Kruger, Paul: - Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (1825-1904) was the dominant figure in Boer and South African history of the nineteenth century. Born in the Cape Colony, Kruger took part in the Great Trek and played a prominent role in the settlement of the interior from the 1860s onward. In various roles, as field cornet, as commandant-general, as vice president, and finally as four-times elected president of the Boer South African Republic ("Transvaal"), Kruger led his people time and time again to victory against overwhelming odds, including numerous wars with African tribes, and the British Empire itself. Re-elected with ever-increasing majorities, Kruger became the embodiment and symbol of the Boer people. He was only finally ejected from office in the cataclysm now known as the Second Boer War. Exiled to Europe, Kruger died in 1904, just two years after the state which he had helped to found disappeared.