Treaty-breaking with native groups permanently destroyed indigenous trust in Boer settlers.

Evidence

Into native land deemed unsettled, unclaimed by people considered to be constantly on the move and incapable of settled industry and untrustworthy because unanchored. Trekkers forged alliances with each other against the common enemy (British and natives), and with natives against the British or to secure appealing conditions, land acquisition, or safe passage for themselves. But no sooner made than these agreements were often broken in the drive to guarantee territorial access and control, to fuel a secure labor supply or replenish livestock, and to wreak vengeance or some perverse sense of godly justice. No wonder trust among indigenous people with whom boers came in contact was shattered early on. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1421

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The ‘no wonder trust was shattered’ observation — repeated alliance-then-betrayal as a mechanism that permanently forecloses future cooperation — is a dense, generalizable insight about how broken treaties poison institutions for generations.