Andries Pretorius

Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius ( born November 27, 1798 in Graaff -Reinet, † July 23, 1853 in Grootplaats, Magaliesberg, Transvaal ) was a Voortrekker, Afrikaner politician and founder of the South African Republic.

Pretorius, a Boer of Dutch origin, left his home at the Cape during the Great Trek and soon became a respected leader of the Voortrekkers. About the present territory of Vrystaat and the Drakensberg came Pretorius to Natal, where he united the Boers, who were leaderless after the murder of Piet Retiefs and Voortrekker mobilized for a campaign of revenge against the Zulu king Dingane.

On December 16, 1838 with 464 Pretorius defeated the Boers nearly 20,000 -strong Zuluarmee in the Battle of Blood River devastating, four days later the Voortrekkers devastated the Zuluhauptstadt uMgungundlovu. In 1840 he assisted with 400 men a coup attempt by Dingane 's half-brother Mpande, who ultimately due to this the power gained in Zulureich.

In the same year he led Boer resistance fighters who defeated the weak British occupation of Durban. As British reinforcements arrived, he retired but returned to Pietermaritzburg, where he tried to find a diplomatic agreement between the Boers and the British.

Afterwards Pretorius lived in British- occupied Natal as a farmer until he was chosen in 1847 by the Boers in order to present their grievances to the British governor. However, this Pretorius refused an audience that failed diplomatic mission. For this reason, Pretorius again decided to abandon his country and to the north of South Africa, who was not under British control, to emigrate.

Pretorius moved north of the Vaal and was co-founder of the independent Boer Republic of the Transvaal. From the Boers both sides of the Vaal (also in English controlled territory ), he was elected commander in chief and passed with its units in July 1848, a call for help the Afrikaners Winburgs following, the Vaal and led the Afrikaner freedom struggle. On July 20, 1848 he succeeded the occupation of Bloemfontein, in August, but was defeated at Boomplaats and had to retreat back behind the Vaal. There he became the leader of one of the largest Boer parties into which the Transvaal Boers were split at that time. He was commander- in Potchefstroom and Rustenburg.

In 1851 he threatened again by disaffected Boers at the Orange River and I. asked the Basotho chief Moshoeshoe for help again to cross the Vaal. Main reason for the threats it was, however, put pressure on the British, as Pretorius sought to obtain official recognition of the independent Boer republics of the UK. Pretorius met with the British negotiators on January 17, 1852, and he managed a diplomatic coup: The British revoked the competition brief a bounty of 2,000 pounds, which had been suspended after the attack on Bloemfontein to his capture and recognized in the Sand River Convention the independence of the Transvaal.

In the aftermath Pretorius tried to trade in Natal to establish and colonize the Bechuanaland and warred against indigenous, African tribes on the western borders of the Transvaal. In the course of an expedition against the Sechele also the house of David Livingstone in 1852 plundered in Kolobeng.

Pretorius died July 23, 1853 on his farm in Magaliesberg, he is regarded as the ablest and most important leader of the Voortrekkers. Two years after his death, founded the city of Pretoria, which he named in honor of his father Marthinus Wessel Pretorius his son.

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