Timeline

This page presents South African history in chronological sequence, allowing events, movements, and structural changes to be viewed in relation to one another across time.

The timeline will expand as the essay archive grows, linking periods and turning points to detailed historical essays.

• Deep prehistory and early human settlement
• Pastoralism, migration, and environmental change
• Early coastal encounters and the Indian Ocean world
• The colonial frontier and interior transformation
• Minerals, labour, and the rise of the modern state
• Twentieth-century conflict, segregation, and resistance

Each period will eventually serve as an entry point into more detailed chronological narratives.