Cape Town is a South African city situated on Table Bay on the west coast of the country. It is the capital of the Western Cape province, and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. In the Early Modern period, Table Bay was a key point for European ships on the trade route to the Indies. Cape Town had been under Dutch control since the seventeenth century but was ceded to Britain in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. In the twentieth century, Cape Town was a center for leaders of the anti-apartheid movement. The former prison island of Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 years, is located west of Cape Town in Table Bay.