142-592: Boer victory [REDACTED] British Empire The First Boer War ( Afrikaans : Eerste Vryheidsoorlog , lit. ' First Freedom War ' ), was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal (as the South African Republic was known while under British administration). The war resulted in a Boer victory and eventual independence of
284-580: A sjambok . Citizenship of the ZAR was legislated by the constitution as well as Law No 7 of 1882, as amended on 23 June 1890. Citizenship was gained by being born in the republic or by naturalisation. The voting age was 16 years. Persons not born in the republic could become citizens by taking the prescribed oath and procuring the letters of naturalisation. The oath involved abandoning, discarding and renouncing all allegiance and subjugation towards foreign sovereignties and in particular their previous citizenship. Under
426-439: A Zulu attack. In 1877, Shepstone left Natal for Pretoria. He was warmly received by Burgers , the president of the Transvaal. Since the country was on the eve of an election which Burgers was bound to lose due to his unpopularity, Sir Theophilius therefore "was convinced beyond any doubt of Burgers' support against their common enemy: Kruger", since Kruger was Burger's primary rival in the election, against whom he could leverage
568-531: A few other burghers to the purported location where the elephants were herding. Rather instead, Mapela led the unsuspecting Boers into an ambush where hundreds of native warriors attacked the Potgieter party, killing Andries, then proceeding to drag Herman up a hill, where he was skinned alive. They stopped once they had torn the entrails from his body. At the same time of these events, the Ndebele chief Magobane (known to
710-399: A jacket, trousers and slouch hat. Each man brought his own weapon, usually a hunting rifle, and his own horses. The average Boer citizens who made up their commandos were farmers who had spent almost all their working lives in the saddle, and, because they had to depend on both their horses and their rifles for almost all of their meat, they were skilled hunters and expert marksmen . Most of
852-598: A jury system. Laws were enforced by the South African Republic Police ( Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek Politie or ZARP) which were divided into Mounted Police ( Rijdende Politie ) and Foot Police. Also established were municipal government, the Witwatersrand District Court and the High Court of Transvaal. The State Almanac for 1897 states that the total white population was 245,397; with
994-416: A law of 1855, only white people were permitted to be citizens of the ZAR and to own land. The constitution of the ZAR stated: "The volk (people) are not prepared to allow any equality of the non-white with the white inhabitants, either in the church or the state". The Witwatersrand gold rush led to an influx of Indians and Chinese into the new city of Johannesburg that was emerging on the veld , which led
1136-519: A long sword bayonet . Gunners of the Royal Artillery wore blue jackets. The Boer marksmen could easily snipe at British troops from a distance. The Boers carried no bayonets, leaving them at a substantial disadvantage in close combat, which they avoided as often as possible. Drawing on years of experience of fighting frontier skirmishes with numerous and indigenous African tribes, they relied more on mobility, stealth, marksmanship and initiative while
1278-487: A major influx of foreigners. By 1896, the language of government and citizens remained Dutch but in many market places, shops and homes the English language was spoken. Hendrik Potgieter was elected at the assembly of 1849 as commandant general for life and it became necessary, to avoid strife, to appoint three commandants general all possessing equal powers. Commandant General Andries Pretorius became commandant general of
1420-576: A negative image of the Transvaal in Britain. In April 1880, the Liberal Party was elected as the new government in Britain and the feeling in the Transvaal was that it would lead to the return of sovereignty to the Transvaal. However, the new British Prime Minister, W.E. Gladstone reiterated British control of the Transvaal. In October 1880, a newspaper from Paarl in the Cape Colony reported: "Passive resistance
1562-613: A policy of confederating South Africa, in order to solve the problems of a restless frontier and of containing the Boers, which both threatened their colonies of Natal and the Cape of Good Hope. These colonies were absolutely vital in providing a route to India, which was Britain's prime colony. Confederation of the South African region was thought to be very beneficial for the British, as it would "cheapen
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#17330856690491704-676: A problem ever since the founding of the ZAR. Only one year after the Sand Rivers Convention , the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal, Benjamin Pine , reported that the Boers had interpreted the treaty as having placed Zululand under their exclusive control. Pine stated that such a union of the Zulus and the Boers, who had wanted to create a settlement in the North-West corner of Zululand, would imperil
1846-709: A proclamation of the annexation of the Transvaal Republic was made in Church Square, Pretoria, the capital city of the Transvaal. The Transvaal Republic was now known as the British Colony of the Transvaal. A Transvaal government delegation comprising Paul Kruger and E. J. P. Jorrisen went to London in 1877 to present their case on behalf of the Transvaal to Lord Carnarvon, but their efforts were unsuccessful. The Transvaal Volksraad (People's Council) asked Transvaal citizens not to commit acts of violence, as this would create
1988-417: A quasi-feudalism as the wealthier families set themselves up as something alike to the marcher lords of medieval Europe. The field cornets often waged war against local African natives in order to seize land, ivory and people to distribute as spoils to their constituents in exchange for their electoral support, often specifically for elections to higher republic offices. There was a strong dynastic element to
2130-552: A time when Britain was engaged in the scramble for African colonies with France and Germany. In 1896, Cecil Rhodes , Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, attempted to overthrow the government of Paul Kruger who was then president of the South African Republic or the Transvaal. The raid, known as Jameson Raid , failed. By 1899, tensions erupted into the Second Boer War , caused partly by the rejection of an ultimatum by
2272-575: A war between the ZAR and the Bapedi broke out over cattle theft and land encroachment. The Volksraad declared war on the Pedi leader, Sekhukune , on 16 May 1876. The war only began in July 1876. The president of the ZAR, Burgers led an army of 2000 burghers and was joined by a strong force of Swazi warriors. The Swazis joined the war to aid Mampuru, who was ousted from his position of chieftain by Sekhukune. One of
2414-456: Is argued by some that Shepstone had annexed the area in haste, "without troubling to ascertain the real drift of Dutch opinion." However, his decision was certainly not made in haste, as he remained in Pretoria for three months before making a proclamation of annexation, at which time he was in contact with the members of the community in Pretoria. Moreover, due to the economic depression, as well as
