Kruger, << KROO guhr >>, Paul (1825-1904), was a South African statesman and soldier. He fiercely resisted the British in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. He was a frontiersman, uneducated and simple in his ways, and deeply religious. He was called “Oom (Uncle) Paul.”
Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger was born on Oct. 10, 1825, in the British Cape Colony. His family moved in the Great Trek, when many Dutch Boers traveled north into the interior of Africa to escape British rule. Kruger became famous as a hunter and fighter. See Great Trek.
Kruger’s family helped organize the Transvaal, the new Dutch state in South Africa. After much internal feuding and opposition from the British, the Transvaal obtained its freedom in 1881. Kruger served as president from 1883 to 1900. But the discovery of gold brought thousands of Uitlanders (foreigners), mostly British, to the republic. Serious differences arose, and war broke out with the United Kingdom in 1899 (see Anglo-Boer Wars). Kruger tried unsuccessfully to get European aid, and he died in exile on July 14, 1904.
See also Van Wouw, Anton.
