Mid-1830s–1840s: (The Great Trek — Several Thousand Boer Families Moving North in a Process Later Mythologized as a Unified Exodus, Settlement in Areas Vacat…

Mid-1830s–1840s: (The Great Trek — Several Thousand Boer Families Moving North in a Process Later Mythologized as a Unified Exodus, Settlement in Areas Vacated by the Mfecane, the Joint Boer-Rolong Attack on the Ndebele in 1837, the Clash with Dingane and the Battle of Blood River in 1838, and the Establishment of the Republic of Natal): In the mid- and late 1830s, several thousand Boer families began moving north in a process later known as the Great Trek — the stuff of Afrikaner mythology, the idea of a unified cohesive exodus celebrated in songs and remembered heroism, though in reality it involved hundreds of separate, unconnected movements bound together only by antipathy to the British and desire for land. The voortrekkers were mostly from the eastern Cape, and the location of their Boer republics was influenced by concentrations of African population or the absence thereof — much early settlement occurred in areas temporarily vacated by the mfecane’s upheavals. In the middle Vaal region, the Rolong cautiously welcomed the voortrekkers as well-armed allies against the Ndebele — a joint Boer-Rolong attack in 1837 prompted the Ndebele withdrawal north of the Limpopo. To the north and east, small groups of voortrekkers lived nervously among stronger states, notably the Swazi and the Zulu. The relationship between Boer and Zulu was problematic from the outset — Dingane launched an attack on the Boers in 1838, killing many, but the Boers regrouped and inflicted a devastating defeat at the Battle of Blood River. The Boers established the republic of Natal, though the Zulu kingdom, rocked by civil war that saw Dingane replaced by Mpande, recovered and continued to represent a significant obstacle to white domination.