ABSTRACT
Ifirst became fascinated with the importance of Cape Town while wandering the streets of the ancient port city of Melaka (Malacca), thousands ofmiles away in Malaysia. I was there en route to graduate school in South Africa.Meandering down a street, I came across the very rough and shabby-looking remains of an old fort. While scanning the sun-bleached bricks and stones that formed an archway, I spotted the unmistakable imprinted symbol of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC, the Dutch East India Company. Around the historic Dutch quarter of the town, I could visualize the entire grand design of the trading empire the VOC carved out in the seventeenth century. In that moment I realized the great significance of South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope as the key stepping stone to the Indian Ocean world of spices, gems, timbers, teas, and other luxuries. Here lay the object of long-sought-after European commercial desires. But my passion for history remained focused on Africa, and I set off for Cape Town, where the VOC established an early foothold.
