First Boer War

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)
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The Boer Wars grew out of conflicting claims to sovereignty in the northern regions of modern-day South Africa. Since the early nineteenth century, emigrants of Dutch, French Huguenot and German origin had settled in the area and become farmers, although they had often clashed with dominant local tribes. By the 1880s, the British were keen to claim as much territory in southern Africa as possible, to counter the growing influence of Germany, Portugal and Belgium in the continent. The Boers had set up independent republics to try to escape British control, founding the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic in the 1850s. They were angered, therefore, when in 1877 the British annexed the Transvaal as part of their dominions, and in 1880 armed warfare broke out. The Boers had theā€¦

210 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "First Boer War". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=392, accessed 19 March 2024.]

392 First Boer War 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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