This YouTube Series Makes Learning About the History of Cape Town Fun

Trying to piece together the history of Cape Town usually involves drowning in a sea of dry academic papers and dusty encyclopaedias. It is the kind of reading that can turn even the most curious mind into a zombie.

But a YouTube channel called JetJunky Builds Real World Cities has found a much better hook by using Cities: Skylines to show the evolution of the city from the 1400s to the present day.

Cities: Skylines is a building simulation from Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive. It lets players play god with urban planning, managing everything from zoning laws and tax rates to where the buses go.

You can watch the series below.

The VOC and the Early Days

The series starts with the Khoi-San people before the European ships turned up. The Portuguese explorers, like Bartholomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama, did the initial scouting in the late 1400s, but things changed in 1652. That was when Jan van Riebeeck and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) set up a halfway station.

The Dutch needed a spot to get fresh water and meat for ships heading to Asia. You can see the Company’s Garden taking form in the video, where they grew the vegetables that kept sailors alive. Back then, they channelled water from the mountain into canals for irrigation and bartered with the Khoi-San for sheep. While the Dutch called the mountain Taboa do Cabo, the people living there already had a name for it: Hoeri ‘kwaggo.

The British Takeover

By the 1800s, the video series shows a city growing into its own identity. The British took permanent control from the Dutch in 1814, largely to secure their route to India. This era saw the first iron water pipes laid under the streets, but it also saw the introduction of restrictive pass laws. A major shift occurred in 1834 when slaves were emancipated across the British Empire. This led to the birth of the Bo-Kaap, established by a freed Muslim community, which remains one of the most colourful parts of the city today.

The Apartheid Years

Moving into the 1940s, the city was a massive maritime hub. World War II meant the port was constantly busy. They even reclaimed land from the sea to create the Foreshore and Duncan Dock. Places like District Six were cultural centres full of jazz and life, and the Bo Kaap kept its Cape Malay heritage strong.

The 1970s brought a shift toward concrete and geometric buildings. This period was defined by massive road projects like the Foreshore Freeway and the famous unfinished bridge that was stopped in 1977. While the Bo Kaap saw some restoration, this decade also saw the expansion of the Cape Flats and the creation of places like Atlantis.

Into the 2000s

The final part of the series covers the post-Apartheid transition. The city unified its municipalities into one “Unicity” to try to fix the old layout. Tourism exploded, making the V&A Waterfront and Robben Island global icons.

While the city centre saw a massive “urban renewal” and the film industry took off, the old inequalities stuck around. The housing crisis in the Cape Flats and the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic meant that the growth wasn’t shared by everyone.

I found these videos about the history of Cape Town really engaging. It is a great watch if you have a school task or if you are bored and want to see a city evolve. You should check it out.

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