The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

BOERS

The Boers (from the Dutch Boer, a farmer) were early Dutch farming colonists in South Africa. In 1836-1837 many Boers, being dissatisfied with the British government in Cape Colony, migrated beyond the Orange River, and a number found their way to what is now Natal. Here there had been British settlements for some years, and the British formally annexed the country in 1843. Subsequently the Boers were allowed to establish the Orange Free State as an independent republic, and several other small republics, which finally were combined into one - the South African Republic, or Transvaal. In 1877 the Transvaal was annexed by Britain, according to the wish of many of the people, but war broke out in 1880, British forces suffered more than one defeat, and in 1881 the country was accorded a modified independence. Henceforth it was a common feeling among the Boers that they and not the British must be predominant in South Africa, and in October, 1899, after an insolent ultimatum, the united forces of the Transvaal and Orange State invaded Natal. The war which followed with Britain was concluded by the final surrender of the Boers in May, 1902; the two states having been declared British territory in 1900.
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