What was The Great Trek?

In this video I explore the Great Trek undertaken by South African Boers in the 1840's, hope you enjoy!
This video is also available in Dutch:
• Wat was De Grote Trek?
Music Used:
Alternate History - Holfix
Lost Frontier - Kevin MacLeod
Happy Alley - Kevin MacLeod
Volatile Reaction - Kevin MacLeod
Laid Back Guitars - Kevin MacLeod
Patreon:
/ historywithhi. .

[@vaughnahrens]

As an Afrikaner, I appreciate the attention to detail you used for all your pronunciations and colloquialisms. Please consider doing Namibia?

[@ABlig2008]

@EyeZackZin regtig, kan jy my verstaan. Dis baie cool.

[@wolraadwoltemade3275]

Afrikaner of Boer?

[@Cowz19999]

@@ABlig2008 Ja we verstaan jullie.

[@ab96006]

@Derek Chauvin honestly who cares what others think, its more about how you feel. After the british promised the blacks freedom if they fought against the boers, they were robbed. The british were the first to use concentration camps, and the british were the ones who installed the system of apartheid. The boers got a long with the native blacks just fine (With exception to the zulus wars). As an Afrikaner, I don't hate anyone (execpt the British and Americans ;).) Who cares about race.

[@Professionalboer]

Im also a afrikaner :D

[@armandliebenberg6826]

Baie dankie vir die akkurate video. This Part of our history is largely unkown and ignored in South Africa today.

[@jamesscott7944]

Armand Liebenberg You had the same history as ours especially the pioneers who went west to find gold and good life.

[@dert693]

Totally agree. Our schools hardly cover any of this.

[@historywithhilbert146]

Armand Liebenberg I've heard similar things from other South Africans as well. Thanks for watching, I'll make some more videos on South African history when I get the time :)

[@dert693]

That would be fantastic. Great job on your videos so far. My girlfriend says that she can even use them to teach her grade 6 history classes!

[@freekmulder3662]

Hilbert are you from the Netherlands or Southern Africa?

[@FirefoxisredExplorerisblueGoog]

Oh, I'd love to see a video about Boer tactics! The history of South-Africa during the colonization and the Great Trek is incredibly gripping. It's the history of 3 great empires colliding with each other in the unknown. The Dutch and British find themselves in a unexplored corner of Africa, ignorant of it's challenges and native people. While the Zulu are forced to face a new enemy with weapons they've never seen before. With their military expansion now thwarted, I'd imagine that it must've had quite the cultural impact on the Zulu. Suddenly they find themselves to be on the losing side of their culture of conquest and war. *TL;DR* 3 great empires - each with their own goal, thrown in the same place, good times.

[@seamonster936]

Firefox is red, Explorer is blue. Google+ sucks and Chrome does too. I would suggest that you do some reading if you think the Great Trek involved '3 great empires', or any at all besides the marginal involvement of Britain. But the biggest nonsense you spew out is to call Boere Dutch.

[@francois6915]

British were empire, but Boer and Zulu were not. Still, I agree, this era would make a good Total War game.

[@samuelhawkins6332]

Want one, follow the link m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/nZyykJhog9SqlZo

[@truth-Hurts375]

@@seamonster936 You must be some sort of stupid....The Dutch came to SA in 1652...not the Brittish....not the Zulus...the Dutch...so where else does the Bowre come from...the Moon ???

[@seamonster936]

