Who do you think you are ?

[Tony F Dordogne]

"Many more French Huguenots went to the Cape with the British East India Company which was founded in 1600 and was seen as a way of spreading British influence into the Cape by Elizabeth I, James... quote Tony.    

The British did not control the Cape at this time, and the Huguenot arrivals happened during the time of the Dutch East India Company & NOT that early.  They only chose to leave France after persecution started - much later."

Tegwini, I'm not continuing this.  The persecution of the Huguenots started in the 1560s, the first recognised French Huguenot Martyr was in the 1550s and refugees atarted to arrive in England shortly afterwards and went on until the early 1700s broadly, the first refugees arrived in the UK in the reign of Henry VIII and then continued for 150 years afterwards.

And the HEIC was shipping Huguenots to SA as early as the 1640s - I'm not saying they controlled the Cape, just that they did it - and I also have access to the original documents!  And the HEIC did start trading on 1 Jan 1600.

[Russethouse]

Tegwini, If you have doubts as to the validity of what you are being told why not contact http://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk/index.html

I'm  pretty sure they will know the truth.

Also, it could be that as time has gone on historians have adjusted their view ?

[tegwini]

Thanks RH

I have a library of books on history - including SA history- and  since I went to a SA university (did an MA) I know what I am talking about. And some of the arguments presented by that poster are nit picking, nothing more.

Yes, 'adjustments' do happen, but in my posts I was pretty flexible and could accept such, but not some of the stuff posted above.

Regards

Tegwini

 

[Tony F Dordogne]

No, sorry, no more, just compounding the argument if I start talking about being accused of inaccuracy with inaccurate statements.

[CJR]

Tony

I do not agree with your account of the facts original documents and all ,your dates are simply not correct. Read a brief synopsis of how the Cape was settled also some critical dates.

Early Days in the Cape

Although the Portuguese basked in the nautical achievement of successfully navigating the cape, they showed little interest in colonization. Its fierce weather and rocky shoreline posed a threat to their ships, and many of their attempts to trade with the local Khoikhoi ended in conflict. The Mozambican coast was more attractive, with appealing bays to use as waystations, prawns, and links with gold ore in the interior.
The Portuguese had little competition in the region until the late 16th century, when the English and Dutch began to challenge them along their trade routes. Traffic around the continent's southern tip increased, and the cape became a regular stopover for scurvy-ridden crews. In 1647, a Dutch vessel was wrecked in what is now Cape Town's Table Bay. The marooned crew, the first Europeans to attempt settlement in the area, built a fort and stayed for a year until they were rescued. Shortly thereafter, the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC) decided to establish a permanent settlement. The VOC, one of the major European trading houses sailing the spice route to the East, had no intent of colonizing the area, but only wanted to establish a secure base camp where passing ships could shelter, and where hungry sailors could stock up on fresh supplies of meat, fruit, and vegetables. To this end, a small VOC expedition under the command of Jan van Riebeeck reached Table Bay on April 6, 1652.
While the new settlement traded out of necessity with the neighbouring Khoikhoi, the relationship could hardly be described as friendly, and there were deliberate attempts to restrict contact. Partly as a consequence, VOC employees found themselves faced with a labour shortage. To remedy this, they released a small number of Dutch from their contracts and permitted them to establish farms, with which they would supply the VOC settlement from their harvests. This arrangement proved highly successful, producing abundant supplies of fruit, vegetables, wheat, and wine; they later raised livestock. The small initial group of free burghers, as these farmers were known, steadily increased and began to expand their farms further north and east into the territory of the Khoikhoi.
he majority of burghers were of Dutch descent and were members of the Calvinist Reformed Church of the Netherlands, but there were also numerous Germans. In 1688 the Dutch and the Germans were joined by the French Huguenots, also Calvinists, who were fleeing religious persecution under King Louis XIV.

As the 18th century drew to a close, Dutch mercantile power began to fade, and the British moved in to fill the vacuum. They seized the Cape to prevent it from falling into rival French hands, then briefly relinquished it back to the Dutch, before finally garnering recognition of their sovereignty of the area in 1814.

Post edited by a moderator.  Wikipedia copyright details  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights state that a direct link back to the original article should be included with any reproduced Wikipedia articles.

This links to the original article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa_(1652%E2%80%931815)

[CJR]

Tony

Suggest your download and read the following and maybe you will get your dates correct. Note this book was published in 1854 and is full of information concerning the Huguenots or French Pretestant Refugees and particulary Chapter 5 concerning South Africa.

History

of the French Protestant Refugees, from the Revocation of the Edict of

Nantes to Our Own Days: From the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to

Our Own Days

By Charles Weiss, Henry William Herbert

Translated by Henry William Herbert

Published by Stringer & Townsend, 1854

Item notes: v.2

Original from Harvard University

Digitized May 19, 2006

595 pages