[Dakmar]

Pardon me for not knowing as much SA history as you might think I would, but I always thought the Boers made the Great Trek to get away from British settlers. Weren't most of the Dutch colonies basically agrarian? I am not trying to start a feud with you, I just don't appreciate being told what to think. Not by anyone.

[Dakmar]

Ooops I left out how I am curious about how the British won the Boer War and yet all these Dutch people are still in charge. Curious indeed.

[nopardons]

The VOORTREK was made to get away from the British ans well as some waring tribes . It is a long and interesting story, which I can't possibly write here in full. If you were to see yhe VOORTREKKER MONUMENT, in Pretoria, you would think that you were looking at something from our own pioneers going westward; conastoga type wagons, circled wagons to fight off the Ndebele and other tribes, etc.

I see that someone has answered your other question, so I shan't repeat it.

[NewAmsterdam]

SA was never a Dutch colony as such. Dutch explorers established a settlement on the Cape where ships en route to the East could fill up on necessary stocks. That is how the Dutch got to SA. Later on they moved inland and, indeed, settled as farmers. The real Dutch colonies (Indonesia, Surinam, Ceylon, Brasil etc.) were never primarily agrarian. What the colonisers were looking for was trade, not so much territorial conquest. In the 19th Century this approach changed somewhat, not in the least because of a sense of guilt which inspired religious people to 'civilise' the local populations.