2556-758: Is now becoming futile". With the defeat of the Zulus , and the Pedi, the Transvaal Boers were able to give voice to the growing resentment against the 1877 British annexation of the Transvaal and complained that it had been a violation of the Sand River Convention of 1852, and the Bloemfontein Convention of 1854. Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley , after returning briefly to India, finally took over as Governor of Natal, Transvaal, High Commissioner of SE Africa and Military Commander in July 1880. Multiple commitments prevented Colley from visiting
2698-421: Is shown by the response that Cetewayo made to the calls for peace from the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal: "I shall not act on my own account. I shall not agree to any laws or rules from Natal." Writing on the 14th February 1877, Shepstone asserted: "While I am here, Cetewayo will do nothing; but if I were to withdraw without completing my mission[annexation], I believe that not only the Zulus but every native tribe in
2840-458: Is the struggle you have embarked upon, and how little any accidental success gained can affect the ultimate result". Without waiting for a reply, Colley led his Natal Field Force – consisting of 1,400 men, an 80-strong Naval brigade, artillery and Gatling guns – to a strategic pass in the hills on the Natal-Transvaal border called Laing's Nek . At the battle of Laing's Nek on 28 January 1881,
2982-617: The Boers north of the Vaal River . The convention was signed on 17 January 1852, by Commandant-General Andries Pretorius and others, on behalf of the new country, and Major William Samuel Hogge and Charles Mostyn Owen, clerk to the Civil Commissioner of Winburg, duly authorised to, and on behalf of, the British government. The treaty was signed on the farm called Sand River belonging to P. A. Venter, near Ventersburg . The treaty contained
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#17330856690493124-778: The Cape Colony ). Following the Battle of Blaauwberg (1806) Britain had officially acquired the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa from the Dutch in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars . Certain groups of Dutch-speaking settler farmers ( Boers ) resented British rule, even though British control brought some economic benefits. Successive waves of migrations of Boer farmers (known as Trekboers which literally means "travelling farmers"), probed first east along
3266-506: The Delagoa bay to the Portuguese, who were friendly to the Boers. The Transvaal government immediately took steps to acquire a loan to build a railway there, and even led discussions to purchase the bay outright. This railway and purchase caused the loss of the only control that that the British had, since previously the British could at the very least restrict the supply of arms of ammunition that
3408-710: The Drakensberg mountains, surrounded by the Cape Colony , the Orange Free State and Natal ), following an appeal from Moshoeshoe , the leader of a mixed group of mostly Sotho -speaking refugees from the Difaqane who sought British protection against both the Boers and the Zulus . In the 1880s, the Tswana country became an object of dispute between the Germans to the west, the Boers to
3550-667: The Great Trek , and those who took part in it are called Voortrekkers . Indeed, the British subsequently acknowledged two new Boer Republics in a pair of treaties: the Sand River Convention of 1852 recognised the independence of the Transvaal Republic, and the Bloemfontein Convention of 1854 recognised the independence of the Orange Free State. However, British colonial expansion, from the 1830s, featured skirmishes and wars against both Boers and native African tribes for most of
3692-498: The Great Trek . These Boers then settled these lands, becoming farmers. The South African Republic came into existence on 17 January 1852, when the British signed the Sand River Convention treaty with about 40,000 Boer people , recognising their independence in the region to the north of the Vaal River , which had previously been under British annexation as the Orange Rivers Sovereignty . The first president of
3834-493: The London Convention was signed. The country independently also entered into various agreements with other foreign countries after that date. On 3 November 1884 the country signed a postal convention with the government of the Cape Colony and later a similar convention with the Orange Free State . In November 1859, the independent Republics of Lijdenburg and Utrecht merged with the ZAR. On 9 May 1887, burghers from
3976-641: The London Convention of 1884 which removed the SAR from British influence. In 1885, tensions rose between Transvaal and the British Government when gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand farm, which led to an influx of foreign (mostly British) labor . This new workforce of mostly British citizens threatened the balance of power in the Transvaal, and increased tensions between them and the British Empire. In 1895
4118-551: The Potchefstroom and Rustenburg districts. On 16 December 1852, Andries died and his son, Piet Pretorius , was appointed as commandant general of the Lydenburg and Zoutpansberg districts in his stead. There were some disputes over cattle which Mapela was raising on behalf of Potgieter and earlier Commandant Scholtz had confiscated a large number of rifles and amounts of ammunition, rifle repair equipment and materials of war from
4260-590: The Reformed Churches of South Africa would be entitled to citizenship of the ZAR. Consequently, Paul Kruger was not accepted as a citizen and disallowed from political intercourse. Acting President van Rensburg called a special meeting of the general council of the Dutch Reformed Church , which then voted in a special resolution to allow members of the Reformed Church access to the franchise. In 1876,
4402-694: The Treaty of Vereeniging was signed with the government of the South African Republic, the Orange Free State government, and the British government, ending the war, and converted the ZAR into the Transvaal Colony . Following the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the Transvaal Colony became Transvaal Province . The name Transvaal was finally changed in 1994, when the post- apartheid African National Congress -dominated South African government broke up
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4544-527: The Volksraad would have to agree to changes to the citizenship law. This proclamation, No 224, also changed Law No 7 with regard to voting. All citizens who were born in the ZAR or had obtained their franchise prior to 23 June 1890 would have the right to vote for both the first and second Volksraad and in all other elections. Citizens who obtained their franchise through naturalization after 23 June 1890 would be able to vote in all elections, except those for
4686-563: The Xhosa wars ). If the Zulus won, other independent tribes such as the Bantu , the Pondo , Swazi , Bapedi , and others, would gain confidence that they might obtain their independence from the British or at least offer the British resistance, endangering the Cape Colony. Annexation was therefore the only way of preventing either of these outcomes. What precipitated action and confirmed the aforementioned fears
4828-585: The volksraad to pass Law Number 3, which was aimed at stopping Asian immigration into the Transvaal. Under Law Number 3, all Asians which were defined as "Coolies, Chinese etc, Arabs, Malays, and Mohammedan subjects of the Turkish dominion" were forbidden from owning fixed property, had to register with the local magistrate within 8 days of arriving, were restricted to living in certain neighborhoods and had to pay an entry fee of £25. The Indian merchants, who were classified as "Arabs", objected to this law and appealed to
