1.
Paul Kruger
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Stephanus Johannes Paulus Paul Kruger was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and President of the South African Republic from 1883 to 1900. Born near the edge of the Cape Colony, Kruger took part in the Great Trek as a child during the late 1830s. He had almost no education apart from the Bible and, through his interpretations of scripture, in 1863 he was elected Commandant-General, a post he held for a decade before he resigned soon after the election of President Thomas François Burgers. Kruger was appointed Vice-President in 1877, shortly before the South African Republic was annexed by Britain as the Transvaal, Kruger served until 1883 as a member of an executive triumvirate, then was elected President. In 1884 he headed a deputation that brokered the London Convention. Kruger left for Europe as the war turned against the Boers in 1900 and spent the rest of his life in exile, refusing to return home following the British victory. After he died in Switzerland at the age of 78 in 1904, his body was returned to South Africa for a state funeral, the family was of Dutch-speaking Afrikaner or Boer background, of German, French Huguenot and Dutch stock. His paternal ancestors had been in South Africa since 1713, when Jacob Krüger, from Berlin and his mothers family, the Steyns, had lived in South Africa since 1668 and were relatively affluent and cultured by Cape standards. Krugers great-great-uncle Hermanus Steyn had been President of the self-declared Republic of Swellendam that revolted against Company rule in 1795, Bulhoek, Krugers birthplace, was the Steyn family farm and had been Elsies home since early childhood, her father Douw Gerbrand Steyn had settled there in 1809. The Krugers and Steyns were acquainted and Casper occasionally visited Bulhoek as a young man and he and Elsie married in Cradock in 1820, when he was 18 and she was 14. A girl, Sophia, and a boy, Douw Gerbrand, were born before Pauls arrival in 1825 and his mother died when he was eight, Casper soon remarried and had more children with his second wife, Heiletje. Beyond reading and writing, which he learned from relatives, Krugers only education was three months under a tutor, Tielman Roos, and Calvinist religious instruction from his father. In adulthood Kruger would claim to have never read any book apart from the Bible, in 1835 Casper Kruger, his father and his brothers Gert and Theuns moved their families east and set up farms near the Caledon River, on the Cape Colonys far north-eastern frontier. The Cape had been under British sovereignty since 1814, when the Netherlands ceded it to Britain with the Convention of London and they had given little thought to the idea of leaving the Cape. A group of emigrants under Hendrik Potgieter passed through the Krugers Caledon encampments in early 1836, Potgieter envisioned a Boer republic with himself in a prominent role, he sufficiently impressed the Krugers that they joined his party of Voortrekkers. Krugers father continued to give the religious education in the Boer fashion during the trek, having them recite or write down biblical passages from memory each day after lunch. At stops along the journey classrooms were improvised from reeds and grass, the Voortrekkers faced competition for the area they were entering from Mzilikazi and his Ndebele people, a recent offshoot from the Zulu Kingdom to the south-east. Kruger and the small children assisted in tasks such as bullet-casting while the women and larger boys helped the fighting men
2.
