Cape Province

Former province of the Republic of South Africa to 1994, now divided into Western, Eastern, and Northern Cape Provinces. It was named after the Cape of Good Hope. Dutch traders (the Dutch East India Company) established the first European settlement on the Cape in 1652, but it was taken by the British in 1795, after the French Revolutionary armies had occupied the Netherlands, and was sold to Britain for £6 million in 1814. The Cape achieved self-government in 1872. It was an original province of the Union of 1910.

History
Formerly known as Cape Colony, Cape Province was the largest province in South Africa (area 709,409 sq km/273,904 sq mi). The Orange River was proclaimed the northern boundary in 1825; Griqualand West (1880) and the southern part of Bechuanaland (1895) were later incorporated. It was the first part of South Africa to be settled by European immigrants who, when they arrived at the Cape, encountered small groups of San and Khoikhoi. Bantu people at that time were moving eastwards and had reached an area some 300 km/186 mi east of the Cape of Good Hope. Under the apartheid policy, Cape Province included the Transkei and the Ciskei, the Black National States of the Xhosa people. Cape Town was the largest town in the province, and its capital.

Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay, the main port serving Namibia, was a detached part of the province 1884–1993. In 1991 South Africa and Namibia agreed to joint administration of Walvis Bay (solely under South African control from 1922), and a joint administrative body was set up 1992; in 1993 South Africa waived its claim to sovereignty.