@@truth-Hurts375 It would behoove you to know what you’re talking about before flinging ‘stupid’ around. The British occupied the Cape Colony in 1806 then a possession of the Kingdom of Holland. After the Napoleonic Wars the Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands ceded the Cape and other possessions in Asia to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in exchange for other possessions and what is now Belgium and the House of Orange getting Luxembourg in the Convention of London creating the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. This ended all Dutch involvement in South African affairs. Let’s go back further after the First French Republic invaded the Dutch Republic the British seized the VOC Cape Colony in 1795, while they occupied Cape Town the districts of Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet were in open rebellion from the Trekboer population and Stellenbosch was occupied by British troops before a similar rebellion could break out. The Trekboere in Graaff-Reinet claimed they were now under the rule of the Dutch Republic (unaware of the establishment of the Batavian Republic) and the residents of Swellendam declared a Republic on which the later Boer Republics would be modelled. So as early as 1795 many of these Trekboere did not see themselves as Dutch. And since you did ask where we come from. Yes 70% of our ancestry is from the Low Countries (including Protestants from the Spanish/Austrian Netherlands, modern Belgium). However the VOC planted Huguenots in the Colony in the 17th century. A sizeable amount of VOC employees came from German Principalities bordering the Dutch Republic as well. The Great Trek started in 1838 when these Trekboere migrated north and northeast in search of better pastures as the rather dry, now British Cape Colony became overcrowded, after the Dutch gave it away and calling the Zulu Kingdom a great empire is overgenerous.

[@nikothehusky2384]

I find it interesting how the Boers resemble american cowboys and pioneers

[@jamesscott7944]

Nikolai the tanker Husky They do especially in religious side.

[@historywithhilbert146]

Nikolai the tanker Husky Its a similar time period, the 1840's in the US were when the mountain men were heading west before the large scale migrations following the Civil War some quarter century later

[@tamerlane9889]

Or russian cossacks

[@PrincezzJin]

they don't.

[@pieterpohl1991]

I have long maintained that Afrikaners would adjust well in the South of the USA, like Texas for example.

[@nrando5480]

9:07 if anyone doesn't get the reference there: Bok Van Blerk is a famous Afrikaner singer who created several Afrikaner/Boer nationalist songs and got extremely famous with them, and he pretty much became THE Afrikaner folk singer. However, he is considered an EVIL RACIST by the ANC gubmint in South Africa.

[@evanwheeler634]

Nick dB to be fair, Apartheid got associated with the Boers and white folks I general (because it literally was instituted by them, and was horrible for the Africans). Not saying the Boers are evil and racist, but you have to consider what the other side of the argument is thinking.

[@tryingmybest206]

Evan Wheeler That's like me saying that Shaka Zulu was responsible for the deaths of thousands, so i hate all black people....I don't but see how it's racist? Apartheid was initiated and kept by the elites of south Africa, including the politicians, De Beers and Broederbond. Most common afrikaners were happy to see it end

[@andrek.1399]

Thank you. I totally missed that.

[@ohhi5237]

yeah some are racist, but so are the others

[@tonlito22]

I like how there's room for both Boer and Zulu monuments at the same battlefield. With all the baggage South Africa has gone through it gives one the belief that there's room for hope.

[@gryn1s]

yeaaah

[@thinadlamini4671]

Yesssssss 🕊

[@spearshake4771]

Oh btw. The voortrekkers didn't use winchester repeaters they used "voorlaaiers" that were a type of musket.

[@user-xg8yy7yl1d]

Who would win? The most powerful army in the world A bunch of farmers with homemade muskets

[@spearshake4771]

P77777777 well by the time of the first anglo boer war the boers were equipped with Westley Richards, falling-block, breech-loader rifles that were more modern than the voorlaaiers their fathers and grandfathers used in the great trek. By the time of the 2nd anglo boer war the boers were armed with the modern mauser rifles 93/95 which they bought in bulk from the German Empire. The commandos would also make use of stolen Lee Enfield rifles later in the war as well as an assortment of other german or european rifles.

[@lepermessiah1433]

@@spearshake4771 stolen Lee Enfield rifles? Spoils of war I think?

[@robertcuminale1212]

