A man carries firewood on a track above the low veld coastal belt, Grahamstown, South Africa

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The broad belt of coastal lowland in the geography of Cape Colony has played an important role in the history of South Africa because it made settlement from the sea relatively easy. Troops landing at Algoa Bay (where Port Elizabeth was founded in 1820) moved easily inland in the endless wars to secure the eastern frontier. In 1820, moreover, 4000 British settlers, arriving at the newly founded Port Elizabeth, and attracted by the promise of good farming prospects by Lord Charles Somerset, Governor of the Cape, were, in reality, moved into the frontier country as a human defence line with the Xhosa people. In recent times, the sub-tropical climate has attracted pineapple growing, an industry badly hit by apartheid sanctions, when produce was sent secretly to Taiwan for canning and sale. Sanctions, badly hitting the South African economy, helped terminate the apartheid system, so, the coastal belt, south of Grahamstown, has also featured in the recent history of South Africa.

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Size: 5218px × 3465px
Location: Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, Republic of South Africa
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -tropical, africa, african, apartheid, belt, broad, cape, climate, coastal, colony, eastern, economy, firewood, geography, grahamstown, hill, history, industry, landscape, man, path, people, pineapple, sanctions, south, veld