The Boers
The Boers
•	In 1652, Dutch immigrants arrived in southern Africa. They built Cape Town to supply ships sailing to and from the East Indies. Dutch Farmers, called Boers, settled around Cape Town.Over time, they enslaved the Khoisan herders who lived there. The Boers helped the Calvinist belief that they were the elect of God and looked upon Africans as inferiors.
•	In the 1700s Dutch herders and ivory hunters began heading north, as they did, they battled with powerful groups like the Zulus. 
The “Great Trek”
•	In 1806 the Cape Colony had passed from the Dutch to the British. Many Boers resented British laws that abolished slavery which interfered in their way of life. To escape British rule, the Boers loaded their goods into covered wagons and started north. In the late 1830’s thousands of more Boers joined this journey, which became known as the “Great Trek”. 
Conflicts between the Boers and the Zulus begin
•	As they continued to travel northward, the Boers came in contact with the Zulus, and fighting broke out. The struggle for the land would rage on until the end of the century.
The Boer War
•	The the late 1800’s, the discovery of treasures of gold and diamonds in the Boer republics set off the Boer War. The war lasted from 1899 to 1902, and involved bitter guerrilla fighting. The British won , but with a great cost.
British Rule the Land
•	In 1910, the British united Cape Colony and former Boer republics into the Union of South Africa. 
•	The new constitution set up a government run by whites and laid the foundation for a system of complete racial segregation that would remain in force until 1993.