I feel very lucky when I see these historical videos about the videos. My family went to Nieuw Netherlands in 1627 with the Dutch West India Company and didn't have to deal with so much hardship. The only inconvenience was the English robbing the colony 1664 and imposing English customs and laws like a tax to support the Anglican Church. Two ancestors moved to New Jersey where the laws didn't apply and bought land from the Leni Lenape Indians one buying 5000 acres to open a saw mill and the other buying land for farming. They were both Huguenots. One was Stuyvesant's adjutant and the other a magistrate. The Dutch ancestors were barrel makers They all disappeared from history except in genealogies. The three of them were married to three sisters. One pair are also Teddy and Eleanor Roosevelt's ancestors, another is Edward Hoppers and the third sister was married to Jan Aertsen van der Bilt. There was a developed language spoken called Jersey Dutch which is now pretty much extinct. It's spoken only by Ramapo Indians who are intermixed with Dutch and African genes. It's mixed with Dutch, English and the Ramapo language. I'm amazed at how the Afrikaners kept their language alive all this time. Dutch descendants are pretty much just Americans now and many don't even know they have Dutch ancestry. What doesn't help is that so many of the names have changed because English speakers couldn't pronounce them or spell t hem.

[@seamonster936]

Robert Cuminale More Dutch and Germans settled here initially because the VOC ruled the Cape longer than the WIC did New Netherlands. I should point out that our language and culture persists despite tremendous British efforts to stamp it out. In the 19th century they brought Scottish Presbyterian Ministers to the Cape to minister to the Cape Dutch's religious and educational needs, these ministers went native and accounts for Afrikaners of Scottish descent. Then there was the dunce caps in schools for using Afrikaans after the Second Boer War in the Transvaal and Orange Free State colonies. The future looks bleak though with the ANC removing all vestiges of the language in the country, especially in tertiary education. Yes the same ANC the Dutch so enthusiastically funded in the 80's, when your State Department classified them as a terrorist organisation. Let's hope this new private Afrikaans university is a success.

[@robertcuminale1212]

A lot of Scots came to Nieuw Amsterdam and blended in with the Dutch. We basically had the same Reformed Church background although they used the Westminster Confession and Catechism. The Presbyterians didn't set up the first Presbytery until the 1700s so there were no Presbyterian churches.Intermarriage was common since for a while the Dutch outnumbered the Scots.

[@danielcobbins9050]

It is interesting to note that three communities, in the NYC area have Dutch names. They are Brooklyn, Flushing, and Hoboken.

[@davidvanniekerk3813]

Dankie Robert Cuminale. In 1998-2000 AD. I was in Holland (The Netherlands) and to Nijkerk to find out about the Van Niekerks. In the town records I could find some basic stuff. In ZA the records is held by the State. You pay the fee and the State just never give you the records. So what happen after 1671 is unsure. In 1866 I did find a record of my great-great Grandfather at Priska.(Norther Cape) and very close to Niekerkshoop. So between 1671 and 1866 is unsure. Since you are form America. That Grandfather, Diederik Johannes vN (1866-1936) was in 1930 in New York!. Two yr ago an young American lecture was at the Wellington Teachers College (CPUT/ KSUT). He could trace that Granddad at the American Immigration records. Just how could things have been different... On the question of Afrikaans or Afrikan(d)ers. There is no future, ceteris paribus. The books about learned ppl who lived during the War(1899-1902) at 1960 and early 1970's was very afraid of the future. In the end it will be numbers who dictate... Merci beaucoup Robert Cuminale.

[@PluvioZA]

As a South African I actually did learn quite a lot in primary school about this part of history and you are covering it very accurately. Although I am not Afrikaans (More of a British and Austrian decent) I love the history of this country. Please keep up the good work, you're filling a very important place in history for us!

[@grantmajoor9928]

I'm a South African and I watched this video. Good job, you summed it up quite well. I even appreciate the pronunciations of the Afrikaans words.

[@susanunger2278]

Yes, I was impressed over his pronunciation

[@STROGER.]

He's dutch so he can't not get it right 😂

[@GraveyardKing]

I love the Afrikaans dialog you added. Gave me a laugh!

[@Draak_en]

I do think that just packing everything and leaving it all behind must have been a very tough decision to make, but it had to be done. Unfortunately it looks like the Boer might have to make that very same decision in the not so distant future.

[@kindneybeanjoe]

They are making efforts to preserve Afrikaner culture and heritage. There is a booming Afrikaner town in the north part of the Cape province, Orania, named after the Orange River. Any Afrikaner is welcomed to move there.