South African Republic
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The territory of the ZAR became known after this war as the Transvaal Colony. Constitutionally the name of the country was Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, many people also called the ZAR Transvaal, in reference to the area over the Vaal River including the British press and the press in Europe. In fact the name Transvaal was later so often used later the British objected to the use of the real name. The British pointed out that the Convention of Pretoria of 3 August 1881 referred to the Transvaal Territory and that the Transvaal and the South African Republic did not have the same boundaries. However, in the London Convention dated 27 February 1884, a subsequent treaty between Britain and the ZAR, Britain acquiesced and reverted to the use of the true name and this proclamation was issued during the Second Boer War and whilst the ZAR was still an independent country. On 20 May 1903 an Inter Colonial Council was established, to manage the colonies of the British Government, the name Transvaal was finally changed in 1994, when the ANC government broke up the Transvaal area and renamed the core to Gauteng. In paleolithic times, between 2.2 and 3.3 million years ago, hominids lived within the area of the ZAR. The earliest hominid bones, between 2.2 and 3.3 million years old, were discovered at Sterkfontein in 1994, in 1938 Paranthropus robustus bones were found at Kromdraai, and during 1947 several more examples of Australopithecus africanus were uncovered in Sterkfontein. The capital was established at Potchefstroom and later moved to Pretoria, the parliament was called the Volksraad and had 24 members. The South African Republic became fully independent on the 27 February 1884 when the London Convention was signed, the country independently also entered into various agreements with other foreign countries after that date. On 3 November 1884 the country signed a Postal convention with the government of the Cape Colony, on the November 1859 the independent Republic of Lijdenburg merged with the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek. On 9 May 1887, burghers from the territories of Stellaland, on 25 July 1895 the burghers that took part in the battle at Zoutpansberg, were granted citizenship of the ZAR. The constitution of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek has been referred to as interesting for its time. It contained provisions for the division between the leadership and office bearers in government administration. The legal system consisted of higher and lower courts and had adopted a jury system, the laws were enforced by the South African Republic Police which were divided into Mounted Police and Foot Police. Also established was a Municipal Government, Witwatersrand District court and the High Court of Transvaal, initially the State and Church were not separated in the constitution of the ZAR, citizens of the ZAR had to be members of the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1858 these clauses were altered in the constitution to allow for the Volksraad to approve other Dutch Christian churches. The Reformed Church was approved by the Volksraad in 1858, which had the effect of allowing Paul Kruger, the Bible itself was also often used to interpret the intention of legal documents
3.
British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the population at the time. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, after the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began to transform Britain, the British Empire expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. In Britain, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, during the 19th Century, Britains population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Benjamin Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britains economic lead, subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain, although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I, Britain was no longer the worlds pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britains colonies in Southeast Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan, despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britains most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire, fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms, that share a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again
4.
Triumvirate
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A triumvirate is a political regime ruled or dominated by three powerful individuals known as triumvirs. The arrangement can be formal or informal, though the three are notionally equal, this is rarely the case in reality. The term can also be used to describe a state with three different military leaders who all claim to be the sole leader, in the context of the Soviet Union and Russia, the term troika is used for triumvirate. Originally, triumviri were special commissions of three men appointed for specific administrative tasks apart from the duties of Roman magistrates. The capitales were first established around 290–287 BCE and they were supervised by the praetor urbanus. These triumviri, or the tresviri nocturni, may also have some responsibility for fire control. The triumviri or tresviri aere argento auro flando feriundo supervised the issuing of Roman coins, three-man commissions were also appointed for purposes such as establishing colonies or distributing land. Triumviri mensarii served as bankers, the full range of their financial functions in 216 BCE. Another form of commission was the tresviri epulones, who were in charge of organizing public feasts on holidays. This commission was created in 196 BCE by a law on behalf of the people. The arrangement had no status, and its purpose was to consolidate the political power of the three and their supporters against the senatorial elite. After the death of Crassus in 53 BCE, the two fought a civil war, during which Pompey was killed and Caesar established his sole rule as perpetual dictator. The Second Triumvirate was recognized as a triumvirate at the time, a Lex Titia formalized the rule of Octavian, Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. The legal language makes reference to the traditional tresviri, although the constitutional machinery of the Republic was not irrevocably dismantled by the Lex Titia, in the event it never recovered. Lepidus was sidelined early in the triumvirate, and Antony was eliminated in civil war, in various municipalities under the Principate, the chief magistracy was a college of three, styled triumviri. In the Bible triumvirates occurred at some events in both the Old Testament and New Testament. In the Book of Exodus Moses, his brother Aaron and, according to some views their nephew or brother-in-law, Hur acted this way during Battle of Rephidim against the Amalekites. In the Gospels as a leading trio among the Twelve apostles at three occasions during public ministry of Jesus acted Peter, James, son of Zebedee
5.
