What does the term Boer mean?
farmer
The term Boer, derived from the Afrikaans word for farmer, was used to describe the people in southern Africa who traced their ancestry to Dutch, German and French Huguenot settlers who arrived in the Cape of Good Hope from 1652.
What was the significance of the Great Trek?
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.
What language did the Boers speak?
Afrikaans
By the end of the 18th century the cultural links between the Boers and their urban counterparts were diminishing, although both groups continued to speak Afrikaans, a language that had evolved from the admixture of Dutch, indigenous African, and other languages..
Why did the Boers leave the Cape?
The Voortrekkers traditionally have been depicted by English historians as economically backward people who left the Cape Colony as a protest against aspects of British rule, especially the ban on holding slaves (implemented after 1834) and British reluctance to take further land from the Xhosa for white settlement.
Who are Boers descendants?
Dutch
The Boers, also known as Afrikaners, were the descendants of the original Dutch settlers of southern Africa.
When did Deneys Reitz write the Boer War?
Deneys Reitz takes you along in the saddle in this epic memoir of the Anglo-Boer War from the starting days in 1899 to the “bittereinders” in 1902.
How long is the book the Boer War?
The Boer War is a long book, clocking in at just under 600 pages with about another 250 pages of end notes, bibliography, and index. It is well worth the read. When Thomas Pakenham wrote the book in the 1980s, he interviewed some of the remaining survivors of the Boer and performed heroic research with primary sources.
Is the Boer War by Thomas Pakenham a good book?
Pakenhem’s “Boer War” is a very solid effort. Most readers will feel comfortable with Pakenham’s values and judgements. If there is a weakness with the book it is that Pakenham assumes that the reader is interested in the Boer War and makes no effort to persuade the reader that the subject is important.
Which is the best account of the Boer War?
Thomas Pakenham’s The Boer War is the definitive account of this extraordinary conflict — a war precipitated by greed and marked by almost inconcievable blundering and brutalities . . . and whose shattering repercussions can be felt to this very day.