TheTrekboers (/ˈtrɛkbuːrs/Afrikaans:Trekboere) werenomadic pastoralists descended from European colonists on the frontiers of theDutch Cape Colony inSouthern Africa. The Trekboers began migrating into the interior from the areas surrounding what is nowCape Town, such asPaarl (settled from 1688),Stellenbosch (founded in 1679), andFranschhoek (settled from 1688), during the late 17th century and throughout the 18th century.
The Trekboers were seminomadicpastoralists, subsistence farmers who began trekking both northwards and eastwards into the interior to find better pastures/farmlands for their livestock to graze, as well as to escape theautocratic rule of theDutch East India Company (or VOC), which administered theCape. They believed the VOC was tainted with corruption and not concerned with the interests of thefree burghers, the social class of most of the Trekboers.[1]: 26
Trekboers also traded with indigenous people. This meant their herds were of hardy local stock.[citation needed] They formed a vital link between the pool of animals in the interior and the providers of shipping provisions at the Cape. Trekboere were nomadic, living in their wagons and rarely remaining in one location for an extended period of time. A number of Trekboers settled in the eastern Cape, where their descendants became known asGrensboere (Border Farmers).
Despite the VOC's attempts to prevent settler expansion beyond the western Cape, the frontier of the Colony remained open: the authorities in Cape Town lacked the means to police the Colony's borders.[1]: 24 [2] By the 1740s the Trekboers had entered theLittle Karoo. By the 1760s they reached the deep interior of theGreat Karoo.[1]: 24
Due to the collapse of the VOC (which went bankrupt in 1800) and inspired by theFrench Revolution (1789) and theAmerican Revolution,[citation needed] groups of Boers rebelled against VOC rule. They set up independent republics in the town ofGraaff-Reinet (1795), and four months later, inSwellendam (17 June 1795). A few months later, the newly establishedBatavian Republic nationalised the VOC (1 March 1796); the Netherlands came under the sway of the new post-revolutionFrench government.[1]: 26
TheBritish, whocaptured Cape Town in September 1795 in the course of theFrench Revolutionary Wars and took over the administration of Cape Colony, increased the level of government oversight the Trekboers were subject to. Tensions between the Trekboers and the British colonial administration would culminate in theSlachter's Nek Rebellion of 1815, which was rapidly suppressed and the leaders of the rebellion executed. Eventually, due to a combination of dissatisfaction with the British administration, constantfrontier wars with theXhosa to the east, and growing shortages of land, the Trekboers eventually went on theGreat Trek.[citation needed]
Numerous Trekboers settled down to become border farmers for a few generations and latervoortrekkers. But many of the group continued well into the 19th century as an economic class of nomadic pastoralists.[citation needed]
Many Trekboers crossed theOrange River decades before the Voortrekkers did. Voortrekkers often encountered Trekboers inTransorangia during theirGreat Trek of the 1830s and 1840s. In 1815, a Trekboer/trader named Coenraad (Du) Buys (a surname of French Huguenot origin) was accused of cattle theft and fled from the British. He settled in the (western)Transvaal. He allegedly contracted polygamous marriages with hundreds of indigenous women, with his descendants' populating the town of Buysplaas in theGourits River valley. He continued having numerous wives after leaving the colony. Descendants of his second series of marriages still live in the small town of Buysdorp, near the mission station of Mara, 20 km to the west ofLouis Trichardt in the modern Limpopo province. Buys eventually disappeared while traveling along theLimpopo River.[citation needed]
By the late 17th century, both the Trekboers and the Voortrekkers were collectively calledBoers.
The Trekboers spoke a variety ofDutch which they calleddie taal (lit. 'the language'), which evolved into the modern-day dialectEastern Border Afrikaans, also known as East Cape Afrikaans. The Afrikaans language as a whole generally originated from 17th- and 18th-century Dutch dialects. Over time it incorporated numerous words and expressions from French, German, Portuguese,Malay,Khoi, and later also English. Still, roughly 90% of the vocabulary is of Dutch origin and it is closer linguistically to Standard Dutch than many Dutch dialects. If Afrikaans had not been defined a separate language during the 20th century, its various dialects would have been considered dialects of Dutch.[3]