4970-451: The "Annexation of the S. A. Republic to the British Empire." The proclamation stated that the country was "unstable, ungovernable, bankrupt and facing civil war", though in reality the British wished to annex it for its strategic position, using skirmishes as a casus belli . The annexation would not suspend self-government, but nonetheless attempted to convert the ZAR into a colony of the British Empire. The ZAR unanimously decided to resist
5112-534: The "incurable insolvency" of the government, the burghers were ready to support the annexation, which was expected to solve these problems, whilst providing them protection from the natives. Additionally, the state attorney, Dr Jorissen, opined that, had Shepstone summoned the Volksraad after annexation, he would have obtained a vote of confidence. At Pretoria the annexation was received quietly enough. The republican printing press (De Volksstem) made no difficulty over
5254-638: The 1870s the British annexed West Griqualand , site of the Kimberley diamond-discoveries. In 1875 the Earl of Carnarvon , the British Colonial Secretary , in an attempt to extend British influence, approached the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic and tried to organise a federation of the British and Boer territories modelled on the 1867 federation of the French and English provinces of Canada. However
5396-424: The 92nd Highlanders had cut and run in the face of Boer irregulars. This defeat had such an impact that during the Second Boer War , one of the British slogans was "Remember Majuba." Hostilities continued until 6 March 1881, when a truce was declared, ironically on the same terms that Colley had disparaged. The Transvaal forts had endured, contrary to Colley's forecast, with the sieges being generally uneventful,
5538-505: The Bapedi and the Boers had signed a peace treaty. However, this conflict cannot be lightly dismissed as "the picturesque pretext" for annexation. In spite of the Boer "victory," on 16 February 1877, the Boers and Bapedi, mediated by Alexander Merensky , signed a peace treaty at Botshabelo ). Nonetheless, the situation could not be described as anything but critical. The war had been expensive, leading
5680-555: The Bapedi threat removed, the Burghers were no longer so amenable to British rule. On 13 December 1880, the members of the last Volksraad were summoned to a meeting at Paardekraal . The meeting placed authority in the hands of a triumvirate: Paul Kruger , Piet Joubert , and Marthinus Wessel Pretorius . They declared Heidelberg their seat of government and hoisted the Vierkleur there on 16 December. The war, not officially declared to
5822-415: The Boer strength and capabilities. Indeed, strategists have speculated as to whether the convoy should have proceeded at all when it was known to be vulnerable to attack, and whether it was necessary for Colley himself to take command of the British guard. Colley's decision to initiate the attack at Majuba Hill when truce discussions were already underway appears to have been foolhardy, particularly as there
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5964-485: The Boer uprising in Pretoria, when they were ambushed by Boer Forces near the Bronkhorstspruit Stream , about 120 men were killed or wounded by Boer fire within minutes of the first shots. Boer losses totalled two killed and five wounded. This mainly Irish regiment was marching westward toward Pretoria, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Anstruther, when halted by a Boer commando group. They were halted when they approached
6106-454: The Boers as Makapaan) attacked and killed an entire convoy of women and children traveling to Pretoria. The two chiefs had concluded an agreement to murder all the Europeans in their respective districts and to keep the cattle that they were raising for the Europeans. General Piet Potgieter set out with 100 men from Zoutpansberg and Commandant General Pretorius left Pretoria with 200 men. After
6248-438: The Boers content to wait for hunger and sickness to take their toll. The forts had suffered only light casualties as an outcome of sporadic engagements, except at Potchefstroom, where twenty-four were killed, and seventeen at Pretoria, in each case resulting from occasional raids on Boer positions. Although the Boers exploited their advantages to the full, their unconventional tactics, marksmanship and mobility do not fully explain
6390-409: The Boers had single-shot breech-loading rifle , primarily the .450 Westley Richards , a falling-block, single-action, breech-loading rifle, with accuracy up to 600 yards. J. Lehmann's The First Boer War , 1972, comments "Employing chiefly the very fine breech-loading Westley Richards - calibre 45; paper cartridge; percussion-cap replaced on the nipple manually - they made it exceedingly dangerous for
6532-644: The Boers to accept annexation, and the impis had been massed on the border "on a hint from Shepstone". This suggestion is supported by the presence of Zulu emissaries in March 1877 in Natal stating that the Zulu army had massed "in readiness at the call of Somtseu (Shepstone) to go round towards the upper side of the Dutch." Moreover, Shepstone requested Sir Henry Bulwer , the British Lieutenant-Governor of Natal, to cease
6674-555: The Boers were keeping slaves under the Inboekstelsel system. The Boers responded that the acts of a few criminals and criminal gangs cannot be claimed to be that of an entire nation. One of the causes of the First Boer War was the direct breach by the British of this convention on 12 April 1877. Britain issued a proclamation called: "Annexation of the S.A. Republic to the British Empire," and proceeded to occupy Pretoria . Although
6816-542: The Boers, and was thereby led to anticipate an immediate application to the High Commissioner to take over the country. A.N. Pelzer wrote: "Although Sekhukhune made overtures for peace, he was not defeated and this fact, together with the shaky financial position, gave Sir Theophilus Shepstone the pretext he required to annex the republic [as the Transvaal , a British colony, on 12 April 1877]." Barkly's warning hastened
6958-535: The British Cape Colony expanded into the Southern African interior, eventually leading to the outbreak of the First Boer War between the two nations. The Boer victory confirmed the ZAR's independence; however, Anglo-ZAR tensions soon flared up again over various diplomatic issues. In 1899, war again broke out between Britain and the ZAR, which was swiftly occupied by British forces. Many Boer combatants in
7100-530: The British annexation. Instead of declaring war, the country decided to send a delegation to the United Kingdom and the United States, to protest. This did not have any effect, and the First Boer War formally broke out on 20 December 1880. It would see the introduction of the khaki uniform among British troops, marking the beginning of the end of the famous red coat . The Battle of Laing's Nek would be
7242-450: The British command, in particular Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley, although poor intelligence and bad communications also contributed to their losses. At Laing's Nek it seems that Colley not only underestimated the Boer capabilities, but had been misinformed of, and was surprised by, the strength of the Boer forces. The confrontation at Ingogo Nek was perhaps rash, given that reserves were being sent, and Colley had by then experienced
