<P> The establishment of the staging post by the Dutch East India Company at the Cape in 1652 soon brought the Khoikhoi into conflict with Dutch settlers over land ownership . Cattle rustling and livestock theft ensued, with the Khoikhoi being ultimately expelled from the peninsula by force, after a succession of wars . The first Khoikhoi--Dutch War broke out in 1659, the second in 1673, and the third 1674--1677 . By the time of their defeat and expulsion from the Cape Peninsula and surrounding districts, the Khoikhoi population was decimated by a smallpox epidemic, against which the Khoikhoi had no natural resistance or indigenous medicines . The disease had been brought to the Cape by Dutch sailors . </P> <P> The Bantu expansion was one of the major demographic movements in human prehistory, sweeping much of the African continent during the 2nd and 1st millennia BC . Bantu - speaking communities would have reached southern Africa from the Congo basin by the early centuries AD . The advancing Bantu encroached on the Khoikhoi territory, forcing the original inhabitants of the region to move to more arid areas . Some of the migrant groups, ancestral to today's Nguni peoples (the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, and Ndebele), preferred to live near the eastern coast of what is present - day South Africa . Others, now known as the Sotho--Tswana peoples (Tswana, Pedi, and Sotho), settled in the interior on the plateau known as the Highveld, while today's Venda, Lemba, and Shangaan - Tsonga peoples made their homes in the north - eastern areas of present - day South Africa . </P> <P> The Kingdom of Mapungubwe, which was located near the northern border of present - day South Africa, at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers adjacent to present - day Zimbabwe and Botswana, was the first indigenous kingdom in southern Africa between AD 900 and 1300 . It developed into the largest kingdom in the sub-continent before it was abandoned because of climatic changes in the 14th century . Smiths created objects of iron, copper and gold both for local decorative use and for foreign trade . The kingdom controlled trade through the east African ports to Arabia, India and China, and throughout southern Africa, making it wealthy through the exchange of gold and ivory for imports such as Chinese porcelain and Persian glass beads . </P> <P> Specifics of the contact between Bantu - speakers and the indigenous Khoisan ethnic group remain largely unresearched, although linguistic proof of some assimilation exists, as several southern Bantu languages (notably Xhosa and Zulu) incorporate many click consonants of the Khoisan languages . The assimilation is not dissimilar to that of the European settlers, who adapted and assimilated the Dutch, Flemish, German and Malay languages into the Dutch patois of Afrikaans . </P>

South africa was colonized by which two european countries