Boer Republics

The Boer Republics (sometimes also referred to as Boer states) were fiercely independent, Protestant, self-governed republics created by the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of the Cape Province and their descendants, variously named Trekboers, Boers and Voortrekkers in mainly the middle, northern and north eastern and eastern parts of what is now the country of South Africa. Two of the Boer Republics achieved international recognition and complete independence: the South African Republic (ZAR or Transvaal) and the Orange Free State.

History

The United Kingdom took over from the Netherlands as the colonial power at the Cape of Good Hope in 1806. Subsequently a number of its Dutch-speaking inhabitants trekked inland, first in smaller numbers, then in groups as large as almost a hundred people, after 1834 even in groups of hundreds. There were many reasons why the Boers left the Cape Colony; among the initial reasons were the language laws. The British had proclaimed the English language as the only language of the Cape Colony and prohibited the use of the Dutch language. As the Bible, churches, schools and culture of many of the settlers were Dutch, this caused a lot of friction. Britain abolished slavery in 1834 and allocated the sum of 1,200,000 British pounds as recompense for the Dutch settlers' slaves. The Dutch settlers disputed the requirement that they had to lodge their claims in Britain and that the value of the slaves was many times the allocated amount. This caused further dissatisfaction among the Dutch settlers. The settlers believed incorrectly that the Cape Colony administration had taken the money due to them as payment for freeing their slaves. In truth, the allocated money was simply too little to cover even half of the claims.