Boers are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled Dutch Cape Colony, but the United Kingdom incorporated it into the British Empire in 1806. The name of the group is derived from Trekboer then later "boer", which means "farmer" in Dutch and Afrikaans.
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope, commonly referred to as the Cape Province and colloquially as The Cape, was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Colony, as well as Walvis Bay, and had Cape Town as its capital. In 1994, the Cape Province was divided into the new Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape provinces, along with part of the North West.
The Great Trek was a northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyond the Cape's British colonial administration. The Great Trek resulted from the culmination of tensions between rural descendants of the Cape's original European settlers, known collectively as Boers, and the British Empire. It was also reflective of an increasingly common trend among individual Boer communities to pursue an isolationist and semi-nomadic lifestyle away from the developing administrative complexities in Cape Town. Boers who took part in the Great Trek identified themselves as voortrekkers, meaning "pioneers", "pathfinders" in Dutch and Afrikaans.
The Boer republics were independent, self-governing republics formed by Dutch-speaking inhabitants of the Cape Colony and their descendants. The founders – variously named Trekboers, Boers, and Voortrekkers – settled mainly in the middle, northern, north-eastern and eastern parts of present-day South Africa. Two of the Boer republics achieved international recognition and complete independence: the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. The republics did not provide for the separation of church and state, initially allowing only the Dutch Reformed Church, and later also other Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition. The republics came to an end after the Second Boer War of 1899–1902, which resulted in British annexation and later incorporation of their lands into the Union of South Africa.
Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius was a leader of the Boers who was instrumental in the creation of the South African Republic, as well as the earlier but short-lived Natalia Republic, in present-day South Africa. The large city of Pretoria, executive capital of South Africa, is named after him.
The Trekboers were nomadic pastoralists descended from European colonists on the frontiers of the Dutch Cape Colony in Southern Africa. The Trekboers began migrating into the interior from the areas surrounding what is now Cape Town, such as Paarl, Stellenbosch, and Franschhoek, during the late 17th century and throughout the 18th century.
Uitenhage, officially renamed Kariega, is a South African town in the Eastern Cape Province. It is well known for the Volkswagen factory located there, which is the biggest car factory on the African continent. Along with the city of Port Elizabeth and the small town of Despatch, it forms the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality.
The following lists events that happened during the 1790s in South Africa.
The following lists events that happened during the 1780s in South Africa.
Aberdeen is a small town in the Sarah Baartman District Municipality of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. With its numerous examples of Victorian architecture, it is one of the architectural conservation areas of the Karoo.
Jacobus Nicolaas Boshof was a South African (Boer) statesman, a late-arriving member of the Voortrekker movement, and the second state president of the Orange Free State, in office from 1855 to 1859.
Uys is the surname of a family that played a significant role in South African history during the nineteenth century and made distinguished contributions to South African culture, politics and sports during the course of the twentieth.
Sir Andries Stockenström, 1st Baronet, was lieutenant governor of British Kaffraria from 13 September 1836 to 9 August 1838.
Maria Elizabeth Rothmann, penname M.E.R. was an Afrikaans writer, and co-founder of the Voortrekkers youth movement. Her unique contribution to Afrikaans literature was an ethical didactic, cultural historic review of a bygone Afrikaans society.
Abraham Faure was a clergyman and author from Cape Colony, part of what later became South Africa.
The first election for the Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope was held in 1854. There were no clear party lines, however many representatives for Eastern electoral districts subscribed to a common programme which emphasised separation from the Cape Colony or moving the seat of colonial government eastward, a vagrancy law, or increasing the property qualification part of the franchise.
Olof Godlieb de Wet (1739–1811) was a South African high-ranking official in the Dutch East India Company and co-founder of the Freemasons in South Africa.
The Dutch Reformed Church in Burgersdorp is a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Synod of Eastern Cape in South Africa. It is the eighth oldest congregation in this Synod and was founded in 1846, 54 years after Graaff-Reinet. In the entire NG Church it was the 34th foundation, all of which except Pietermaritzburg (1839) and Potchefstroom (1842) were located in the single Cape Colony. In 2016, the congregation had 510 professing and 135 baptized members. Of the professing members, only 200 were under 50, while 140 of the 510 lived locally. On August 17, 2020, the church was damaged by a fire.
