The Voortrekkers began to realise their dream of independence by establishing republics in areas not under British control. This article examines the events leading up to those republics being established, such as the immigration of thousands of black people into Natal after the dispersal of the Zulu nation, and the gradual expansion of British control. It also includes a run-down and assessment of the first Boer republics.

After the Voortrekkers had reached Natal, the Cape Governor, Sir George Napier, after having unsuccessfully imposed an embargo on the supply of arms and ammunition, decided to occupy Port Natal in 1838. In this way he meant to end or control the Trek. The Volksraad protested in vain against the seizure of ammunition at Port Natal, but after a year (December 1839) the British troops were recalled.

The Trekkers were leaving their scattered fortified laagers slowly; the losses in cattle were heavy and it was therefore not easy for them to prosper at farming. After many hardships the Republic of Natalia, with its Volksraad of 24 members, its Commandant-General and its landdrosts and heemraden in charge of local government tried to improve the administration in Natal, that is to say between Zululand, the Drakensberg Range, the Umzimvubu River and the Indian Ocean.

Tens of thousands of Zulu cattle were received in compensation. An alliance was concluded with the Trekkers to the west of the Drakensberg, where an Adjunct Council of 12 members was established in 1841. By that year the vast majority of Trekkers were peacefully occupying ample holdings in Natal.

A likeable and practical American Presbyterian missionary among the Zulus, Daniel Lindley now ministered to all the Voortrekkers, with his headquarters in Pietermaritzburg. Repeated requests by the Natal Volksraad for official recognition of the republic were, however, rejected by Governor Napier.

Black immigration
Following on the destruction of Zulu power, tens of thousands of black people poured into Natal, in consequence of which more stringent measures were considered by the Volksraad for the enforcement of their policy of racial differentiation and territorial segregation, especially along the southern border. In December 1840 a commando under Pretorius attacked the Bacas, to the consternation of the Pondos and the Wesleyan missionaries in that region. These appealed to Napier.

When in August 1841, after the Volksraad had resolved to segregate thousands of blacks to the southern border of Natal, Napier decided to send troops, at first to the Umgazi River near the northern border of the Transkei, and later to Port Natal itself, his motives were mixed. He wished to protect the indigenous inhabitants in and about Natal and behind the vulnerable eastern border of the Cape; to deep away foreign powers (some of whose ships, such as the American Levant in 1841 and the Dutch Brazilia in 1842, had already called at Port natal) and to prevent the Trekkers in Natal from becoming so strong that they could menace British supremacy and frontier defence.

Napier was anxious to intervene in Natal in time to avoid possibly large military expenditure later on. Toward the middle of 1842 Trekker resistance was overcome at Port Natal after a relatively short but sharp armed resistance under Pretorius, in which British troops under Captain TC Smith were repulsed at Congella and afterwards besieged. This meant the end of the Republic of Natalia, the first really independent republic in South Africa with a reasonably well-planned political structure, although a notable defect was the weakness of executive authority.

Second Great Trek
As British control gradually extended over Natal, more and more Trekkers returned across the Drakensberg to join the earlier Trekkers west of the mountains. The so-called Second Great Trek from Natal took place for basically the same reasons as the earlier Trek from the Cape Colony, such as the lack of differentiation between whites and non-whites and the uncertainty of existence. Towards the end of 1845 British colonial government was set up in Natal.

On the one hand the Trek from Natal strengthened the Trekkers in the west, north-west and north-east, but on the other hand it had a disturbing effect on the communities already established there and this led to further movements. This again upset them in the peaceful exercise of their relatively primitive system of agriculture and stock-breeding: farms had to be abandoned, and new farms called for adaptation to new conditions.

While a greater concentration of Trekkers was now to be found in the north of Trans-Orangia and in the vast Trans-Vaal, direct communication could be established with the outside world only through the hot Lowveld, although this route was deadly for both man and beast for months on end during the unhealthy season (due to malaria). The way to the sea was now dangerous and uncertain.

In these vast, isolated interior regions British authority, after repeated attempts to control the Great Trek, was drawn even deeper into Southern Africa. This called for greater defence commitments and consequently heavier financial liabilities, with apparently unproductive expenditure in the administration of territories considered almost valueless.

In its philanthropic efforts to protect the indigenous peoples from the Voortrekkers and the trek farmers, and in the pacification of the interior, the British government became involved in numerous disputes between whites, Qriquas, Barolongs and Basothos. When. As a result of this, it later became necessary to withdraw troops from the particularly exacting eastern Cape border, a change of attitude toward the Voortrekkers gradually became apparent in British policy.

