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Essay on how the boers responded to the British occupation of the Cape
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THE RESPONSES OF THE BOERS TO BRITAIN CONTROL TREKKING INTO THE INTERIOR (BOER GREATTREKK)
The Boer moved into the interior as a means of finding peace, fertile land grazing land for livestock &
avoiding the British rule. Therefore, the Boers compete for living space & place with the indigenous
people. As such the Boer were also not happy with the passing of ordinance 50 by the British
authority which then recognized the rights of the Khoi people.
The Boer moved into the interior because they were not happy when Britain abolished slavery
another factor which disturbed the Boer was the use of English language which was forced upon
them. Therefore, the Boer referred to their own movement into the interior as the Great Trek. Thus,
they crashed with the African chiefdoms which were weakened by the Mfecane chiefdom. Another
group of the Boer Trekked to Limpopo, others moved to Natal. In Natal, the Boer fought for the
newly found land with the Zulus and the war was referred to as the Blood River. In this war the Zulu
armies under Dingane were defeated 7 the Trekkers settled in Natal. The Dutch trekkers wanted to
maintain their new economic, political, and cultural system without the interference of the British.
In 1837 Piet Retief one of the trek Boer leader passed the so called Retief’s manifesto which
explained why the Boers wanted to leave the Cape e.g. Boers were moving to find people tired of
blacks and the colored’s who stole from the Boers and to avoid criminals in the colony. Thus, the
Voortrekker saw the South African as a promised land. Conflict between the Xhosa & the Trekkers
forced the Xhosa to begin working for as domestic workers. Therefore, Boers used the Khoi to attack
the Xhosa and take their livestock. Conflict between the Xhosa and the Boers was based on
competition for minerals. Therefore, frontier war was unavoidable between the Boers and the
Xhosa. Other Trekkers moved north
Some of the reasons listed in the Manifesto are as follows there were too many criminals and too
much conflict in the colony they lost a lot of money by being forced to free slaves the black and
colored people stole from them and so they were moving to find somewhere peaceful to live. From
1836 thousands of Voortrekkers moved into Southern African Interior and they organized several
trek parties. Many of the Voortrekkers were trek Boers and were used to moving around in search of
land for grazing. The packed their belonging into ox wagons, gathered their servants and slaves and
left the colony forever. The journey of the Voortrekkers became known as the Great Trek.
The Dutch trek Boers who had settled in the Eastern Cape area were becoming more and unhappy
about the British administration at the Cape, which in their view was too liberal. They were unhappy
about the fact that the British favored the English language over Dutch. The Dutch were reliant on
slave labor and were outraged when the British abolished slavery in 1834.
To make matters worse they were in a going conflict with the Xhosa over land and the arrival of the
British settlers had put a lot more pressure on the limited resources in that area. Their only solution
was to move out of the Cape colony and establish new economic, cultural, and political system away
from the British. Piet Retief was one of trek Boer leaders. He published a manifesto explained several
reasons why the Voortrekkers wanted to leave the Cape and stated out their hopes and intentions
for the future.
The Voortrekkers party led by Piet Retief reached Natal in 1838, they hoped to settle in the area near
Tugela river which was part of the Zulu kingdom Dingane’s men captured and killed Piet Retief and
about &0 of his group. A few days later they killed another 500 of Retief’s followers. The
Voortrekkers responded by crushing the Zulus at what became known as the battle of Blood River on
16th December 1838 wherein three thousand Zulu warriors were Killed.
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