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The free burghers put up fences around their farms to show that they ‘owned’ the land. This led to a war between the Dutch and Khoikhoi. Ultimately the Dutch won as they had guns and the Khoikhoi retreated further into the interior. As the colony continued expanding the Khoikhoi way of life changed...

The free burghers put up fences around their farms to show that they ‘owned’ the land. This led to a war between the Dutch and Khoikhoi. Ultimately the Dutch won as they had guns and the Khoikhoi retreated further into the interior. As the colony continued expanding the Khoikhoi way of life changed further. Some of the Khoikhoi fought wars against the Dutch, some moved along the borders of the Colony to hunt and farm so they could keep their independence, some worked for the Dutch on their farms, and others went to live in mission stations set up by the churches. Many Khoikhoi were killed because of smallpox outbreaks at the Cape in the early 1700s. This disease had been brought to the Cape by European settlers and the Khoikhoi had no natural immunity to it. In some parts of the colony as many as 90% of the Khoikhoi inhabitants died from smallpox. Within 60 years of the Dutch arriving in the Cape, the traditional economic, social and political order of the Khoikhoi had almost been destroyed and they had been dispossessed of their original land.