The Khoikhoi was a nation of widely scattered migrant pastoralist clans, whose economy was not conducive to the creation of permanent Settlements. As a result they developed a lifestyle which, although suited to the low rainfalls and seasonal grazing of the southern African interior, it also facilitated the dispossession of their ancestral lands by more sedentary agriculturalist groups. Originally the Khoikhoi inhabited most of the Cape South of the Molopo and West of the Kei River, but Dutch settlement in the Western and Southern Cape slowly drove them ever Northwards until they occupied only the most arid areas of the northern Cape. One such group was the Griqua who, by the end of the 18th century, had moved into the region surrounding the confluence of the Gariep and Ki-Gariep, later known as the Orange and Vaal rivers. Up to the early 1800's this area had only been penetrated by the occasional party of hunters and explorers.
By 1861 the Griquas, tired of the constant friction with their Dutch neighbours in the Orange Free State, sold them their lands and, after an epic migration, settled in the territory of Griqualand East. In 1867 the discovery of diamonds, near Hopetown brought about enormous changes in the social and economic make-up of the region. Virtually overnight it was flooded with fortune-seekers from Europe, North America and Australia, and its ownership became the subject of conflicting claims from Khoikhoi, Tswana and Dutch groups. In March 1871 these claims were resolved. The Khoikhoi leader Nicolaas Waterboer, who immediately petitioned the British for the annexation of his lands to the Cape Colony. As a result, on 27 October 1871 the diamond fields were proclaimed a British territory under the name of Griqualand West. The divisions of Barkley West, Hay, Herbert and Kimberley were probably proclaimed at about the same time. However the Cape Government, faced with the objections of both European settlers and indigenous residents, refused to incorporate the territory. In 1873, Griqualand West was proclaimed a separate Crown Colony or Republic, with its capital at Kimberley.
On 5 August 1879 the Cape Parliament finally passed a Bill of Annexation, although it was only implemented on 18 October 1880. A census taken in Griqualand West in 1877 revealed that the Province had a total of 44,877 residents of whom 12,374 were of European descent.