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==Nationalism==
However, the [[French Revolution]] brought these habits of thought more self-consciously to the surface. France invaded the Republic of the United Provinces in January 1794, the Stadtholder fled to England and asked the British[[Kingdom Governmentof Great Britain|British]] to send the[[Royal Navy|it's Navy]] to take care of the possessions of the [[Dutch East India Company|United East IndiesIndia Company]] that was in dire financial straits and in which he had a huge stake. The British took care of the [[Cape of Good Hope]] in 1795 and handed it back to the Batavian Republic after the [[Peace of Amiens]] in 1802. For about a year and a half, Enlightenment ideas were promoted by Janssens and De Mist, including changes in church government. In 1806, the British Navy invadedre-captured the Cape of Good Hope on its own, and appointed British land administrators there, who were zealous propagators of the Enlightenment. They loosened the trade and labour regulations, speaking of the blacks as 'noble savages'those whose untainted natural souls they professed to admire. The British Governmentgovernment [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|outlawed slavery in the British Empire in 18351833]]. They called the blacks equals, and gave them access to the courts in suit against white landowners. And, they professed to believe in their own autonomous [[Reasonreason]] above all else.{{sfn|Du Toit|1985|p=209}}
A more antithetical message could hardly be imagined, as the EnglishBritish Enlightenment found itself with the Afrikaners for the first time. From the Boer point of view, the Enlightenment invadedhad theirresulted shores,in seizeda theirforeign properties,power annexedruling theirover farmsthem, imposedimposing alien laws and alien languages, liberated their slaves without compensation, justified these actions by appeal to Reason alone, and claimedput inthe allinterest of thisEnglish-speakers toover bethose moreof virtuousthe than their GodDutch-speakers. They were exposed to the Enlightenment, and it appeared to them to be a revolution against their [[God in Christianity|God]] and way of life.{{sfn|Du Toit|1985|p=209}}
== Schism between Boer and Cape Calvinists ==
During the Great Trek, many people, mostly from the eastern part of the [[Cape Colony]], went north, to areas not under control of the government of the British Crowncolonies Colonyauthorities. Because the Cape Dutch Reformed Church was seen by the trekkers as being an agent of the Cape government, they also did not trust its ministers and emissaries, seeing them as attempts by the Cape government to regain political control. There were also religious divisions among the trekkers themselves. A minister from the Netherlands, [[Dirk Van der Hoff]] went to the Transvaal in 1853, and became a minister in the [[Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk]], which was constituted in 1856, and in 1860 recognised as the State Church of the [[South African Republic]], separate from the Cape Church.
Meanwhile, back in the Netherlands, the Dutch State church had also been transformed by the Enlightenment, a change represented in the minds of those opposed it, by the loss of any meaningful profession of faith as requisite for adult church members, and the singing of hymns (in addition to psalms) and other innovations in worship and doctrine. In the Netherlands a movement grew in reaction to this perceived dismantlement of Biblical faith. It was called the Afscheiding, in which the Rev. Hendrik de Cock separated himself from the State Church in 1834 in Ulrum, Groningen. There was also a movement called the [[Reveil]] (''Awakening''), supported by those who did not separate from the State Church, like [[Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer]], whose writings became known in South Africa. And much later the leader of another schism called the [[Doleantie]], [[Abraham Kuyper]], began to become known to the Afrikaners. Highly critical of the Enlightenment, the "revolution" as they called it, the Doleantie in the church had counterparts in education and in politics. The timing of this influence was significant, coming on the crest of a wave of evangelical revival, the Reveil in the Dutch Reformed Church which had been led in South Africa by the Scottish preacher, [[Andrew Murray (minister)|Andrew Murray]]. The slogan of the Doleantie, which eventually rang with unintended nationalist nuance for the Afrikaners was, "Separation is Strength".
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