Abstract
The period of the turn of the nineteenth century saw several changes of government at the Cape: in 1795 the Cape was conquered by the British, in 1803 it reverted back to the control of the Netherlands, but was again conquered in 1806 by the British, whose control of the Colony was formalised in 1814. In 1795, when Britain conquered the Cape of Good Hope from the VOC, there existed a well-established Dutch burgher population with a clearly identifiable social and economic elite. A generation later, by c. 1820, there was a new social and economic elite with both English and Dutch families pre-eminent in the social and economic life of the Cape. This study looks at the reason for, and the mechanisms by which, some of the original Dutch burgher families survived this transition. British imperialism had at its heart the search for local collaborators in order to simplify the transitional process. Far from unseating the established landed elite, they entrenched their dominance through a system of collaboration and intermarriage. The study focusses on three prominent family complexes in order to determine the effects of the changes in regime on the established society. The Truter, Van Reenen and Cloete families serve as case studies in different spheres of society, illuminating this process of collaboration between prominent free burgher families and the British elite...
D.Litt. et Phil. (History)