Cape Dutch are people of the Western Cape

Western Cape

The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...

 of South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 who descended primarily from Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 and Flemish

Flemish people

The Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...

 as well as smaller numbers of French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

, German and other Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an immigrants along with a percentage of their Asian and African slaves, who, from the 17th century into the 19th century, remained more or less loyal subjects of European (first Dutch, later British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

) powers. Meanwhile, their pastoral trekking kinsmen, the Trekboers, were migrating away from the Western Cape carving out a distinct culture and dialect with a strong desire for independence. The term Cape Dutch is believed to have been coined by Trekboers to illustrate the fact that the Cape Dutch did not share the Trekboers' culture and interests or desire for independence. The Cape Dutch tended to have not much affinity for their rustic Trekboer kinsmen whose language, culture, and frontier lifestyle they sometimes deemed inferior.

The Voortrekkers (mainly descendants of Trekboers) embarked on a series of mass migrations caused by the invading British, later known as the Great Trek

Great Trek

The Great Trek was an eastward and north-eastward migration away from British control in the Cape Colony during the 1830s and 1840s by Boers . The migrants were descended from settlers from western mainland Europe, most notably from the Netherlands, northwest Germany and French Huguenots...

.

During the early twentieth century the descendants of the Cape Dutch and the Boers of Voortrekker and Trekboer descent would collectively become known as Afrikaners. That term is based on the language they spoke, Afrikaans

Afrikaans

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...

, which directly evolved from Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 dialects with minor English, Malay, French and African influences. The Cape Dutch spoke a dialect called Cape Afrikaans or Western Cape Afrikaans, while the Trekboers and most Voortrekkers spoke a dialect called Eastern Border Afrikaans. The Griquas (a métis

Métis

A Métis is a person born to parents who belong to different groups defined by visible physical differences, regarded as racial, or the descendant of such persons. The term is of French origin, and also is a cognate of mestizo in Spanish, mestiço in Portuguese, and mestee in English...

 of Boer, Tswana and Khoi) spoke a dialect called Orange River Afrikaans.

The descendants of the Cape Dutch in the twentieth century were considered more "liberal" and internationalist, while their northern, somewhat estranged kinsmen, the descendants of Voortrekkers and Trekboers, were considered more conservative, republican and nationalist.

During the referendum of 1960 which asked voters if they wanted to exit from the British Commonwealth and adopt a republic in South Africa, many Cape Dutch descendants voted not in favour while most Republican Boer descendants voted in favour.

The Republic of South Africa was adopted on a 51% result of the referendum due to the popular support of the Republican Boer descendants.

The term Cape Dutch also refers to the early form of Afrikaans spoken at the Cape and also refers to a style of architectural design used in houses, farm steads, wine estates and public buildings of the 17th and 18th centuries in the Cape, particularly around Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

, but also in towns like Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl

Paarl

Paarl is a town with 191,013 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its the third oldest European settlement in the Republic of South Africa and the largest town in the Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni township, it is now a de facto urban unit with Wellington...

, Swellendam

Swellendam

Swellendam is the third oldest town in the Republic of South Africa, a town with 28,072 inhabitants situated in the Western Cape province. The town has over 50 National monuments most of them buildings of Cape Dutch architecture....

, Tulbagh

Tulbagh

Tulbagh is a town in the Tulbagh valley and is situated in the Witzenberg Local Municipality, with the valley called "Die Land van Waveren" locally. Closest towns are Wolseley, Prince Alfred's Hamlet, Gouda and Ceres in the Boland district of the Western Cape Province, South Africa.The valley has...

 and as far off as Graaff-Reinet.