contents

Introduction to the Resolutions
of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope


British take-over of the Cape of Good Hope

Financial and commercial setbacks in the midst of contradictory political factors (the war between the Netherlands and England , 1780-1784, as well as the Great Revolution that started in 1789 in France , which declared war against England and the Republic of the Netherlands ) forced the VOC to cut down expenses and to reorganise the Company. After their arrival at the Cape in June 1792, the Commissioners-General S.C. Nederburgh and S.H. Frijkenius introduced certain changes. In Europe history also took a turn when French troops occupied the Netherlands in 1795 and thus made a Batavian take-over possible. Prince Willem V fled to England.

On 11 June 1795 an English fleet under the command of Admiral Elphinstone and General Craig anchored in Simon’s Bay. Although Commissioner Sluysken and the Council of Policy refused to surrender they were in a weak military position. After a month of skirmishes at Muizenburg the English gained a victory over the Cape militia. On the last page of the last volume in which the Resolutions of the Council of Policy are contained (C. 231), appears the written conditions of “Capitulation” in both English and Dutch, signed on 16 September 1795.

In 1799 the Batavian Republic abolished the “Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie”.

 


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