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Christiaan De Wet
Christiaan Rudolf de Wet (7 October 1854 – 3 February 1922) was a Boer general, rebel leader and politician. Life Born on the Leeuwkop farm, in the district of Smithfield in the Boer Republic of the Orange Free State, he later resided at Dewetsdorp, named after his father, Jacobus Ignatius de Wet. He married a woman named Cornelia Margaretha Krüger, and together they had 16 children. He also had a grandson that was born two years after his death named Carel de Wet. Military career De Wet served in the First Boer War of 1880–81 as a field cornet, taking part in the Battle of Majuba Hill, in which the Boers achieved a victory over a British force under the command of Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley. This eventually led to the end of the war and the reinstatement of the independence of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, more commonly known as the Transvaal Republic. In the years between the First and Second Boer Wars, from 1881 to 1896, he lived on his farm, be ...
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State President Of The Orange Free State
The state president of the Orange Free State had the Executive (government), executive authority in the Orange Free State. By the constitution of 1854, the president was elected by the Burgher (Boer republics), Burghers, from a list of candidates nominated by the Volksraad (Orange Free State), Volksraad for a term of five years. There was no limit on the number of re-elections. List of officeholders Timeline Last election See also * State President of the South African Republic Notes References External links Archontology.org: Orange Free State: Heads of State: 1854–1902
{{DEFAULTSORT:State President Of The Orange Free State State Presidents of the Orange Free State, * Presidents by former country, Orange Free State 1854 establishments in South Africa 1902 disestablishments in South Africa ...
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Sanna's Post
The Battle of Sanna's Post (a.k.a. Kroon Spruit) was an engagement fought during the Second Boer War (1899–1902) between the British Empire and the Boers of the two independent republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. Background In early 1900, the British army, in overwhelming strength, had occupied Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State, and were preparing to drive north to Pretoria, capital of the Transvaal. Field Marshal Lord Roberts, commander in chief of the British forces, believed that with the capture of the capitals of both republics, the war would be all but over. While the Burghers of the South African Republic prepared to defend their capital, with little prospect of success, the Free State Boers, inspired by President Martinus Steyn, the spiritual heart of the Boer resistance, and Christiaan de Wet, their foremost field general, regrouped and prepared to continue the conflict through unconventional means. Their action at Sanna� ...
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Heilbron Commando
Heilbron Commando was a light infantry regiment of the South African Army. It formed part of the South African Infantry Corps, South African Army Infantry Formation as well as the South African Territorial Reserve. History Origin Operations During the Anglo Boer War with the Free State Republic This Commando was involved in the following: * The battle of Rietfontein took place on 24 October 1899 between six commandos of the Free State Army commanded by General A Piet Cronje and a British Flying Column dispatched from Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, Ladysmith under the command of George White (British Army officer), Sir George White. The Free State forces consisted of the following commandos: ** Harrismith Commando, ** Kroonstad Commando, ** Winburg Commando, ** Bethlehem Commando, ** Vrede Commando and ** Heilbron Commando. * The battle of Magersfontein that occurred on 11 December 1899. With the UDF By 1902 all Commando remnants were under British military control and disarmed. ...
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Volksraad Of The South African Republic
The ''Volksraad of the South African Republic'' (English: "People's Council" of the South African Republic, ) was the parliament of the former South African Republic (ZAR), it existed from 1840 to 1877, and from 1881 to 1902 in part of what is now South Africa. The body ceased to exist after the British Empire's victory in the Second Anglo-Boer War. The ''Volksraad'' sat in session in Ou Raadsaal in Church Square, Pretoria. Unicameral body In 1840, at the beginning of the Natalia Republic, an adjunct ''Volksraad'' was created in Potchefstroom for settlers west of the Drakensberg. The Potchefstroom ''Volksraad'' continued despite the British annexation of the Natalia Republic in 1843. It eventually passed the Thirty-three Articles, the precursor to the 1858 constitution (''Grondwet''), in 1849. In 1858 the ''Grondwet'' permanently established the ''Volksraad'' as the supreme authority of the nation. Volksraad was initially a unicameral body. It consisted of three members f ...