[@karlkat9042]

I'm a Pretorius. I appriciate you sharing the long and proud history of the Afrikaaners

[@lucasodum2185]

Goodness, I didn’t realize just how close English and Dutch were until I heard this guys Dutch and how good his English was, amazing videos btw! :)

[@laserpuppy1388]

Came here for a review of some SA history. Ended up also having a good laugh !! "Bliksem", "no braaing after 10pm". As a South African that was pretty funny!! Thanks for the informative video !! You may have my like and subscription.

[@chrismcelroy5941]

Find and read the novels Run For The Trees and The Great Sky And The Silence by James S. Rand. Very old and out of print but Amazon has paperbacks for not too bad of a price. Best African adventure novels ever about Dutch Afrikaners

[@thestupidgamerz5352]

Great video! I find it interesting since my dad is from South Africa (English South African) , he loves the history of the South Africa, he would be very interested in these videos. Again, thanks for the great video! You got yourself a new fan.

[@historywithhilbert146]

The Stupid GamerZ Thanks very much for watching and commenting, South Africa has a fascinating history! Glad you enjoyed my video :)

[@vs12wv432]

I am very interested in South African history. Read a lot about it and throughly enjoy your work, love the way your dates, numbers etc correspond with what i have read. Great work. keep going.

[@Quarton]

Thanks for this video about the history of South Africa. It's very interesting to learn about what happened - and learn about what's happening today.

[@DelightfulTravellers]

Amazing video. Well done! We really liked it.

[@judexavier1929]

I'm trying to make a stamp exhibition covering the South African semi postal fund stamps, and this video has been really helpful to me for adding the history of the Voortrekkers, (most of the early stamps are gathering funds for the Voortrekker monument) thank you!

[@zebulon24567]

Hey Hilbert, your videos are doing good man, keep up the good work.

[@historywithhilbert146]

Zebulon Joseph Pajel Thank you!

[@thomassugg3422]

Nice it's interesting learning about South African history My great aunt lives in Cape Town she moved other there from England in the 1960s.

[@rochelleludick8840]

Wel gedaan Hilbert! Thank you very much for making this video and for doing it so well. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you from South Africa - Afrikaner

[@tylerhandley2095]

Such a great video! Extremely accurate and helps a lot.

[@vikingodin1986]

A well of knowledge...loving the vids....im looking up more about this..interesting

[@Jade-zu4ru]

I'm busy learning about South African's history in school so this video was very helpful.

[@aswwafl]

M8 youve nailed it, ten out of ten, outstanding!

[@sphesihle2]

once again, great video I'm definitely subscribing now

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

Thank you for this, very well done!

[@nobodygh]

Loved this video. The "dialogue" you gave the Boers was really appropriate and funny. Have you been to South Africa?

[@BListHistory]

loved it! and loved the multiple languages!

[@historywithhilbert146]

B-List History Haha thanks man, glad you enjoyed it!

[@alexrossouw7702]

Afrikaans is the BEST language to swear with

[@Chris-cm5qe]

Love this video mate!

[@historywithhilbert146]

christian Thanks for watching!

[@malafunkshun8086]

As a mixed race Pacific Islander - EuroAmerican (yup, both European and American 😉😂), this is very fascinating history! Aloha 🤙🏼

[@solemnpenance8134]

History with a nice accent I could listen all day 👌

[@nielbd]

Love your videos I am south African I SUBSCRIBEd because you make the best history videos I have ever seen + Piet Retief was my great great great grandfather something like that

[@ronaldogonzalez8860]

History at it's best.. thank you for this video

[@bartgielingh2212]

Goede bondige uitleg van het geheel. Thumbs up man!

[@MrTinbuzzard]

My thanks for a great video. Pragtige werk.

[@pedror107]

Hope you've had a great weekend, I was looking forwardfor a video of those historical reenactments at Bamburgh ;) ! Hope you didn't ruin the camera

[@historywithhilbert146]

Pedro Rodrigues Thank you, I had a brilliant weekend! Unfortunately I don't have any videos of the reenactment itself (apparently go-pros are inaccurate for the 10th century???) but I do have one or two more vlogs from Bamburgh and surrounding :)

[@DanDjurdjevicplus]

I love your videos - big fan here. However a few notes: the tsetse fly is a biting fly that carries a particular parasite that causes human sleeping sickness. It is not related to malaria. Sotho is pronounced "Sutu". Lesotho is pronounced "Lessutu".

