Source: Encyclopedia South Africa (History) South Africa (History)Bantu-speaking peoples moved into the region from E central Africa about 1500. The first permanent European settlement, a Dutch EAST INDIA COMPANY station, was set up in 1652. By 1707 there were about 1,780 freeholders of European descent in South Africa, with about 1,100 slaves. The first of a long series of wars broke out (1779) between the Xhosa people and white farmers, known as Boers, who had mo ved inland. Britain replaced the Dutch at the Cape in 1795 and was awarded the territory by the Congress of VIENNA in 1814. Disturbed by British rule, which accorded legal rights to free blacks and Coloureds and abolished slavery, some 12,000 Boers left the Cape in what is known as the Great TREK (1835-43) into the interior and Natal. Britain annexed Natal (1843), but the Boer republics of Orange Free State and the Transvaal were established (1850s). The discovery of diamonds (1867) and especially of gold (1886) spurred great economic development. Following increasing tension between the non-Afrikaner whites (Uitlanders) and the dominant Afrikaners, the two Boer republics declared war on Britain. The SOUTH AFRICAN WAR (Boer War; 1899-1902) was won by the British, who established (1910) the Union of South Africa, with dominion status. South Africa joined the Allies in World War I and afterward received a mandate over South West Africa (Namibia). Under Prime Minister J.B.M. HERTZOG (1924-39) South Africa gained final British recognition of independence (1931), prospered economically, and further suppressed nonwhites. J.C. SMUTS brought South Africa into World War II on the Allied side. Through the policy of APARTHEID (complete segregation), white supremacy was strengthened during the regimes of H.F. VERWOERD (1958-66), B.J. Vorster (1966-78), and P.W. BOTHA (1978-89), leaders of the National party, which ruled from 1948 to 1993. F.W. DE KLERK, who became president in 1989, removed the ban on the AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS (ANC) and other antiapartheid parties and released Nelson MANDELA and other political prisoners. All remaining apartheid laws were repealed (1991), and an interim constitution ending white rule was completed in 1993. A multiparty transitional government council was formed, and the first elections open to all races were held in April 1994. The ANC won over 60% of the vote, and Mandela was elected president.