Walvis Bay
See also: Walvis Bay (homonymy)
Walvis Bay ( German Walfischbucht in , Walvisbaai in Afrikaans which means the bay of the whales ) is in the past a territory and currently a municipality of Namibia located at thirty kilometers in the South of the Seaside resort of Swakopmund on the Atlantic coast.
The site of Walvis Bay is strategic for the maritime trade because it is about the only place which can accommodate a Port out of deep water along the Atlantique coast of Namibia. This is why the territory constituted a Enclave a long time sheltering a British counter in the middle of a German colony then South-African. It was not reassigned in Namibia that in 1994 is 4 years after the end of the administration of this one by South Africa.
History
The December 8th 1487, the navigator Portuguese Bartolomeu Dias, with the research of the Road of the Indies, made accost its ship, São Cristavão, on the future site of Walvis Bay which he baptized then “O Golfo de Santa Maria da Conceição” (the gulf of Sainte-Marie of the Design).should be awaited 1840 so that a European power interress with the site of Walvis Bay : the Great Britain appendix the bay in order to counter the German ambitions in the area.
In 1910, Walvis Bay, which was administratively attached to the Colonie of the Cape, joined recent the Union of South Africa.
In 1911, the borders between the enclave of Walvis Bay and the German colony of the South-western African are finally fixées : the territory is confined at a zone of 1 124 km ². After the invasion of 1915 of African South-west by South Africa, the enclave of Walvis Bay is administratively integrated into the latter in 1921.
In 1971, anticipating a possible disengagement of African South-west, South Africa transfers administrative competence from Walvis Bay to the authorities of the the Cape Province.
In 1977, the government of South Africa takes again the direct control of the enclave.
The March 23rd 1990, Namibia becomes independent but the enclave of Walvis Bay remains under South-African administration.
It is necessary to await the February 28th 1994 so that the enclave is reinstated in Namibia after rough negotiations between the governments South-African and Namibian.
See too
Related articles
External bonds
- History of Walvis Bay
- historical and tourist Presentation of Walvis Bay
Reference
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