17th century – 18th century
South Africa, around the Cape and the eastern frontier
The expansion of the trekboere was a pastoral movement by second-generation European settlers established near the Cape from about 1680. Younger herders moved with livestock into territories occupied mainly by Khoi groups, who were progressively replaced. By about 1780, the expansion encountered better-watered lands occupied by Xhosa farmers and herders, creating a new frontier.
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The Story
The trekboere movement illustrates how pastoral expansion could arise from ordinary generational mobility. Second-generation European settlers established near the Cape from about 1680, and younger members of herding families left with part of the livestock to settle elsewhere. Their movement continued despite the sparse population, because the herders complained of overpopulation within their existing sphere of settlement.
Until about 1780, the trekboere expanded into areas occupied mainly by Khoi groups. The movement was not simply a search for empty land: the source states that the Khoi were replaced as the herders advanced. This produced a changing territorial balance between European pastoral settlers and established African herding communities.
The expansion eventually met a frontier of better-watered land occupied by Xhosa farmers and herders. This ecological and political boundary limited the earlier movement and brought the trekboere into contact with a society whose agricultural and pastoral organization differed from that of the expanding settlers.
17th century – 18th century
South Africa, around the Cape and the eastern frontier
The expansion of the trekboere was a pastoral movement by second-generation European settlers established near the Cape from about 1680. Younger herders moved with livestock into territories occupied mainly by Khoi groups, who were progressively replaced. By about 1780, the expansion encountered better-watered lands occupied by Xhosa farmers and herders, creating a new frontier.
Continue exploring
The Story
The trekboere movement illustrates how pastoral expansion could arise from ordinary generational mobility. Second-generation European settlers established near the Cape from about 1680, and younger members of herding families left with part of the livestock to settle elsewhere. Their movement continued despite the sparse population, because the herders complained of overpopulation within their existing sphere of settlement.
Until about 1780, the trekboere expanded into areas occupied mainly by Khoi groups. The movement was not simply a search for empty land: the source states that the Khoi were replaced as the herders advanced. This produced a changing territorial balance between European pastoral settlers and established African herding communities.
The expansion eventually met a frontier of better-watered land occupied by Xhosa farmers and herders. This ecological and political boundary limited the earlier movement and brought the trekboere into contact with a society whose agricultural and pastoral organization differed from that of the expanding settlers.