[@bluddxi]

more like Sootoo, I should know as i'm one after all

[@DanDjurdjevicplus]

Lerumo I toyed with the idea of spelling it with double 'o's. I pronounce my 'u's in much the same way.

[@Nikolizky]

You're still correct.

[@raaarraar8109]

Thank u so much this will help me for my exams I honestly struggle with being intrested with this but this helped me ALOT owo

[@NikhileshSurve]

8:15 "Dad? Son?" Now that was very cute.

[@kauemoura]

So interesting, thank you for this.

[@cooper8515]

The Boer Republics are without a doubt the COOLEST FUCKING THING that ever happened it just blows my fucking mind

[@NatashaHoeksema]

Amazing... thanks for doing it. Ek het dit geniet.

[@alwaysoutlawed4462]

Love your dialogue! Funny 😁

[@EmilReiko]

You really have to cover the rise of the Orlams and Griquas ańd their treks north and east. Adam Koks migration II and settlement predates the Borer states, later Griqualand West and East is formed. The story about those who went north is also pretty interesting, where some re-assimilate into the khoe khoe and others found Rehoboth. The Catsrivier settlement is also something that deserves a little light.

[@MuNky1022]

Thanks. If you go to the Voortrekker monument it has inside beautifully carved marble murals depicting the Groot Trek. Also in the middle is a stone that states "Ons vir jou Suid Afrika" - We for you, South Africa. On the 16th of December, the date of the Battle of Blood River, the sun shines perfectly on these words from a small hole in the roof. The 16th of December is a public holiday in South Africa, it has been relabeled "Day of Remembrance" to be more inclusive.

[@nyemeaker8089]

You sound British, but seem to know Dutch. What's the story there?

[@georgebennett8114]

99 percent sure he's fully Dutch but grew up (and lives in) England. If Dutch is his first language then fucking hell as an Englishman his accent is incredible and his command of the language is nuts.

[@GloryHoleBased]

dutch isnt his first language

[@motorcop505]

He's Hilbert! The king of internet history videos!

[@robertcuminale1212]

Really? His pronunciations of Dutch words is amazingly accurate. He even rolls the "r".

[@kowoba]

Most people do roll the "r", that is the original r sound.

[@123annique123]

Nice video! Your pronunciation is great!

[@PyroManiac637]

Could you do more videos on the Boers and the Cape Colony?

[@historywithhilbert146]

Roemer Faber I plan to in future ;)

[@STROGER.]

​@@historywithhilbert146jij beter I will like to see more of my history from my favorite you tuber

[@SafferPOV]

Just a correction. Cape Town (Kaapstad) isn't north of Table Bay, it's on it. The bay to the south you are referring to is called False Bay, so called because early seafarers coming from the east initially thought they had reached Table Bay

[@siamasban]

Love your Animations

[@dewetmaartens359]

Correction. Vlug kommando was called by this name retrospectively after the fled. The other Boers shamed them by calling them by this name. Thank you for the video!

[@stefanatliorvaldsson3563]

great video p.s. i love African history

[@historywithhilbert146]

Stefán Atli Þorvaldsson Takk!

[@yungjames5103]

LOOOOOLfml

[@angrysocialjusticewarrior]

I live in South Africa. And one thing you have to know about Zulus, is that there has never been a time where they are not dangerous. Even today, we still fear these people. I don't know if they have inherent violent traits embedded in their genetics as a result of centuries of war, but they just seem naturally more hostile and physically capable than any other tribe in the country, sort of like Pit-bulls vs other breeds. There is currently a land redistribution policy being proposed by government to undo colonial and apartheid theft of land from the indigenous tribes, and since Zulus where as much guilty of colonization as the European settlers, there were subtle hints that Some Zulu land would also be redistributed. The Zulu king (yes, zulus still have kings) did not take kindly to this and declared that should there be an attempt to take any Zulu land, the Zulu nation would wage war against the country. When the President heard of this, he went RUNNING to KwaZulu Natal (Zulu stronghold) to meet the king and assure him that Zulu land was not part of the proposed policy. Zulus are a pain, and so are the boers (most racist group in the country, as they've historically always been). Sometimes I wonder how much better South Africa would have been if the Zulus and the Boors wiped each other out and left the British and the other tribes to Co-exist peacefully.

