Great Trek

This article is about the migration of Dutch-speaking people in southern Africa. For other uses, see Trek (disambiguation).
"Voortrekkers" redirects here. For other uses, see Voortrekkers (disambiguation).

A map charting the routes of the largest trekking parties during the first wave of the Great Trek (1835-1840) along with key battles and events. The yellow area indicating the initial area of colonisation extends too far south – south of Thaba Nchu and what would become Bloemfontein was an area colonised by Griqua and Trekboers.
  Louis Tregardt's route (1833 to 1838)
  Survivors of Tregardt’s trek evacuated by sea, 1839
  Van Rensburg's route, after it separated from Tregardt’s
  Hendrik Potgieter's trek, campaign and scouting routes
  Gerrit Maritz's route
  Piet Retief's route, including missions with his entourage
  Piet Uys's route

The Great Trek was a northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyond the Cape's British colonial administration. The Great Trek resulted from the culmination of tensions between rural descendants of the Cape's original European settlers, known collectively as Boers, and the British. It was also reflective of an increasingly common trend among individual Boer communities to pursue an isolationist and semi-nomadic lifestyle away from the developing administrative complexities in Cape Town. Boers who took part in the Great Trek identified themselves as voortrekkers, meaning "pioneers" or "pathfinders" (literally "fore-trekkers") in Dutch and Afrikaans.

The Great Trek led directly to the founding of several autonomous Boer republics, namely the South African Republic (also known simply as the Transvaal), the Orange Free State and the Natalia Republic. It also led to conflicts that resulted in the displacement of the Northern Ndebele people,[1] and conflicts with the Zulu people that contributed to the decline and eventual collapse of the Zulu Kingdom.[2]

  1. ^ Bradley, John; Bradley, Liz; Vidar, Jon; Fine, Victoria (2011). Cape Town: Winelands & the Garden Route. Madison, Wisconsin: Modern Overland. pp. 13–19. ISBN 978-1609871222.
  2. ^ Greaves, Adrian (2013). The Tribe that Washed its Spears: The Zulus at War. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military. pp. 36–55. ISBN 978-1629145136.