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Transvaal Republic
The South African Republic (, abbreviated ZAR; ), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it was annexed into the British Empire as a result of the Second Boer War. The ZAR was established as a result of the 1852 Sand River Convention, in which the British government agreed to formally recognise independence of the Boers living north of the Vaal River. Relations between the ZAR and Britain started to deteriorate after the British Cape Colony expanded into the Southern African interior, eventually leading to the outbreak of the First Boer War between the two nations. The Boer victory confirmed the ZAR's independence; however, Anglo-ZAR tensions soon flared up again over various diplomatic issues. In 1899, war again broke out between Britain and the ZAR, which was swiftly occupied by British forces. Many Boer combatants in the ZAR refused to surrender, leading British commander Lord Kitc ...
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George Pomeroy Colley
Major-general (United Kingdom), Major General Sir George Pomeroy Colley, (1 November 1835 – 27 February 1881) was a British Army officer who became Governor of Natal, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Natal and High Commissioner for South Eastern Africa. Colley was killed in action, at the Battle of Majuba Hill. Early years He was the third and youngest son of the Hon. George Francis Pomeroy (George Francis Colley from 1830) of Ferney, County Dublin, by his wife, Frances, third daughter of Thomas Trench, dean of Kildare, and was a grandson of John Pomeroy, 4th Viscount Harberton. Raised in Rathangan, County Kildare, he was educated at Cheam, Surrey, Cheam, Surrey, where his headmaster, Dr Mayo, described him as "swift to take offence, prompt and vigorous in resenting it".Sir William Francis Butler, 'The life of Sir George Pomeroy-Colley, K.C.S.I., C.B., C.M.G., 1835-1881; including services in Kaffraria--in China--in Ashanti--in India and in Natal' (1889). He was educated at ...
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British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the English overseas possessions, overseas possessions and trading posts established by Kingdom of England, England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and colonisation attempts by Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland during the 17th century. At its height in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it became the List of largest empires, largest empire in history and, for a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered , of the Earth's total land area. As a result, Westminster system, its constitutional, Common law, legal, English language, linguistic, and Culture of the United Kingdom, cultural legacy is widespread. ...
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Battle Of Majuba Hill
The Battle of Majuba Hill on 27 February 1881 was the final and decisive battle of the First Boer War that was a resounding victory for the Boers. The British Major General Sir George Pomeroy Colley occupied the summit of the hill on the night of 26–27 February 1881. Colley's motive for occupying Majuba Hill, near Volksrust, now in South Africa, may have been anxiety that the Boers would soon occupy it themselves, since he had witnessed their trenches being dug in the direction of the hill. The Boers believed that he might have been attempting to outflank their positions at Laing's Nek. The hill was not considered to be scalable by the Boers for military purposes and so it may have been Colley's attempt to emphasise British power and strike fear into the Boer camp. The battle is considered by some to have been one of the "most humiliating" defeats suffered by the British in their military history. Battle The bulk of the 405 British soldiers occupying the hill were 171 men of ...
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Field Cornet
Field cornet () is a term formerly used in South Africa for either a local government official or a military officer. The office had its origins in the position of ''veldwachtmeester'' in the Dutch Cape colony, and was regarded as being equivalent to a sergeant. The British administration enhanced its importance with the term field cornet, making it equivalent to an officer's rank. The term was used for a civilian official in a local government district ('' drostdy'') of the Cape Colony, acting as and invested with the authority of a military officer and empowered to act as a magistrate. The field cornet was subject to the landdrost of the district and acted as his representative. As such, a field cornet performed important functions in administrative, judicial and police matters. In addition, in peacetime the field cornet was the head of the militia, was responsible for maintaining law and order in his area, and was tasked with supervising the handover of postal items on arrival ...
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Boer
Boers ( ; ; ) are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled the Dutch Cape Colony, which the United Kingdom incorporated into the British Empire in 1806. The name of the group is derived from Trekboer then later "boer", which means "farmer" in Dutch and Afrikaans. In addition, the term also applied to those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to colonise the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal (together known as the Boer Republics), and to a lesser extent Natal. They emigrated from the Cape to live beyond the reach of the British colonial administration, with their reasons for doing so primarily being the new Anglophone common law system being introduced into the Cape and the British abolition of slavery in 1833. The term ''Afrikaners'' or ''Afrikaans people'' is generally used in moder ...
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