[@samuelhawkins6332]

m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4jXpXqBbZWEf8U Try this one.

[@pontshoradise7769]

It rather lacks some details on the Batswana whom were found in the interior after the Boers crossed the orange they found them there though scattered they were already invaded by the Matebele under Mzilikazi who was a rebel general of Shaka and wanted a kingdom of his own. The Boers asked form king Moshoeshoe and king Moroka to be given a piece of land to live in peace and pray their God. They were alerted by the Batswana and Sotho people that they will Futher have land if they assist them with the Matebele invasion. They formed a stronger force with Barolong and Koran thus Mzilikazi was defeated. The voortrekkers then took all territories which had been Mzilikazis which include several tracks if land unoccupied. The Voortrekkers believed in owning land unlike the Batswana who moved from place to place depending on the climate and favorable grazing and farming land. The Batswana could not do this anymore and found themselves land less as the Voortrekkers now occupied their lands. Some young ones were used as cheap Labour called "die Orlam". This was to be the begging of land dispossessed Natives.

[@daanyaalsamsodien6381]

comment section is going to become a total fucking mess just you watch

[@historywithhilbert146]

Daanyaal Samsodien So far so netjes

[@roundduck7005]

Rusty Shackleford I think their called floppies

[@jasonhaven7170]

Rusty Shackleford That's what he means.

[@yankeepapa304]

Good piece... Correction though... Tzetse flies don't pass malaria...mosquitos do. The Tzetse flies pass trypanosomiasis... (sleeping sickness...) YP

[@Vmaster005]

Good video!

[@historywithhilbert146]

Vic 1 Thank you!

[@Nikolizky]

Great video, a complex and tumultuous history of South Africa. The complexities continue to this day. However, the Sothos and the Zulus never faced off in battle. The Sothos were diplomatically savvy, that's how they got to keep their mountain Kingdom without much battle. The Boers did, however unsuccessfully, attack them a few times and push them from the current Bloemfontein to the mountain enclaves across Caledon river. The Sothos then asked for British protection against Boer attacks. The rest was history.

[@dieuitlander]