Disillusionment also came with the disappointingly slow – from the British perspective – Christianising and ‘civilising’ of the indigenous peoples. The British government became increasingly more inclined to accept the Voortrekker as an ally against the blacks, who were by now exchanging their assegais for rifles. In consequence of this the Voortrekker was seen less readily in the light of an oppressor of the indigenous peoples.

Two New Republics
This paved the way for the conclusion of conventions with the Voortrekkers during the early fifties, resulting in British recognition of two republics as independent states, These were, however, excluded from direct access to the sea, a circumstance intended to secure a broad British supremacy over a vastly extended South Africa.

Events north of the Orange and the Vaal during the forties and the fifties should be seen in this perspective as it explains why Britain, although potentially overwhelmingly strong on land and sea in and around South Africa, was not disposed to attempt any forcible subjection of the Trekkers in their inland territories.

Before and during the development of the Great Trek a large number of Trek farmers were already living in the southern parts of Trans-Orangia. These men wished to remain under British protection and were hostile to the Voortrekkers who lived in the Winburg region. The Winburg Trekkers under Potgieter were closely allied to the Potchefstroom Trekkers. When the annexation of Natal shattered the federal union between the Voortrekkers east and west of the Drakensberg, an independent government was set up in the west (1843).

The following hear Potgieter and his Adjunct Council declared themselves independent. Their new Burgher Council meant to exercise authority down to the Orange River and would accept the Thirty-three Articles as the bases of government.

When Mr Justice W Menzies learned in October 1842 that Jan Mocke, a leader of the Trans-Orangia Trekkers, was leading his men to Allemans Drift on the Orange River with the intention of proclaiming a republic north of that river, Menzies annexed the entire region as British territory in order to bring it within the purview of the Cape of Good Hope Punishment Act.

Cape of Good Hope Punishment Act
The Cape of Hood Hope Punishment Act of 1836 made the Voortrekkers liable to British jurisdiction for all crimes committed south of 25 degree latitude (in the Limpopo Province).

Although Governor Napier declined to validate this step, he sent a strong detachment of troops northward shortly after, in order to restrain the Trans-Orangia Trekkers. In pursuance of the policy of protecting the British colonial borders with the aid of subsidised buffer states, Napier in November-December 1843 concluded treaties with the Griqua chief Adam Kok and the Basotho chief Moshesh (Moshweshwe).

In reaction to this British policy, many Trans-Orangia trek farmers ranged themselves with the Voortrekkers and now offered greater resistance to Adam Kok. Sir Peregrine Maitland, who succeeded Napier, was consequently obliged to send troops there again in May 1845, in order to suppress armed Trekker resistance at Zwartkopjes.

In June 1845 the new Governor effected a new arrangement in terms of which a British Resident was stationed at Bloemfontein early in 1846 so as to deal with the affairs of whites. With a hopelessly inadequate body of troops the Resident, Major H D Warden, now had to try and settle disputes between Trekkers and blacks. In this process the British government was constantly being drawn deeper into Trans-Orangia.

Orange River Sovereignty
While Pretorius and other Trekker leaders were still living in British Natal, Potgieter was trying to open access to the sea through Portuguese territory. He accordingly founded Andries-Ohrigstad in the North-Eastern Transvaal in 1845. This was to serve a dual purpose: to encourage trade with the east coast and to establish his Trekkers beyond the provisions of the Punishment Act.

Emigrants from Natal and Trans-Orangia went to Winburg, Potchefstroom and especially Ohrigstad, where Potgieter as chief commandant became involved in disputes with the more numerous newcomers and especially the leaders of the so-called Volksraad Party. Potgieter now undertook extensive reconnaissance north-eastwards, in the course of which he attacked the fugitive Matabele near the Matopos.
Early in 1848 he and his followers moved from Ohrigstad to the Zoutpansberg, where he laid out the town of Schoemansdal. He was unsuccessful, however, in his attempt to establish commercial relations through the Portuguese harbours, and he was also unable to develop the contacts made with interested Netherlanders (who were not allowed in Port Natal after the British occupation of that harbour).

Meanwhile Pretorius had abandoned all hope of a satisfying life in Natal. After an unsuccessful attempt to meet Maitland’s successor, Sir Henry Pottinger, at Grahamstown, he moved to the Magaliesberg in 1848. When Sir Harry Smith, the new High Commissioner, annexed the whole of the Orange-Vaal region as the Orange River Sovereignty in February 1848, Pretorius moved south with a strong Boer force.

