• There was little written history of what is now the greater Durban area until Portuguese sailors (en route to India) sailed past the bay in the late 1400s. Archaeological evidence shows presence of hunter gatherer communities in the Drakensberg Mountains region since about 10 000BCE, and later, Bantu farmer and pastoral communities moved further south into the KwaZulu Natal region. In 1497 the Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, named the region 'Natal' which means 'Christmas' in Portuguese (they named the area on Christmas day) and the Portuguese landed in the bay in 1498.
• In 1824 Henry Fynn and Francis Farewell, British traders, were granted land including the bay of Natal by King Shaka, making Port Natal a British colony. In 1835 residents of the area decided to build a capital town that would be known as d'Urban (after the then Governor of the Cape Colony).
• The Voortrekkers (Afrikaners) were Boers/farmers from the eastern frontiers of the Cape who migrated east during the Great Trek and then established the Republic of Natalia in 1839, with its capital in Pietermaritzburg. Conflict over land arose between the Afrikaners and Zulus but this ultimately caused British concern over territory and led to British annexation of the territory.
• Indian indentured labourers from India were brought over from India to work on the sugar cane fields between 1860 and 1911. Most people of Indian descent living in South Africa can trace their heritage back to these labourers. (Today Durban has the most substantial Indian population in sub-Saharan Africa and is said to have the second largest Indian population outside India.)

Click for lists of Indian Indentured labourers

• In 1879 the British fought the Zulus, in the aim to establish firm control over the Natal region (which they achieved).
• After the Union of South Africa was established in 1910 the port of Durban was upgraded, and municipal buildings and many more manufacturing industries followed.

Sources: Wikipedia and SAHO