trekboer
Quick Summary
The term "trekboer" refers to Dutch cattle farmers in the arid interior of the Cape Colony in South Africa during the 17th and 18th centuries. Economic necessity and the environment dictated a nomadic, pastoral lifestyle for these farmers, requiring vast, scattered farms due to poor soil and inadequate rainfall.1
The trekboers expanded rapidly eastward and northward, crossing mountain ranges and overcoming Khoisan resistance. Governmental authority was weak in these frontier districts, leading trekboers to manage their own defense and governance, often with harshness towards Khoisan people and slaves. This expansion significantly impacted indigenous populations through trade, plunder, and disease, leading to retaliatory actions such as cattle theft and homestead burning.1
The Great Trek, a later event in the 1830s and 1840s, involved Boer farmers (descendants of earlier settlers) emigrating from the Cape Colony in rebellion against British policies and in search of new lands. This emigration is considered a foundational event in Afrikaner history.2
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- Boer
ā¦the self-sufficient life of the trekboeren (literally āwandering farmersā but perhaps better translated as ādispersed ranchersā).
Read Moreā¦the self-sufficient life of the trekboeren (literally āwandering farmersā but perhaps better translated as ādispersed ranchersā).
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Southern AfricaBoer expansionā¦the Dutch cattle farmers, or trekboers. The poor soil and inadequate rainfall of the region necessitated vast, scattered farms, and the white population was thus thinly spread over an immense area. Although earlier literature stresses their mobility and subsistence economy, most frontier families occupied the same farms during their lifetimeā¦
Read Moreā¦the Dutch cattle farmers, or trekboers. The poor soil and inadequate rainfall of the region necessitated vast, scattered farms, and the white population was thus thinly spread over an immense area. Although earlier literature stresses their mobility and subsistence economy, most frontier families occupied the same farms during their lifetimeā¦
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