In 1842 a British force was landed and the Boers were compelled to retire from the coast and acknowledge the British sovereignty. Many of them recrossed the mountains and settled in the Vaal district. Further disagreements with the colonial government, which had now pos session of Natal, led to another emigration to the north of the Klipp River. Here they strug gled successfully with the Kaffirs till 1845, when the colonial government proclaimed the Buffalo River the north boundary of Natal. The Boers openly resisted, but finding their strength un equal to the conflict, again emigrated to the Vaal country. In 1848 the colonial government likewise annexed by proclamation the Orange River settlement. The Boers, headed by Pre torius, took up arms, but being defeated, re tired beyond the Vaal, and with the previous settlers formed the Transvaal republic. Those who remained continued their resistance to the British authority until, in 1851, on the outbreak of the Kaffir War, the British relinquished the Orange River territory, and by the Sand River Convention in 1852 recognized the independence of the Orange Free State. In 1877 the Trans vaal was annexed by Britain, according to the wish of many of the people, but war broke out in 1880, British forces suffered more than one defeat, and in 1::1 the country was accorded a modified independence. Paul Kruger was elected president in 1883. He was a typical representative of his people, possessing many primitive virtues but intensely conservative, tenacious, doggedly independent, bigoted in his stern Calvinist religious belief. The discovery of gold in the Transvaal and the influx of Eu ropeans following thereon created new sources of friction between the British and Boer popu lation. Henceforth it was a common feeling
among the Boers that they and not the British must be predominant in South Africa, and in October 1899, after a defiant ultimatum, the united forces of the Transvaal and Orange Free State invaded Natal. After nearly three years of warfare the two republics were annexed by proclamation. The work of reconciliation be tween the British and the Boers was under taken by Lord Milner, with such success that in 1905 and 1906 constitutions were granted the Transvaal, the Boer general Botha being ap pointed Premier. On 31 May 1910 the Trans vaal, Natal, the Cape of Good Hope and Orange River Colonies were united under one govern ment under the name of Union of South Africa. That the reconciliation between the Boers and the British is a permanent one seems proved by the valuable services which the troops of the Union, under General Botha, have rendered the British cause during the European War by the conquest of German Southwest Africa.
See JAMESON; KRUGER; MAJUBA HILL; NATAL; ORANGE RIVER COLONY; SOUTH AFRICAN WAR; TRANSVAAL; UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA, etc.
Cana, F. R., 'South Africa from the Great Trek to the Union' (London 1909) ; Chesson, F. W., The Dutch Boers and Slavery in the Transvaal) (London 1869); Cloete, H., The History of the Great Boer Trek' (London 1899); Livingstone, D., 'The Transvaal Boers) (Edinburgh 1881) ; Theal, G. McC., 'History of South Africa since 1795' (4 vols., London 1908); Tilby, A. W., 'South Africa 1486-1913' (Boston 1914).