The Boers, (Dutch: “husbandmen” or “farmers”), were Europeans, primarily of Dutch, German, or Huguenot descent, who settled in the Dutch Cape Colony in Southern Africa beginning in the 17th century. These early settlers and the descendants moved further inland during the Great Trek that occurred between 1835 and the early 1840s, with many settling in what are now the South African provinces of Free State, Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and North West. They undertook the move in rebellion against the policies of the British government, which had become the colonial power in the Cape Colony, and in search of fresh pasturelands. While doing so, they clashed with the Indigenous peoples of the area as well as the British colonial authorities. Today, descendants of the Boers are commonly referred to as Afrikaners.
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