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#17330856690497384-447: The British emphasised the traditional military values of command, discipline, formation and synchronised firepower. The average British soldier was not trained to be a marksman and got little target practice. What shooting training British soldiers had was mainly as a unit firing in volleys on command. On 20 December 1880, Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Robert Anstruther and men of the 94th Foot ( Connaught Rangers ) were on their way to quell
7526-518: The British government to protect their rights as British subjects. Following British diplomatic pressure, Law Number 3 was amended by the volksraad in 1887 to allow the "Asiatics" the right to own fixed property, though not land, and the entry fee was lowered to £3. Because the Indians in the ZAR had the British government to protect them, the anti-Asian laws in the ZAR tended to single out the Chinese, though
7668-460: The British gradually extended their control outwards from the Cape along the coast toward the east, eventually annexing Natal in 1843. The Trekboers were farmers, gradually extending their range and territory with no overall agenda. The formal abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834 led to more organised groups of Boer settlers attempting to escape British rule, some travelling as far north as modern-day Mozambique . This became known as
7810-406: The British lost 139 officers and troops, half the original force that had set out to escort the mail convoy. Colley had been forced to leave behind many of the wounded to die of exposure. In the space of ten days, he had lost one-quarter of his field force, either dead or wounded. "One or two Pyrrhic victories like this and we shan't have an army left at all", Lieutenant Percival Marling wrote at
7952-670: The British to expose themselves on the skyline". Other rifles included the Martini-Henry and the Snider–Enfield . Only a few had repeaters like the Winchester or the Swiss Vetterli . As hunters they had learned to fire from cover, from a prone position and to make the first shot count, knowing that if they missed, in the time it took to reload, the game would be long gone. At community gatherings, they often held target shooting competitions using targets such as hens' eggs perched on posts over 100 yards away. The Boer commandos made for expert light cavalry , able to use every scrap of cover from which they could pour accurate and destructive fire at
8094-419: The British. The British infantry uniforms at that date were red jackets, dark blue trousers with red piping on the side, white pith helmets and pipe clayed equipment, a stark contrast to the African landscape. The Highlanders wore the kilt , and khaki uniforms (They had just been involved in the Second Afghan War ). The standard infantry weapon was the Martini-Henry single-shot breech-loading rifle with
8236-528: The British. The Transvaal ultimatum had demanded that all disputes between the Orange Free State and the Transvaal (allied since 1897) be settled by arbitration and that British troops should leave. The lure of gold made it worth committing the vast resources of the British Empire and incurring the huge costs required to win that war. However, the sharp lessons the British had learned during the First Boer War – which included Boer marksmanship, tactical flexibility and good use of ground – had largely been forgotten when
8378-404: The Bronkhorstspruit, 38 miles from Pretoria . The Boer leader, Commandant Frans Joubert (brother of General Piet Joubert ), ordered Anstruther and the column to turn back, stating that the territory was now again a Boer Republic and therefore any further advance by the British would be deemed an act of war. Anstruther refused and ordered that ammunition be distributed. The Boers opened fire and
8520-401: The First Boer War, the ZAR came under British suzerainty and in the Pretoria Convention of 3 August 1881, the British insisted on the use of the name Transvaal State over Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek . This convention was renegotiated in a subsequent treaty between Britain and the ZAR, the London Convention of 27 February 1884, where Britain acquiesced to the ZAR's demands to revert to
8662-417: The Hong Kong Chinese were like the Indians able to claim as British subjects certain exemptions from the anti-Chinese laws. To be eligible for citizenship, white foreigners had to have been residing in the Republic for a period of two years, be of good character and have been accepted as member of the Dutch Reformed or Reformed Church. On 20 September 1893 the ZAR Constitution was amended so that two-thirds of
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#17330856690498804-446: The Natal Field Force under Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley attempted with cavalry and infantry attacks to break through the Boer positions on the Drakensberg mountain range to relieve their garrisons. The British were repelled with heavy losses by the Boers under the command of Piet Joubert. 480 British troops were engaged, suffering 150 casualties. Furthermore, sharpshooting Boers had killed or wounded many senior officers. At
8946-409: The North of the Vaal River). In 1858, the constitution permanently established the name of the country as the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek . The ZAR was also commonly referred to as Transvaal in reference to the area beyond (or " trans ") the Vaal River , including by the British and European press. The British objected to the use of the name Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek . After the end of
9088-414: The Orange Free State. President Jacobus Nicolaas Boshoff had issued a death sentence over two ZAR citizens, for treason. Kruger argued with President Boshoff that the Bible said punishment does not mean a death sentence and at the prisoner exchange, it was agreed that the accused would be punished if found guilty. After consulting Commandant Kruger's Bible, Boshoff commuted the men's sentences to lashes with
9230-481: The South African Republic was relinquished. The British government, in the London Convention , accepted the name of the country as the South African Republic. The convention was signed in duplicate in London on 27 February 1884, by Hercules Robinson , Paul Kruger , Stephanus Jacobus du Toit and Nicolaas Smit , and later ratified by the South African Republic Volksraad . In 1885, rich gold reefs were discovered. ZAR burghers were farmers and not miners and much of
9372-416: The South African Republic. The war is also known as the First Anglo–Boer War , the Transvaal War or the Transvaal Rebellion. In the 19th century a series of events occurred in the southern part of the African continent, with the British from time to time attempting to set up a single unified state there, while at other times wanting to control less territory. The British Empire's expansion in South Africa
9514-418: The Transvaal Volksraad (parliament). The agreement did not reinstate fully the independence of the Transvaal but kept the state under British suzerainty. British troops withdrew and in 1884, the Pretoria Convention was superseded by the London Convention , which provided for full independence and self-government although still with British control of foreign relations. When in 1886 a second major mineral find
9656-471: The Transvaal and bordering on it would attack and wipe it out." The danger of a Zulu attack was therefore very real, and not invented by the British. However, the British did apply pressure on the Boers to excite apprehensions of the danger the Zulus presented by cutting off Boer access to the coast, which prevented them from profiting from customs duties on maritime imports and exports, as well as cutting off their source of arms, which contributed to their fear of