At Boomplaats (August 1848) Smith defeated Pretorius decisively. A British administration was now set up between the Orange and Vaal Rivers. In this sway Smith (who had had knowledge of the Trek from the start) wished to consolidate British authority and boundaries in South Africa and at the same time take over control of the Trek.

The well-tried Voortrekker routes to the sea were in annexed territory. Pretorius and Potgieter, the last tow important Trek leaders, were isolated with the die-hards in the Transvaal and were estranged from each other. Smith was confident that he would make a success (even financially) of his Orange River Sovereignty.

Transvaal
British expansion during the preceding six years had, however, become too extensive to be maintained. While the eastern border of the Cape was exacting higher demands than ever in men and money, serious problems arose also involving the indigenous peoples in and about the Sovereignty, showing that Smith’s policy was impracticable. The following six years brought such an accumulation of weighty problems that Smith was recalled; his successor, Sir George Cathcart, was to suffer a severe reverse against Moshesh.

With the defeat of the weak British force in the Sovereignty by the Basothos at Viervoet (June 1851), the British commissioners, Majors W S Hogge and C M Owen, were afraid that Pretorius would intervene in the Sovereignty, which would have aggravated the position. As a result, the commissioners were prepared to meet Pretorius at Sand River, in the north of the Sovereignty, and to sign a convention there on January 17, 1852.
Britain now officially recognised the independence of the Trekker republic north of the Vaal and accepted the new state as an ally against the blacks. The convention was largely the fruit of Pretorius’ statesmanship: he knew when to seize and opportunity. There was still a good deal of dissension among the farthest Trekkers, who were sparsely scattered among myriads of blacks between Potchefstroom and Lydenburg (wither some of the people from Ohrigstad had moved) and from the Vaal River up to the wild Zoutpansberg.

Only after the Sand River Convention had been concluded did Potgieter and his followers accept it.

Trans-Orangia
With the repulse of Cathcart’s 2 500 regular troops by Moshesh at Berea on 2 December 1852, the fate of the Sovereignty was practically sealed. Heavier European commitments were already awaiting Britain. During 1852-1853 both Potgieter and Pretorius died. A Special Commissioner, Sir George Clerk, negotiated with the inhabitants of the Sovereignty, and in spite of considerable protests, especially from British settlers, the Bloemfontein Convention was signed on February 23, 1854.
For the first time British authority was withdrawn from a Trekker territory that had already been annexed, and a second Trekker republic created. Once again Republicans were accepted as allies. The series of treaties concluded with black chiefs in Trans-Orangia were watered down or cancelled.

The about 20 000 white Transvaalers and about 15 000 white Free Staters could now continue their early experiments in self-government. They were still inexperienced politically, their system of agriculture and stock-farming (by far the most important means of livelihood) was primitive and their public finances were in a precarious condition; culturally they were backward and socially isolated and divided.

Successes and failures
And yet many of the main objectives of the Great Trek had basically been achieved eighteen and twenty years after the first systematic exploratory efforts. The Trekkers were now officially allowed by the British government to govern themselves in accordance with their own views, including the relations between white and non-white. The Trekkers had ample land and labour. Their peaceful resistance, which later became forcible, had substantially succeeded.

Nevertheless, in some respects the Voortrekkers failed. From the thinly populated eastern districts of the Cape so few border farmers trekked that the Voortrekkers could scarcely succeed in reaching the Northern Transvaal in large numbers. Farther north they could not establish themselves. Nor could they found a settlement in South-West Africa.

Seen from a white perspective, the black tribes, in spite of having to bend the knee for the time being before the firearms, horses and ox-wagons, were not decisively defeated by the Voortrekkers. The key to real independence, a harbour giving access to the outside world, was nowhere found by the Trekkers. British supremacy persisted in South Africa, and from that position the Trekkers and their descendants were to be subdued at the end of the century.

It was also during the Great Trek that the Afrikaner became seriously estranged from white English-speakers in the south of Africa. Economically the Great Trek brought great advantages to South Africa as a whole, but the British annexation of the former Trekker territories half a century alter occasioned an unparalleled loss of white lives and a strong upsurge of bitterness between Boer and Briton, which persisted for decades after.

The Great Trek was the first assumption of self-government by South African whites, who toward the middle of the 19th century largely succeeded in throwing off European control – for the time being, at least.

Tags: Adam Kok, Moshesh