What could have been a very nice little potted history of the Great Trek is unfortunately married by a number of factual errors that make it unreliable as a source of reference. 1. The original Dutchl settlement at the Cape was not "50 miles north of Table Bay". It was right on the southern shore of Table Bay, where the City Centre of Cape Town now stands. The author may be confused with the fact that this location is approximately 50 miles north of the Cape Of Good Hope. 2. The British did not occupy The Cape in 1814. They occupied it the first time in 1795, and again in 1806. 1814 was the year the colony was formally ceded to the British by the Dutch, but by that time the British had already been occupying the colony, off and on, for about 15 years 3. In 1814, the Cape colony was ceded to the British government, not to the British South Africa Company. The BSAP was only founded three quarters of a century later, in 1889. and never administered the Cape Colony or any part of what is now South Africa. It was involved in the founding and administration of the Rhodesias (modern Zimbabwe and Zambia) 4 Unlike the terms "Cape Dutch", "Boer" & "Afrikaner", the term "Voortrekker" does not refer to a "racial Identity". The term (literally "fore-hauler" in Dutch/Afrikaans), means a pioneer, and was used as such. 5.As correctly stated both mosquitoes and tsetses (or "Tsetse Flies") were present in the "Low Veldt" (the Limpopo Valley and Delta) at the time of the Great Trek. (Even now they have not been totally eradicated in the area.). Mosquitoes were most prevalent in the delta area, while 5setses were more common further upstream, in the. northern reaches of the river. However, the awkward word order in the sentence gives the impression that Malaria is spread by the Tsetse, which is false. The vector for Malaria is the Anopheles Mosquito, while the Tsetse is the vector for animal diseases such as Tripanosomiasis, and it's human version "Sleeping Sickness" . While Malaria was more frequently fatal to humans than Sleeping Sickness, both were dangerous, and livestock diseases could immobiliser a Voortrekker party because they were reliant on livestock both for food and for transport (since they rode horses and carried their provisions and possessions in ox-wagons). 6. The Sotho are not "cousins of the Lesotho". The word "Sotho" or "Ba-Sotho" ("Basuto" ) refers to the people/tribe/ethnic group, while the word Lesotho refers to the place, formerly referred to in English as "Basutoland" 7. The Tugela is the name of a river, not a district. The land promised to the Voortrekkers by Dingane was the land south of the Tugela river. 8. The translation "Speed Commando" is rather a loose translation. The word "Vlug" in Afrikaans (and I think in Dutch) literally means "fly" or "flee", so "Flying Commando" would be a more accurate translation, though the intention is the same. (The meaning of the word Kommando, later Anglicised to "Commando" has changed with time. With the original meaning of a Command or Detachment, it was originally used in the Dutch Cape Colony in the latter half of the eighteenth century to mean an ad hoc group of armed horsemen similar to a "posse" in the USA. By the time of the Great Trek, it had come to mean a "militia", like the militias the Trekkers organized for their defence. Later, in the Boer War period at the end of the nineteenth century, these militias were organized into irregular forces or guerilla bands. The modern meaning, I.e. military "special forces" or a member of such a group, dates from about the First World War period. I am not an expert on South African history, so there may well be other mistakes I have not spotted, but the above should be sufficient to demonstrate that this video contains inaccuracies and should be treated with caution.

[@poopingbeaver]

5:00 - Bible reading will be undertaken at an appropriate volume. Quite right...

[@jamesjefferson9228]

Would love more Boer history

[@gerdustaljaard946]

Thank you. Love the afrikaans comments by your animations.

[@mmahmodi5155]

Your pronunciation for Dutch is wonderful. Are you Dutch?

[@karenarmstrong8141]

wow i did not know anything about south afrika this is so insane i thought nothing happened down there

[@silence6605]

What's the peaceful background music at around 7:35?

[@EmanuelNeves]

Fascinating that a group as small as 6000 could achieve such great things. Love of Freedom can take you very far.

[@johannaetrishamorgan6850]

Thank you appreciate 👍

[@CertifiedFreshMemes]

I love this video

[@historywithhilbert146]

Certified Fresh Memes Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

[@ockertviljoen2810]

Amazing video, thanks allot for the correct pronouncements.

[@benjaminroos5348]

Good content

[@wollo6]

The British south Africa company didn't exist until 1889 and never had any jurisdiction over any of the lands over the republic of South Africa only Rhodesia

[@CaptainHarlock-kv4zt]

Nice...I just love Afrikaner history.You MUST make a 2nd anglo-boer war episode.You MUST mate,you are excellent.

[@chrismcelroy5941]

Find and read the books Run For The Trees and The Great Sky And The Silence by James S. Rand. Very very good novels about Afrikaners and their empires in Africa in the early 1900s. Worth whatever price you can find them for.

[@hugovandyk9918]

Always lovely to see a video about South African history. Your pronunciation of Afrikaans isn't bad either :p.

[@eljestLiv]

Could you make a video about the futhark and how to read it?

[@historywithhilbert146]

Olivia Andersson Yes I plan to go over both alphabets and the differences and characters in them :)

[@pontshoradise7769]

1843 Napier, who was the Cape Governor, and Moshoeshoe signed a treaty of friendship which drew boundaries around Moshoeshoe's territory. The Napier treaty recognised most of the territory that Moshoeshoe claimed. It included land occupied by the BaaRolong, the Taung, the Koranas , the Ba Tlokoa

[@j.gczaricit9446]

this is great being south african I loved this and could understand most of the translations but I couldn't understand everything said on screen but other than that lovely video

[@sihleskosana6490]

Hey, great show you've got going here, very informational. Although, it really would not be hard learning how to pronounce the names of the cultures.