9798-588: The Transvaal became besieged . Although generally called a war, the actual engagements were of a relatively minor nature considering the few men involved on both sides and the short duration of the combat, lasting some ten weeks. The fiercely independent Boers had no regular army; when danger threatened, all the men in a district would form a militia organised into military units called commandos and would elect officers. Commandos being civilian militia, each man wore what he wished, usually everyday dark-grey, neutral-coloured, or earthtone khaki farming clothes such as
9940-441: The Transvaal formally declared independence from the United Kingdom, the war began on 16 December 1880 with shots fired by Transvaal Boers at Potchefstroom . During this skirmish, the Boer "commando" was led by General Piet Cronjé . This led to the action at Bronkhorstspruit on 20 December 1880, where the Boers ambushed and destroyed a British Army convoy . From 22 December 1880 to 6 January 1881, British army garrisons all over
10082-463: The Transvaal where he knew many of the senior Boers. Instead he relied on reports from the Administrator, Sir Owen Lanyon , who had no understanding of the Boer mood or capability. Belatedly Lanyon asked for troop reinforcements in December 1880 but was overtaken by events. The Boers revolted on 16 December 1880 and took action at Bronkhorstspruit against a British column of the 94th Foot who were returning to reinforce Pretoria . The trigger for
10224-451: The ZAR refused to surrender , leading British commander Lord Kitchener to order the adoption of several scorched-earth policies . In the treaty which ended the war, the ZAR was transformed into the Transvaal Colony , and eventually the Union of South Africa . During World War I , there was a failed attempt at resurrecting the republic in the Maritz rebellion . The land area that was once
10366-450: The ZAR had about 30,000 men who were called up to serve in the kommandos . Though in theory, any white male burgher could be elected to a military office, in practice the men who were elected came from the wealthier families, who used their wealth to build up patronage networks that put the poorer farmers into their debt in one manner or another. The South African historian Ian van der Waag described Boer society as being characterized by
10508-599: The ZAR now comprises all or most of the provinces of Gauteng , Limpopo , Mpumalanga , and North West in the northeastern portion of the modern-day Republic of South Africa . In 1853 the Volksraad adopted a resolution briefly adopting the name of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic). The same year, the Volksraad renamed the state to the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek Benoorden de Vaalrivier (South African Republic to
10650-562: The ZAR was Marthinus Wessel Pretorius , elected in 1857, son of Boer leader Andries Pretorius , who commanded the Boers to victory at the Battle of Blood River . The capital was established at Potchefstroom and later moved to Pretoria . The parliament was called the Volksraad and had 24 members. By the 1870s, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies , Lord Carnarvon , adopted
10792-468: The ZAR. On 1 October 1895 Alfred Fernandez Harington was appointed English master at the Staats Model School in Pretoria. Use of any foreign language was subject to criminal penalty and fine of £20 (ZAR) for each offence. The British similarly had declared English to be the only language spoken in the Cape Colony some decades earlier to outlaw the Dutch language. The discovery of gold in 1885 led to
10934-482: The action of Lord Carnarvon and led to the dispatch of Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who happened to be in England, on his mission as special commissioner "to carry out any negotiations which may be found necessary and practicable." Shepstone's warrant authorised him to annex the Transvaal, provided he was satisfied that a sufficient number of the inhabitants, or the legislature, desired it. By the time Shepstone arrived, however,
11076-467: The administration of affairs" and reduce the need for imperial money and troops. The first issue that prompted the annexation of Transvaal was the prospect that the Boers might gain an outlet to the sea, which the British government was trying to prevent, as shown by the annexation of Natal , which had previously been a Boer republic called Natalia . This annexation happened because the MacMahon award gave
11218-478: The aid of the Natalian (Shepstone). Thomas Burgers hoped to use the presence of Shepstone to induce the Volksraad to accept, as an alternative to annexation, a reform to the constitution that would strengthen his executive authority and prolong his rule by two more years. Even when Shepstone informed Burgers of his determination to go through with annexing the Transvaal, Burgers assured Shepstone of his co-operation. It
11360-417: The ambushed British troops were annihilated. In the ensuing engagement, the column lost 56 men dead and 92 wounded. With the majority of his troops dead or wounded, the dying Anstruther ordered surrender. The Boer uprising caught the six small British forts scattered around the Transvaal by surprise. They housed some 2,000 troops between them, including irregulars with as few as fifty soldiers at Lydenburg in
11502-629: The battle of Schuinshoogte (also known as Battle of the Carrots) on 8 February 1881, another British force barely escaped destruction. General Colley had sought refuge with the Natal Field Force at Mount Prospect , three miles to the south, to await reinforcements. However, Colley was soon back in action. On 7 February, a mail escort on its way to Newcastle had been attacked by the Boers and forced back to Mount Prospect. The next day Colley, determined to keep his supplies and communication route open, escorted
11644-409: The border between the Transvaal and Zululand. Believing that the only answer to the instability of the region was British intervention, senior War Office official Sir Garnet Wolseley argued that Britain should "use Cetewayo as a powerful lever to influence wavering spirit". It has therefore been suggested that the danger that the Zulus presented was specifically manufactured by the British to induce
11786-405: The casualties of this war was Commandant General Potgieter. The natives were armed with rifles and were good shots. The general was killed by a native sniper on the ridge of a trench and his body recovered by then commandant Paul Kruger whilst under heavy fire from the natives. What remained of the joint commando, now under command of General Pretorius focussed their attention on Mapela. By the time
11928-506: The coast away from the Cape toward Natal, and thereafter north toward the interior, eventually establishing the republics that came to be known as the Orange Free State and the Transvaal (literally "across/beyond the Vaal River"). The British did not try to stop the Trekboers from moving away from the Cape. The Trekboers functioned as pioneers, opening up the interior for those who followed, and
12070-414: The commando had reached Mapela, the natives had fled. A few wagons, bloody clothes, chests and other goods were discovered at a kop near Mapela's town. Mapela and his soldiers escaped and with their rifles and ammunition intact and Mapela was only captured much later, in 1858. Commandant-General Stephanus Schoeman did not accept the Volksraad proclamation of 20 September 1858, under which members of
