Our family connections - Ons familie verwantskappe

The Dutch East India Company is in financial ruins. 29 January – Farmers expelled the officials of the Dutch East India Company and established an independent government at Graaff Reinet. 18 June - Swellendam follows Graaff Reinet and declares a republic under Hermanus Steyn. The Netherlands is invaded by the French under the leadership of Napoléon Bonaparte. A republic is declared by Dutch revolutionaires and the Prince of Orange flees to England. 16 September – British forces under General Sir James Henry Craig seizes the Cape Colony for the Stadtholder Prince William V of Orange. The republics of Graaff Reinet and Swellendam reject the British and the British army is sent in. The start of free trade was announced.

17 March - The first British settlers arrived in Table Bay, Cape Town on the Nautilus and the Chapman. 1 May - The Albury reaches Cape Town bringing settlers to Albany, South Africa. They arrive in Algoa Bay on 15 May. 2 May - La Belle Alliance reached Cape Town. She brought British settlers to Algoa Bay. 4000 British settlers started arriving in Algoa Bay (Port Elizabeth), they settled in Grahamstown and along the frontier.

The South African Republic (Dutch: Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, ZAR), often referred to as the Transvaal and sometimes as the Republic of Transvaal, was an independent and internationally recognised country in Southern Africa from 1852 to 1902.