[@abburobinson]

Small nitpick Cape Town sits in Table Bay the bay you meant is your intro of the city is False Bay BTW love your work and breadth of it too

[@arnobotha2771]

Hoe weet jy so baie van ons musiek, boetman?

[@Battledroid-16]

5:07 had me cracking up. As a proud South African this was really funny

[@alexanderbouwens2772]

Nice video but I feel it is cut short, the boers have been trekking up to much recently and much further all the way into Angola in 1928.

[@beaniefunnygamer7225]

Your pronunciation is spot on

[@dinogplayer3640]

You should make videos teaching Dutch. I would love to learn that language

[@quillinkhistory9539]

Good video Hilbert? What literature is it based on? :)

[@historywithhilbert146]

Quill & Ink History Thank you! For this one I didn't have an awful lot of reading material to hand although my book on the Zulus did contain quite a lot of useful information so it was mostly based on internet research from various sites and then comparing and seeing what they had in common as well as basing it off some knowledge I already had of the time period :)

[@quillinkhistory9539]

Np. Im not questioning any of the claims you made but just wanted to add a new book to my reading list since this is a subject were my background knowledge basically is zero(maybe the Zulu book you just mentioned?).Whish you a good weekend :)

[@historywithhilbert146]

Quill & Ink History Of course, no worries, I love it when people want to learn more about topics I cover so I'm more than happy to share my sources! I'll check what it's called tonight when I return home from holiday :) I recently purchased another book in the Netherlands about the Boer War so hopefully that will lead to some more videos on the topic.

[@goldenfiberwheat238]

Didn’t hussites do something similar to those wagon circles?

[@jiminchimchiminternational9865]

Omg i nearly had a heart attack 6:16 😨 But thank you so much I have an exam and this helped alot

[@DefenderPuma]

The treaty was signed. The original copy signed by Dingane and Retief still exists.

[@historicalperspective2149]

3:30 that was some amazing tongue clicking.

[@ertix111aqw4]

I love your accent.

[@AholeAtheist]

Hilbert, you should do a video on the Empty Land Theory.

[@AholeAtheist]

The Empty Land Theory is a theory propagated by European Africans in order to claim that there was no one inhabiting southern Africa when their ancestors arrived.

[@koosbos1114]

For hundreds of kilometres north of th Cape inland no open water. The Nguni tribes live mainly in the coastal areas. Further north they settled along rivers. The Basotho people living in mountain area wich was rich in water and grazing fot their animals.

[@emilebotes3521]

well done "Groot Trek" ....mooi man :)

[@melanywyatt-goodall9264]

Check out the history of the voortrekker Karel Landman. There is a monument erected in his name in the Easter Cape.

[@davissae]

The tsetse fly is not what carried malaria, that was a mosquito. Just a correction.

[@user-bq1wq8sd3c]

Why is "Bliksem" used a lot ?😂😂😂 In most of the Boer vidoes

[@xXTheoLinuxXx]

Most Boers are christians, so using bliksem might be obvious instead of swearing with some religious things ;)

[@boeloevanboeloefontein]

It literally means "curses" or "by thunder", but it is often used in the same context as "bastard" or "damn".

[@Helgardt6189]

I also means “ Ek gaan jou moer.”

[@Adrian-ju7cm]

What you said was not all true the Dutch did have a small unit of volunteers and medical unit fight on the side of the Boers. I had a relative among them. On a further note the Dutch also helped fund the railway in the Boer republics

[@lukad7744]

If the boers ever invented space travel would it be called the Star Trek?

[@chrismcelroy5941]

Anyone who has any interest in this subject NEEDS to read the book Run For The Trees by James S. Rand. It is out of print and difficult to find but Amazon has old paperback copies for anywhere between 10 and 30 dollars. Soooo worth it. The Great Sky And The Silence by the same author is also very very good. Theyre fictional books about Dutch Afrikaaners who built empires in Africa around the early 1900s. Very exciting and epic novels. Find them and read them!!!