12212-423: The commandos met up, they first attacked Magobane and the natives were driven back to their caves in the mountains where they lived before. The Boers held them at siege in their caves and eventually hundreds of women and children came out. Orphan children of the native tribes were booked in strictly controlled by legal process, at appointed Boer families to look after them until they came of age. The administration
12354-434: The cultural and historical context differed entirely, and the Boer leaders turned him down. Successive British annexations, and in particular the annexation of West Griqualand, caused a climate of simmering unease in the Boer republics. In 1877, the British annexed the Transvaal, which was bankrupt, and under threat from the Zulu. The president of the Transvaal Republic from 1872 to 1877 was T.F. Burgers. The Transvaal Republic
12496-508: The deaths of many British soldiers and Colley himself. The First Boer War was the first conflict since the American War of Independence in which the British had been decisively defeated and forced to sign a peace treaty under unfavourable terms. The Battle of Laing's Nek would be the last occasion where a British regiment carried its official regimental colours into battle. The British government, under Prime Minister William Gladstone ,
12638-596: The early battles occurred at Botsabelo Mission Station on 13 July 1876, against Johannes Dinkwanyane, who was Sekhukune's brother. The Boer forces were led by Commandant Coetzee and accompanied by Swazi warriors. The Swazi warriors launched a surprise and successful attack while the Boers held back. Seeing this, the Swazis refused to hand over to the Boers any spoils from the battle, thereafter leaving and returning to Swaziland . Dinkwanyane's followers also surrendered after this campaign. On 12 April 1877, British officials issued
12780-501: The east which Anstruther had just left. Being isolated, and with so few men, all the forts could do was prepare for a siege and wait to be relieved. By 6 January 1881, Boers had begun to besiege Lydenburg . The other five forts, with a minimum of fifty miles between any two, were at Wakkerstroom and Standerton in the south, Marabastad in the north and Potchefstroom and Rustenburg in the west. Boers begun to besiege Marabastad fort on 29 December 1880. The three main engagements of
12922-554: The east, and the British in the Cape Colony to the south. Although the Tswana country had at the time almost no economic value, the " Missionaries Road " passed through it toward territory farther north. After the Germans annexed Damaraland and Namaqualand (modern Namibia ) in 1884, the British annexed Bechuanaland in two parts in 1885: the Bechuanaland Protectorate (modern Botswana ) and British Bechuanaland (later part of
13064-466: The election of generals who commanded the kommandos as there was a tendency for men from the same families to be elected to the office of general generation after generation. In 1899, while the average age of a general in the ZAR was 58, the majority had a very limited education. In a society that venerated age, the most respected man was the takhaar , the wealthy patriarch with the long hair and long beard that indicated wisdom, and these were accordingly
13206-423: The end of January 1877 Shepstone admitted to Burgers that Britain was going to annex the Transvaal Republic. Burgers' response was to convince the Transvaal government to act in a more serious manner, but the Transvaal government refused to see the urgency of their predicament. Lord Carnarvon thought that the annexation of the Transvaal would be the first step in creating a British confederation. On 12th April 1877,
13348-482: The failed Jameson Raid led by Cecil Rhodes and Leander Starr Jameson increased tensions further between Britain and Transvaal. Eventually in 1899, war broke out between Transvaal and the British Empire. South African Republic The South African Republic ( Dutch : Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek , abbreviated ZAR ; Afrikaans : Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek ), also known as the Transvaal Republic ,
13490-550: The field cornets performed both military and political functions. The commandant-general was responsible for buying guns and ammunition, fixed the prices of commodities and most importantly controlled the ivory trade. The economy of the Transvaal was very much a barter economy, and ivory was one of the principal currencies used in trade and commerce. The professional military of the ZAR was the Staatsartillerie (State Artillery), who in 1899 numbered 314 men. The Staatsartillerie
13632-404: The first Volksraad . The total population of the republic in 1890 was an estimated 120,000 people. In common with the Orange Free State, the basis of the military of the ZAR was the kommando system under which all able-bodied burghers could be called up for military service under their own elected officers. The men of the kommandos wore no uniforms and had no medals. The basic officer
13774-423: The following provisions: South African Republic authorities claimed the British contravened the treaty in 1853, with a British citizen, the missionary David Livingstone , supplying, storing, and making repairs to materials of war for the native tribes. Commandant Scholtz and his men confiscated a large number of rifles and amounts of ammunition and equipment from Livingstone's home. The British in turn claimed that
13916-579: The garrisons would not survive until then. Consequently, at Newcastle , near the Transvaal border, he mustered a relief column (the Natal Field Force ) of available men, although this amounted to only 1,200 troops. Colley's force was further weakened in that few were mounted, a serious disadvantage in the terrain and for that type of warfare. Most Boers were mounted and good riders. Nonetheless, Colley's force set out on 24 January 1881 northward for Laing's Nek en route to relieve Wakkerstroom and Standerton,
14058-483: The government of the Republic to be insolvent, and the desertion of Boer commandos gave the Zulus, the arch-enemies of the Boers, the impression that the Transvaal was weak, as they had been barely able to defeat Sekhukhune, who they considered a minor vassal. In the spring and summer of 1876–77, frontier skirmishes between the Zulus and Boers flared up once again, and Cetewayo , the Zulu king, began moving his impis towards
14200-492: The greatest defeat for the British. The British, though they had the superior numbers, were slaughtered. On 26 February 1881, Colley led a night march of some 400 men from the 92nd Highlanders, the 58th Regiment, and the Natal Brigade. They reached the top of Majuba Hill, which overlooked the main Boer position. The troops took no artillery with them. At first light, a group of Highlanders advertised their presence by standing on
14342-623: The heavy British losses. Like the Boers, British soldiers were equipped with breech-loading rifles (the Martini-Henry), but they (unlike the Boers) were professionals, and the British Army had previously fought campaigns in difficult terrain and against an elusive enemy, such as the tribesmen of the Northern Territories in modern-day Afghanistan . Historians lay much of the blame at the feet of
14484-422: The hillside. The British suffered heavy losses, with 92 killed, 134 injured, and 59 men were taken prisoner. Major-General Colley was among the dead; he was fatally shot in the head when trying to rally his men. Of the Boers, six were wounded, one fatally. Within 30 minutes the British were swept off the summit. For the British the shame of Majuba was even more intense than that of Isandlwana . Elite units like
