1660
VOC constructs a fortified Liesbeeck frontier
During the First Khoekhoe–Dutch War, the VOC built redoubts, fences and sections of a wild-almond hedge to protect farms and livestock and restrict movement across the Liesbeeck frontier.
The First Khoekhoe–Dutch War exposed the vulnerability of the scattered free-burgher farms. Goringhaiqua forces used mobility and cattle raids rather than attacking the fort directly, while the VOC lacked enough soldiers to guard the entire settlement. Van Riebeeck temporarily withdrew farmers, armed additional defenders and concentrated livestock.
From 1659 into 1660, the VOC constructed redoubts, watch posts and fences along sections of the Liesbeeck. A wild-almond hedge reinforced parts of this line. The works were intended to deter raids, protect cattle and channel movement through guarded points; they did not form a continuous wall across the peninsula.
Significance
The fortified line had both a defensive and a territorial function. It responded to actual raids and the settlement's security problem, but it also enabled the VOC and free burghers to hold farms created on grazing land still claimed and used by Khoekhoe communities. Both functions are necessary to explain why the frontier was built and what it changed.
Why it matters
The works answered repeated cattle raids and the settlement's limited manpower, while physically enforcing a boundary that excluded Khoekhoe pastoralists from former grazing routes.