Griqualand West

Griqualand West ( Afrikaans: Griekwaland - Wes; German as: " Griqualand West " ) was the name of an independent territory and later the British Cape Colony district in South Africa today, in the present province of North Cape. He was named after the now largely assimilated people of Griqua, mongrels of Khoikhoi and Buren. The Griqua were living at the beginning of the 19th century on the Roggeveld northeast of Cape Town, but were forced in 1825 by the British colonists on the Orange, where settled a part later in Griqualand West.

The largest town in the area was Klaarwater, which later was called Griquastad and today Griekwastad is called and the first South African city was north of the Orange. The area bordered to the east by the former settlement area of ​​the Basotho. From the 1820s, however, penetrated during the Great Trek Boers before in this space, and gradually displaced both populations. 1826 Adam Kok II went with a large group of Griekwastad after Philippolis in the south of the present-day Free State province, which had been only three years earlier. 1861 Adam Kok III moved. with a portion of the people over the Drakensberg Mountains to the east, where they settled in the area of ​​East Griqualand.

1867 were found in the territory of the Griqua at the lower Vaal and in Kimberley diamonds. In 1871, the area of Griquahäuptling Waterboer was ceded by the Griqualand West Annexation Act on UK and henceforth formed the British colony of Griqualand West. In 1880, after severance of the Transvaal Republic by payment of 90,000 pounds sterling of the Cape Colony annexed as a province. It included the districts of Hay, Herbert, Kimberley and Barkly West with an area of ​​39,359 km ² and (1891 ) 83 375 inhabitants.