Paul Kruger

Biography

From 1880 to 1900, Paul Kruger was the President of the South African Republic, often referred to as the Transvaal.

Kruger’s family originally stemmed from German and Prussian nobility. His parents had taken part in the Grote Trek, the journey that Dutch-speaking South African farmers made in order to flee British authority. In the interior, they founded the independent republic called Transvaal. At a relatively young age, Kruger had his own farm, and became increasingly involved with politics.

In 1877, the British advanced to the north and annexed the Transvaal. They official reason they gave was that the Transvaal’s inhabitants needed to be protected from the indigenous population. In the same year, Kruger went to Europe as a delegate to recruit support for the resistance to the British. He led the Boers against the British in the First Boer War (1880-1881).

Under his authority, negotiations took place against peace conditions that were drawn up in the Convention of Pretoria. Mutual hostility plus the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand led to the Second Boer War in 1899.

In 1900, Kruger fled to Europe in the battleship De Gelderland, which had been sent by Queen Wilhelmina to bypass the British blockade. Kruger travelled to Marseille, then to the Netherlands, and then to Clarens in Switzerland. He died in 1904.