Griqualand West

Area of Northern Cape Province, South Africa, reaching northward from the Orange River to Botswana. It is a former district of Cape Province. The principal town in the area is Kimberley.

Griqua people settled in the area at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. In 1870 a party of prospectors discovered the rich ground afterwards known as Natal Kopje, which marked the start of the diamond industry in South Africa. This territory was proclaimed in 1871 as the crown colony of Griqualand West, and a sum of £90,000 was paid to the Orange Free State by way of compensation. In 1880 the district was incorporated with the Cape Colony, which was merged in the Union of South Africa in 1910.