Pretorius, Andries

▪ Boer South African leader

in full  Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius  

born Nov. 27, 1798, near Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony [South Africa]

died July 23, 1853, Magaliesberg, Transvaal

      Boer leader in the Great Trek from British-dominated Cape Colony who became the dominant military and political figure in Natal and later in the Transvaal.

      After taking part in several frontier wars in the Cape Colony, Pretorius went on an exploratory trek in 1837; he left his farm permanently to settle in Natal the following year. When King Dingane's (Dingane) Zulus murdered trek leader Piet Retief and his party and threatened the safety of the settlers in Natal, Pretorius raised a commando force of 500 and defeated 10,000 Zulus at Blood River, killing 3,000 with hardly any loss of his own men. Dingane's brother Mpande then organized a revolt that won the support of Pretorius. Their combined forces defeated Dingane at the Battle of Magono (January 1840), putting Mpande on the Zulu throne. That same year Pretorius succeeded in getting the Boer settlements in the Transvaal to join in a federal union with Natal.

      In 1842 the British occupied Durban, in Natal, and, when Pretorius failed to dislodge them, he resigned as commandant general. After the annexation of Natal, he remained on friendly terms with the British authorities. But when the Cape governor, Sir Henry Pottinger, ignored his plea to settle Boer grievances, Pretorius decided to lead a trek once more to the remote Transvaal (1847). The territory known as the Orange River Sovereignty was annexed by the British the following year, provoking Pretorius and the Transvaal Boers to verbal and then armed protest. After taking Bloemfontein, Pretorius and his followers were defeated at Boomplaats (August 1848). Pretorius fled to the Transvaal with a price of £2,000 on his head.

      As one of the four commandants general of the Transvaal, Pretorius played a leading role in negotiations with the British (who had removed the price on his head). That conference resulted in the Sand River Convention (Jan. 17, 1852) by which the independence of the Transvaal (the South African Republic) was recognized. With the British in an anti-imperialist mood, Pretorius pressed further for their acceptance of the independence of the Boers in the Orange River Sovereignty, which was finally guaranteed by the Bloemfontein Convention (February 1854), seven months after his death.

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