Treaty of Vereeniging
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This settlement provided for the end of hostilities and eventual self-government to the Transvaal and the Orange Free State as colonies of the British Empire. The Boer republics agreed to come under the sovereignty of the British Crown, on 9 April 1902, with safe passage guaranteed by the British, the Boer leadership met at Klerksdorp, Transvaal. On 12 April, a ten-man Boer delegation went to Melrose House in Pretoria, Kitchener was astounded but forwarded the proposal to London, knowing it would not be accepted but wanted the dialogue between the two parties to continue. Alfred Milner joined the negotiations on 14 April but he was hostile to the Boers and wanted an unconditional surrender, on 15 May, the commandos elected 30 delegates from each pre-war republic and they met at Vereeniging. The terms were rejected by Kitchener and Milner with the two of them disagreeing on the direction of the future, with the former seeking reconciliation, the debate between the Boer generals and British delegation would continue for days. The British made concessions which included the Cape rebels only being disenfranchised for five years, the Orange River and the Transvaal colonies would first be administered by a British military administration, then by civilians and then at some point in the future via self-government. At around 2pm on 31 May 1902 a vote was called and 54 delegates voted yes to the terms of the treaty, on the same day the Boer leaders returned to Kitchener at Melrose House in Pretoria and the peace treaty was signed. To eventually give the Transvaal and the Orange Free State self-government, to avoid discussing the native enfranchisement issue until self-government had been given. To pay the Afrikaners £3,000,000 in reconstruction aid, the Union gained relative independence under the 1926 Imperial Conference and the 1931 Statute of Westminster. The country became a republic in 1961 therefore severing all connections with Great Britain, the country rejoined the Commonwealth in 1994. Although the treaty is named after the town of Vereeniging in Transvaal, where the negotiations took place. Pretoria Convention History of South Africa Military history of South Africa Francis William Reitz Jan Smuts in the Boer War Davenport, the soul of a nation, Constitution-making in South Africa. The Peace Negotiations between the Governments of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, and the Representatives of the British Government at Project Gutenberg
6.
First Boer War
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The war resulted in defeat for the British and the second independence of the South African Republic. The southern part of the African continent was dominated in the 19th century by a set of struggles to create within it a single unified state. British attempts in 1880 to annex the Transvaal were their biggest incursions into southern Africa, in the 1880s, Bechuanaland, became an object of dispute between the Germans to the west, the Boers to the east, and the British in the Cape Colony to the south. Although Bechuanaland had almost no value, the Missionaries Road passed through it toward territory farther north. After the Germans annexed Damaraland and Namaqualand in 1884, the British annexed Bechuanaland in 1885, after the Battle of Blaauwberg Britain had acquired the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa from the Dutch in 1815 during the Napoleonic Wars. Certain groups of Dutch speaking settler farmers resented British rule, even though British control brought some economic benefits, the British did not try to stop the Trekboers from moving away from the Cape. The Trekboers were farmers gradually extending their range and territory with no agenda, the formal abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834 led to more organised groups of Boer settlers attempting to escape British rule, some travelling as far north as modern-day Mozambique. However, British colonial expansion was, from the 1830s, marked by skirmishes, the discovery of diamonds in 1867 near the Vaal River, some 550 miles northeast of Cape Town, ended the isolation of the Boers in the interior and changed South African history. In the 1870s, the British annexed West Griqualand, site of the Kimberley diamond discoveries, however the cultural and historical context was entirely different, and the Boer leaders turned him down. The successive British annexations, and in particular the annexation of West Griqualand, there were other more pressing concerns for the Boer Republics. During the 1870s there was a series of skirmishes within the Transvaal between the Boers and indigenous local tribes, there were also serious tensions between the Transvaal Republic and the Zulus led by King Cetshwayo. The Zulus occupied a kingdom located to the southeast, bordered on the one side by the Transvaal Republic, upon taking the throne, King Cetshwayo had expanded his army and reintroduced many of the paramilitary practices of the famous Shaka, king of the Zulus. He had also started equipping his impis with firearms, although this was a process and the majority had only shields, knobkerries, throwing spears and the famous stabbing spear. Over 40,000 Zulu warriors were a force on their own home ground. The Transvaal Boers became more and more concerned, but King Cetshwayos policy was to good relations with the British in Natal in an effort to counter the Boer threat. In 1877, Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the British Secretary for Native Affairs in Natal, annexed the South African Republic, for Britain, using a special warrant. They also feared a war on two fronts, namely that the tribes would seize the opportunity to rebel and the simmering unrest in the Transvaal would be re-ignited. The British annexation nevertheless resulted in resentment against the British occupation, the Transvaal Boers, led by Paul Kruger, thereafter elected to deal first with the perceived Zulu threat to the status quo, and local issues, before directly opposing the British annexation
7.
