ABSTRACT
The events leading up to the South African War are well known and do not need to be reviewed in detail. The conflict between Boer and Briton
originated in the early decades of the nineteenth century and reached its first climax with the Great Trek of 1832, an event which started the migration of thousands of Boers from the Cape into the interior of South Africa. British policy, for the time being, tolerated their separate existence and eventually recognized their independence through the Sand River Convention of 1852.
