warfare between the
Boer settlers and the British Empire, fought essentially for control over the nascent South African mining industry.
Following the defeat of the Boers in the Anglo–Boer or
South African War (1899–1902), the
Union of South Africa was created as a
self-governing dominion of the
British Empire on 31 May 1910 in terms of the
South Africa Act 1909, which amalgamated the four previously separate British colonies:
Cape Colony,
Colony of Natal,
Transvaal Colony, and
Orange River Colony. The country became a fully sovereign
nation state within the British Empire, in 1934 following enactment of the
Status of the Union Act. The monarchy came to an end on 31 May 1961, replaced by a
republic as the consequence of a
1960 referendum, which legitimized the country becoming the
Republic of South Africa.
From 1948–1994, South African politics was dominated by
Afrikaner nationalism. Racial segregation and white minority rule known officially as
apartheid, an
Afrikaans word meaning "separateness", was implemented in 1948. On 27 April 1994, after decades of armed struggle,
terrorism and international opposition to apartheid, the
African National Congress (ANC) achieved victory in the country's first democratic election. Since then, the African National Congress has governed South Africa, in an alliance with the
South African Communist Party and the
Congress of South African Trade Unions.