Second Boer War
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The Second Boer War, usually known as the Boer War and also at the time as the South African War, started on 11 October 1899 and ended on 31 May 1902. Great Britain defeated two Boer states in South Africa, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, Britain was aided by its Cape Colony, Colony of Natal and some native African allies. The British war effort was supported by volunteers from the British Empire, including Southern Africa, the Australian colonies, Canada, India. All other nations were neutral, but public opinion in them was largely hostile to Britain, inside Britain and its Empire there also was significant opposition to the Second Boer War. The British were overconfident and under-prepared, the Boers were very well armed and struck first, besieging Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking in early 1900, and winning important battles at Colenso, Magersfontein and Stormberg. Staggered, the British brought in numbers of soldiers and fought back. General Redvers Buller was replaced by Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener and they relieved the three besieged cities, and invaded the two Boer republics in late 1900. The onward marches of the British Army were so overwhelming that the Boers did not fight staged battles in defense of their homeland, the British quickly seized control of all of the Orange Free State and Transvaal, as the civilian leadership went into hiding or exile. In conventional terms, the war was over, Britain officially annexed the two countries in 1900, and called a khaki election to give the government another six years of power in London. However, the Boers refused to surrender and they reverted to guerrilla warfare under new generals Louis Botha, Jan Smuts, Christiaan de Wet and Koos de la Rey. Two more years of attacks and quick escapes followed. As guerrillas without uniforms, the Boer fighters easily blended into the farmlands, which provided hiding places, supplies, the British solution was to set up complex nets of block houses, strong points, and barbed wire fences, partitioning off the entire conquered territory. The civilian farmers were relocated into concentration camps, where very large proportions died of disease, especially the children, then the British mounted infantry units systematically tracked down the highly mobile Boer guerrilla units. The battles at this stage were small operations with few combat casualties The war ended in surrender, the British successfully won over the Boer leaders, who now gave full support to the new political system. Both former republics were incorporated into the Union of South Africa in 1910, the conflict is commonly referred to as simply the Boer War, since the First Boer War is much less well known. Boer was the term for Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans descended from the Dutch East India Companys original settlers at the Cape of Good Hope. It is officially called the South African War and it is known as the Anglo-Boer War among some South Africans. In Afrikaans it may be called the Anglo-Boereoorlog, Tweede Boereoorlog, in South Africa it is officially called the South African War
8.
