The British and Voortrekkers (Settlers)
The British and Voortrekkers (Settlers)
Then, the British annexed the Cape, which started the friction between the British and the Voortrekkers (settlers). The process continued (it culminated in nine frontier wars), and the 1820 the British Settlers arrived. The community in the Cape became progressively unhappy with British rule. Taxes and abolishing slavery in 1834 were some of the main reasons why some of them packed their ox-wagons and ventured into the unknown inland to get away from the British (the Great Trek).
These Voortrekkers moved through some areas that were sparsely populated. The further east they moved, the more clashes with the indigenous people. In most of the clashes, their superior arms settled the differences. In 1838 they arrived on the western border of what is today KwaZulu-Natal. Here their paths crossed with the successor to Shaka, the Zulu King Dingaan.
The two broad groups of movers were now in the same territory. This led to several clashes that eventually culminated in the famous Battle of Blood River where the Boers (settlers) and the Zulu Impies engaged. Many lives were lost, mostly on the Zulu side. Our 3-day tour covering most of the Anglo-Zulu and Anglo-Boer battlefields also includes this battleground. During the Apartheid era, the whites built a magnificent museum with life-sized wagons in bronze situated more or less on the battle site.
Another museum was built afterwards by the new government on the Zulu side and has interesting contradictions to the Bear version.
The following tours travel to places where the settlers arrived in KZN (Natal)