1835 - The Great Trek

Driven by rising tensions between rural descendants of the Cape’s original Dutch settlers, known as Boers, and the British settlers who had taken control of the Cape on behalf of the British Empire, The Great Trek was a mass migration of Boers from the British-run Cape Colony. Leaving the Cape, they travelled east into the continent’s interior by wagon train to live beyond the British colonial administration’s reach. Boers who took part in the Great Trek identified themselves as Voortrekkers, meaning “pioneers” or “pathfinders” in Dutch and Afrikaans. The Great Trek led to several Boer republics, the South African Republic or Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and the Natalia Republic. Both the Cape Colony and these Boer republics became part of today’s country of South Africa.