Hendrik Potgieter
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Andries Hendrik Potgieter, known as Hendrik Potgieter was a Voortrekker leader and the last known Champion of the Potgieter family. He served as the first head of state of Potchefstroom from 1840 and 1845, Potgieter and his party moved inland to the present Free State, where they signed a treaty with the leader of the Barolong, Moroka. The treaty stipulated that Potgieter would protect the Baralong against the Matabele raiders, the tract of land was from the Vet River to the Vaal River. The attack was beaten off, but the Matabele made off with most of the trekker oxen, the combined trek groups of Piet Retief and Gerrit Maritz came to Potgieters rescue. His group joined up with Retief and Maritz at Thaba Nchu, Potgieter was not in favour of this plan and stayed behind in the Free State. To prevent schism and discord, the new Voortrekker leader in Natal, Maritz, however, a struggle between the hot-headed Uys and Potgieter ensued. The divided force was lured into an ambush by the Zulus at Italeni, the surrounded and outnumbered force fled. Potgieter was criticised for his actions, and the force was called Die Vlugkommado or Flight Commando and he was further accused, unjustly, of causing the death of Uys by deliberately leading the force into the ambush. He left Natal for good soon afterwards and moved to the Transvaal, Potgieter subsequently went on to found Potchefstroom, by the banks of the Mooi River, and served as its first head of state of the Potchefstroom Republic between 1840 and 1845. Later, in 1845, he also founded Ohrigstad as a trading station, owing to a malaria outbreak, the town had to be abandoned. The inhabitants, including Potgieter, moved to the Soutpansberg area, after the 1842 annexation of Natal by Britain, many Natal Trekkers moved to the Free State and the Transvaal. These newcomers and their leader, Andries Pretorius, refused to accept the authority of Potgieter, war was averted, and in 1848 a peace treaty was signed in Rustenburg. Potgieter died on 16 December 1852, in Zoutpansbergdorp, a number of African chiefs who held him in very high regard came to pay their respects before his death. Blyde River Wiki Tree for full family tree- http, //www. wikitree. com/wiki/Potgieter-13
9.
Andries Pretorius
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The large city of Pretoria, executive capital of South Africa, is named after him. Andries Pretorius had five children, the oldest, Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, Pretorius descended from the line of the earliest Dutch settlers in the Cape Colony. He belonged to the generation of the progenitor, Johannes Pretorius son of Reverend Wessel Schulte of the Netherlands. Schulte in his time as a student at the University of Leiden changed his name to the Latin form. Although the details of Andries Pretoriuss early life are scant, he grew up on his fathers farm named Driekoppen. In September 1836, after the up company of Gerrit Maritz left Graaff-Reinet to go northwards and he left his home in October 1837 on a scouting expedition to visit the Trekkers. Eventually Pretorius would leave the Cape Colony permanently, at the command of the Zulu king Dingane, Piet Retief was murdered in February 1838 along with his men. They were invited under false pretenses, during a visit, along with 70 men with boys among them. Pretorius arrived at the desperate Trekkers main camp on 22 November 1838, Pretorius diligence and thorough action immediately instilled confidence and he was appointed chief commander of the punitive commando against Dingane. The Voortrekkers fought with muzzle-loading rifles and made use of two small cannons, the Zulus sustained losses of an estimated 3,000 warriors in what became known as the Battle of Blood River. Three men were injured, including Andries Pretorius who was injured on his hand by an Assegai, the Boers believe that God granted them victory and thus promised that they and their descendants would commemorate the day of the battle as a day of rest. Boers memorialized it as Dinganes Day until 1910 and it was renamed Day of the Vow, later Day of the Covenant, and made a public holiday by the first South African government. After the fall of apartheid in 1994, the new government kept the day as a holiday as an act of conciliation to Boers. In January 1840, Pretorius with a commando of 400 burghers, Mpande and Pretorius defeated Dinganes army at the Battle of Maqongqo, which forced Dingane and those loyal to him into exile, after which Dingane was soon murdered. Immediately thereafter, Pretorious announced that Boer territory in Natal had been greatly enlarged due to the terms agreed with Mpande for Boer assistance and he was also the leader of the Natal Boers in their opposition to the British. In 1842, Pretorius besieged the small British garrison at Durban, afterward, he exerted his influence with the Boers to reach a peaceful solution with the British, who annexed Natalia. Remaining in Natal as a British subject, in 1847 Pretorius was chosen by the Boer farmers to present their grievances to the governor of Cape Colony and they were concerned about the continuous migration of natives who were assigned locations to the detriment of Boer land claims. Pretorius went to Grahamstown to seek an audience with the governor, Sir Henry Pottinger, Pretorius returned to Natal determined to abandon his farm and move beyond the British dominions