14626-526: The home of an English missionary, the Reverend Livingstone. Livingstone admitted to storing weaponry for the Secheli, a breach of the Sand River Convention, which prohibited providing arms or ammunition to the natives. In 1853, Herman Potgieter was called to Mapela to aid in a cull of the elephant population. Upon arrival, Maphela guided the Potgieter party, which included Herman, his son, his groom and
14768-463: The importation of military materiel into the Transvaal. However, the independence of the Zulu kingdom mustn't be understated, and the influence that Shepstone had over Cetewayo should not be exaggerated. What kept the Zulus loyal to the British was their fear of the Boers: but once the Zulus realized that the Boers were not a threat, they realised that they did not need to acquiesce to British demands. This
14910-485: The last occasion on which a British Army regiment carried its official regimental colours into battle. The Pretoria Convention of 1881 was signed on 3 August 1881 and ratified on 25 October 1881 by the ZAR, where the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek is referred to by the name "Transvaal Territory". The Pretoria Convention of 1881 was superseded in 1884 by the London Convention, in which the British suzerainty over
15052-467: The mail wagon personally and this time with a larger escort. The Boers attacked the convoy at the Ingogo River crossing, but with a stronger force of some 400 men. The firepower was not matched and the fight continued for several hours, but the Boer marksmen dominated the action until darkness when a storm permitted Colley and the remainder of his troops to retreat back to Mount Prospect. In this engagement,
15194-420: The meantime had offered a Royal Commission investigation and possible troop withdrawal and their attitude toward the Boers was conciliatory. Colley was critical of this stance and, while waiting for Kruger's final agreement, decided to attack again with a view to enabling the British government to negotiate from a position of strength. This resulted in the disaster of the Battle of Majuba Hill on 27 February 1881,
15336-413: The mining fell to immigrants. The immigrants were also referred to as "outlanders". By 1897, immigrants had invested over 300,000,000 British Pounds in the ZAR goldfields. Sand River Convention The Sand River Convention ( Afrikaans : Sandrivierkonvensie ) of 17 January 1852 was a convention whereby the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland formally recognised the independence of
15478-620: The nearest forts. In a display of diplomacy before the beginning of the Battle, British commander Sir George Colley sent a message on 23 January 1881 to the Commandant-General of the Boers, Piet Joubert , calling on him to disband his forces or face the full might of Imperial Britain. He wrote "The men who follow you are, many of them ignorant, and know and understood a little of anything outside their own country. But you, who are well educated and have travelled, cannot but be unaware how hopeless
15620-463: The occupying British troops, opened with an irregular attack on a British regiment on the march at Bronkhorstspruit . The British garrisons in the Transvaal were besieged, but only one fell to the republicans. The Boers defeated the British at Laing's Nek and Ingogo , and on 27 February 1881, at Majuba , General Sir George Pomeroy Colley fell at the head of his troops. While the British would in other circumstances have sent more troops and defeated
15762-482: The people most likely to be elected as officers. Most of the takhaars serving as officers in 1899 were in some way connected to President Paul Kruger , either by ties of blood or marriage. The language spoken and written by the citizens of the ZAR was a variant of Dutch , locally referred to as Hooghollands . On 3 October 1884, the Volksraad stated that they had reason to believe that in certain schools impure Dutch (in fact an early form of Afrikaans )
15904-486: The possibility of the appearance of a foreign and unfriendly power in the Cape which could threaten Britain's position there. These fears were further stoked by the trip that Thomas Burgers , the president of Transvaal took to Europe, during which he tried to negotiate a loan for a railway, as well as possible European alliances. The second issue that prompted the annexation was native policy and Boer relations with local African kingdoms. The British considered these relations
16046-493: The printing of Shepstone's proclamation. Despite the official protest of the executive council, all but one of its members retained office under the new administration, and no military incidents occurred during or immediately after the annexation. Sir Garnet Wolseley , High Commissioner for Southeast Africa, declared war on Sekhukhune. With British and allied troops, including the Swazis who had supported Burgers, in 1879 Wolseley defeated Sekhukhune and imprisoned him in Pretoria. With
16188-470: The province into four provinces and renamed the core region Gauteng . The Boer republics emerged when the British had annexed the Cape Colony from the Dutch in 1806, in order to prevent the sea routes to the East (India etc.) from falling to Napoleon . This area was inhabited by the Boers , who, dissatisfied with British rule, decided to leave the colony and move into the hinterland of South Africa in what became
16330-623: The rebels, Prime Minister William Gladstone chose to make peace. Drawing up of the detailed peace treaty—the Pretoria Convention —was left in the hands of a royal commission comprising Sir Hercules Robinson , General Sir Evelyn Wood and Justice John de Villiers of the Cape Colony. Britain now referred to the territory as the Transvaal State, but the Volksraad regarded the old South African Republic as having been restored. The ZAR became fully independent on 27 February 1884, when
16472-435: The remainder of the century. The discovery of diamonds in 1867 near the Vaal River , some 550 miles (890 km) northeast of Cape Town , ended the isolation of the Boers in the interior and changed South African history. The discovery triggered a diamond rush that attracted people from all over the world, turning Kimberley into a town of 50,000 within five years and drawing the attention of British imperial interests. In
16614-552: The safety of Natal. This combination meant that control of the land around the areas of Utrecht would be in dispute between the Boers and the Zulus, raising tension in the region. The Boers had also been acting provocatively towards the Bantu peoples living in Bechuanaland: for instance, in 1852, Boer commandos raided the town of Kwena, taking many prisoners, and in 1857 a Boer commandos led another raid on Batlhaping , after claiming that
16756-454: The second war broke out 18 years later. Heavy casualties, as well as many setbacks, were incurred before the British were ultimately victorious. The First Boer War resulted in a disaster for the British government, which had not lost a war to a rebellion since the American War of Independence in 1783. The South Africa Republic (aka Transvaal) was also established as an independent republic under British suzerainty, but they lost this status at
16898-412: The skyline, shaking their fists, and yelling at the Boers below. The Boers saw the British occupying the summit and stormed the mountain using dead ground. Shooting accurately and using all available natural cover, the Boers advanced toward the British position. Several Boer groups stormed the hill and drove the British off. As panic took hold, terrified British soldiers sprinted for the rear, then fled down
