Course:HIST102/HIST102SECT98AMay09-ZoneOfInteractionATeam/The Great Trek (S.Africa)

Notes on the Great Trek S. Africa

Copied from Brittanica-do not paste into work

• "emigration of Dutch colonists (Boers) frm Cape Colony btwn 1835-1840's

in rebellion against Britt gov't policies"

• [left ] "with an almost equal number of mixed-race dependents,"

• "Natal, Highveld - In both areas, after initial setbacks, they were able to defeat powerful African military kingdoms through the skilled use of horses, guns, and defensive laagers (encampments), though in later years they were to find the problems of maintaining control over Africans and establishing stable politics more intractable."

• "In Transvaal several warring little polities were established, and factional strife ended only in the 1860s. In Transorangia the trekkers established the Orange Free State, which, under the double threat posed by the Sotho and the proximity of imperial power, settled down in more unified fashion after the British withdrawal in 1854."

Boer link

• "a South African of Dutch, German, or Huguenot descent

these people turned to the self-sufficient life of the trekboeren" {due to glut of agricultural products in colony and free labour provided by slaves, white african born pop. could not make a living}

• "trekboeren better translated as “dispersed ranchers”"

• "Boers were hostile toward indigenous African peoples, with whom they fought frequent range wars"

• "speak Afrikaans, a language that had evolved from the admixture of Dutch, indigenous African, and other languages."

{ native Africans had established a long history of conflicting migrations, leading to out right extermination of competing peoples for land and survival...ie "to penetrate into Natal and the Highveld (which had been opened up by the tribal wars of the previous decade)". Would it be safe to assume that this long held pattern would result in an attitude on the part of the natives resulting in the long lasting level of conflict resulting between europeans and Africans? COuld it be an attitude making it difficult for stability to come about?"

• "The Cape Colony became a British possession in 1806 as a result of the Napoleonic wars"

• "Boers soon grew disgruntled with the liberal policies of the British, especially in regard to the frontier and the freeing of slaves"

• "These new republics committed themselves to apartheid, a policy of strict segregation and discrimination."

• "Despite their reabsorption into the British colonial system subsequent to the war, the Afrikaners retained their language and culture and eventually attained politically the power they had failed to establish militarily. Apartheid was soon reestablished in South Africa, remained key to the country’s public policies throughout most of the 20th century, and was abolished in the 1990s only after global censure."

from : http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/243837/Great-Trek , and http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/71276/Boer

the same information is available at BBC History Online http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/boer_wars_01.shtml

this ought to be read for referancing in the Rebuttal. Encyclopedias are not necessarily referanceable!

SarahAnnMariePreston 14:46, 9 September 2009 (UTC) [Sept 9 4:46AM]