This resentment culminated in the en-masse migration of substantial numbers of the Boers into the hitherto unexplored frontier, to get beyond the control of British rule.

In defending the northern frontier of the Cape, French ’ s division employed harassing tactics and threatened the flanks and rear of the Boers whilst not committing his force to a large scale operation.

During the 19th century, most of the Boers of the northeastern Cape frontier migrated to the interior, and established the Orange Free State and South African Republic, which were independent of Britain.

The Boer Republics ( sometimes also referred to as Boer states ) were independent self-governed republics created by the northeastern frontier branch of the Dutch-speaking ( proto Afrikaans ) inhabitants of the north eastern Cape Province and their descendants ( variously named Trekboers, Boers, Afrikaners and Voortrekkers ) in mainly the northern and eastern parts of what is now the country of South Africa.

In 1795, the heavily taxed Boers of the frontier districts, who received no protection against the Africans, expelled the officials of the Dutch East India Company, and established independent governments at Swellendam and at Graaff Reinet.

On the September 23, 1900 during the Second Boer War, 3, 000 Boers crossed the frontier at the small town of Komati Poort, and surrendered to the Portuguese authorities.

The Voortrekkers were those Boers ( mainly from the eastern Cape ) who left the Cape en masse in a series of large scale migrations later called the Great Trek beginning in 1835 as a result of British colonialism and constant border wars.

When used in a historical context, the term Boer may refer to an inhabitant of the Boer Republics as well as those who were cultural Boers.

Many Boers had German ancestry and many members of the government were themselves former Boer military leaders who had fought with the Maritz rebels against the British in the Second Boer War, which had ended only twelve years earlier.

They contend that the Boers of the South African Republic ( ZAR ) and Orange Free State republics were recognized as a separate people or cultural group under international law by the Sand River Convention ( which created the South African Republic in 1852 ), the Bloemfontein Convention ( which created the Orange Free State Republic in 1854 ), the Pretoria Convention ( which re-established the independence of the South African Republic 1881 ), the London Convention ( which granted the full independence to the South African Republic in 1884 ) and the Vereeniging Peace Treaty, which formally ended the Second Anglo-Boer War on 31 May 1902.

Dutch Calvinist settlers were also the first successful European colonizers of South Africa, beginning in the 17th century, who became known as Boers or Afrikaners.

Boers who started to practice pastoralism were known as trekboers.

In some cases, as in the Xhosa / Boer Wars, Boers were removed from Xhosa lands.

Against the Boers at Blood River, massed gunfire broke the back of the Zulu assault, and the Boers were later able to mount a cavalry sweep in counterattack that became a turkey shoot against fleeing Zulu remnants.

During Moshoeshoe's reign ( 1823-1870 ), a series of wars ( 1856-68 ) were fought with the Boers who had settled in traditional Basotho lands.

Meanwhile, the southern districts abandoned by Potgieter and his comrades were occupied by other Boers.

Kruger won another presidential election in 1898, but the following year British forces were gathering on the borders of the Boer Republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State and fearing Britain's imminent annexation, the Boers launched a preemptive strike against the nearby British colonies in 1899, a strike which became the Second Boer War.

The Boers had captured some British radios, and, since the British were the only people transmitting at the time, no special interpretation of the signals was necessary.

Many Boers who were dissatisfied with aspects of the British administration, in particular with Britain's abolition of slavery on 1 December 1834, elected to migrate away from British rule in what became known as the Great Trek.

After a brief skirmish in which the column lost 65 killed and wounded — while the Boers lost but one man — Jameson's men surrendered and were arrested by the Boers.

One strong argument is that Lansdowne, Secretary of State for War, did not believe the Boers were preparing for war, and also believed that if Britain were to send large numbers of troops, it would strike too aggressive a posture and so prevent a negotiated settlement being reached or even encourage a Boer attack.

As with the First Boer War, since the Boers were civilian militia, each man wore what he wished, usually his everyday dark-grey, light-grey, neutral-coloured, or earthtone khaki farming clothes — often a jacket, trousers and slouch hat.

The average Boers who made up their Commandos were farmers who had spent almost all their working life in the saddle, both as farmers and hunters.

The resulting Battle of Elandslaagte was a clear-cut British tactical victory, but Sir George White feared that more Boers were about to attack his main position and ordered a chaotic retreat from Elandslaagte, throwing away any advantage gained.

Generally speaking, throughout the campaign, the Boers were too defensive and passive, wasting the opportunities they had for victory.

However, the nadir of Black Week was the Battle of Colenso on 15 December where 21, 000 British troops commanded by Buller himself, attempted to cross the Tugela River to relieve Ladysmith where 8, 000 Transvaal Boers, under the command of Louis Botha, were awaiting them.

In the Cape Midlands, the Boers did not exploit the British defeat at Stormberg, and were prevented from capturing the railway junction at Colesberg.

The desire to wander, known as trekgees, was a notable characteristic of the Boers.

The Boers are well known for their strong nationalistic character.

This conflict is often popularly conceived of in terms of the well known battles between Zulu King Dingane and the Boers, most notably at the Battle of Blood River.

In the 1830s and the 1840s, descendants of Dutch and other settlers, collectively known as Boers ( farmers ) or Voortrekkers ( pioneers ), left the British Cape Colony, in what was to be called the Great Trek.

The Boers reputedly suffered only 3 injuries without any fatalities, while the blood of 3, 000 slain Zulu turned the river red with blood, so that the conflict afterwards became known as the Battle of Blood River.

The actions of his father John MacBride in leading the Irish Transvaal Brigade ( known as MacBride's Brigade ) for the Boers against the British Army, in the Boer War, gave Seán MacBride a unique access to South Africa's apartheid government.

In 1868, after losing the western lowlands to the Boers during the Free State – Sotho war, Moshoeshoe successfully appealed to Queen Victoria to proclaim Lesotho ( then known as Basotuland ) a protectorate of Britain and the British administration was placed in Maseru, the site of Lesotho ’ s present-day capital.

The Afrikaner farmers, known as Boers, had established the Transvaal as their promised land, after their Great Trek out of Cape Colony, a trek whose purpose was to remove themselves as far as possible from British rule.

A number of Trekboere settled in the eastern Cape, where their descendants were soon known as Grensboere ( Border Farmers ), or later called simply Boers ( which is a Dutch word for " farmers ").

During the 20th century, both Boers and the Cape Dutch — those who did not trek eastward and remained in the Western Cape — would become known as Afrikaners, a term that was applied to all Afrikaans speakers of Western and Central European ( Dutch, German, French Huguenot ) ancestry.

During the early twentieth century the descendants of the Cape Dutch and the Boers of Voortrekker and Trekboer descent would collectively become known as Afrikaners.

After the British annexation of the Natalia Republic, most local Voortrekker Boers trekked north into Transorangia, later known as the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal.

About forty percent of the men in the BVC were Australians, and the regiment also included about forty surrendered Boers, known as " joiners ", who had been recruited from the internment camps.

At the end of the second Boer War, those Boers who had fought to the end were known as " bittereinders " (" bitter enders "); by the time of the rebellion, those who had not taken the pledge and wanted to start a new war had also become known as the " bitter enders.

On 31 March 1902, during the final months of the Second Boer War, the Battle of Harts River, also known as " Battle of Boschbult ", was fought between the Boers and the British forces near the confluence of the Harts River and the Brak Spruit, one of its dry tributaries.