17040-489: The territories of Stellaland and Goosen (sometimes referred to as "Goshen") were granted the ZAR franchise. On 25 July 1895, the burghers that took part in the battle at Zoutpansberg were granted citizenship of the ZAR. The constitution of the ZAR was legally interesting for its time. It contained provisions for the division between the political leadership and office bearers in government administration. The legal system consisted of higher and lower courts and had adopted
17182-528: The time. On February 12, Colley received reinforcements consisting of the 92nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regiment of Foot , and the 15th (The King's Hussar's) , with the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons , the 83rd (Country of Dublin) Regiment under the command of Sir Evelyn Wood , on the way. On 14 February hostilities were suspended, awaiting the outcome of peace negotiations initiated by an offer from Paul Kruger. During this time, Colley's promised reinforcements arrived, with more to follow. The British government in
17324-480: The total black population being 622,544. Initially, the state and church were not separated in the constitution; citizens of the ZAR had to be members of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk , a denomination which had broken from the Dutch Reformed Church . In 1858, these clauses were altered in the constitution to allow for the Volksraad to approve other Dutch Christian churches. The Dopper Church
17466-402: The tribesmen stole their cattle. For the British, these conflicts had a high chance for escalating and presented big problems no matter how they turned out: if the Boers won in their war against the Zulus, there would be a substantial increase of Zulu refugees into the already crowded area of Natal, and the displacement of peoples had been shown to create an atmosphere conducive to war, as shown by
17608-460: The use of the previous name. The name of the South African Republic was of such political significance that on 1 September 1900, the British declared by special proclamation that the name of the country had been changed from Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek to "the Transvaal". This proclamation was issued during the British occupation of the region in the Second Boer War and while the ZAR was still nominally an independent country. On 31 May 1902,
17750-454: The war came when a Boer named Piet Bezuidenhout (see Gerhardminnebron ) refused to pay an illegally inflated tax. Government officials seized his wagon and attempted to auction it off to pay the tax on 11 November 1880, but a hundred armed Boers disrupted the auction, assaulted the presiding sheriff, and reclaimed the wagon. The first shots of the war were fired when this group fought back against government troops who were sent after them. After
17892-485: The war to an official end. In the final peace treaty, the Pretoria Convention , negotiated by a three-man Royal Commission , the British agreed to complete Boer self-government in the Transvaal under British suzerainty . The Boers accepted the Queen's nominal rule and British control over external relations, African affairs, and native districts. The Pretoria Convention was signed on 3 August 1881 and ratified on 25 October by
18034-456: The war were all within about sixteen miles of each other, centred on the Battles of Laing's Nek (28 January 1881), Ingogo River (8 February 1881) and the rout at Majuba Hill (27 February 1881). These battles were the result of Colley's attempts to relieve the besieged forts. Although he had requested reinforcements, these would not reach him until mid-February. Colley was, however, convinced that
18176-456: Was accelerated due to the desire to control trade routes between India via the Cape of Good Hope, the discovery of diamonds in Kimberley in 1868, and the race against other European Powers to control as much of Africa as possible. The British annexation of the Transvaal in 1877 represented one of their biggest incursions into Southern Africa, but other expansions also occurred. In 1868 the British Empire annexed Basutoland (modern Lesotho in
18318-601: Was an independent Boer republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it was annexed into the British Empire as a result of the Second Boer War . The ZAR was established as a result of the 1852 Sand River Convention , in which the British government agreed to formally recognise independence of the Boers living north of the Vaal River . Relations between the ZAR and Britain started to deteriorate after
18460-459: Was approved by the Volksraad in 1858, which had the effect of allowing Paul Kruger , a Dopper himself, to remain a citizen of the ZAR. The Bible itself was also often used to interpret the intention of legal documents. The Bible was also used to interpret a prisoner exchange agreement, reached in terms of the Sand River Convention , between a commando of the ZAR, led by Kruger, and a Commando of
18602-509: Was armed with the modern Krupp artillery guns imported from Germany, and whose second-in-command was the Austrian officer Captain Adolf Zboril, who did his best to bring up the Staatsartillerie to the level of a European army. The closest the ZAR had to a professional infantry and cavalry was the para-military ZARP ( Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek Politie - South African Republic Police ). In 1899,
18744-488: Was being used. The Volksraad issued Proclamation 207 and compelled the Superintendent of Education to apply the language law enforcing the exclusive use of Dutch. On 30 July 1888, Dutch language was declared the sole official language, in court as well as education, trade and general use. All other languages were declared "foreign". These changes to the ZAR laws made the use of all other foreign languages illegal in
18886-421: Was concerned that the opening of Delagoa Bay could signal the involvement of other nations in the Transvaal, which could threaten the Cape Colony. This concern was intensified by the fact that some German merchants had already approached Bismark with the proposition that he annex the Transvaal, which proposition, although rejected, raised the possibility of the Boers requesting German protection, which in turn raised
19028-457: Was conciliatory since it realised that any further action would require substantial troop reinforcements, and it was likely that the war would be costly, messy and protracted. Unwilling to get bogged down in a distant war, the British government ordered a truce. Sir Evelyn Wood (Colley's replacement) signed an armistice to end the war on 6 March, and subsequently a peace treaty was signed with Kruger at O'Neil's Cottage on 23 March 1881, bringing
19170-464: Was exported and fell into the hands of the Boers and natives and thereby rein in what the British saw as the anarchy in the Transvaal. Additionally, the sea outlet that the Boers acquired which was outside the control of the British made persuading the Boers to enter a South African confederation far more difficult, as the Boers as a result achieved greater independence. Moreover, the Foreign Office
19312-504: Was guilty of a criminal offence. These children were also often called "oorlams" in reference to being overly used to the Dutch culture, and in reference to a hand-raised orphan sheep, or "hanslam". These children, even after their 16th birthday, and being free to come and go as they please, rarely re-connected with their own culture and own language and except for surviving and being cared for in terms of food and shelter, were basically forcefully divorced from their native tribe forever. Among
19454-535: Was in serious financial trouble because the government had fallen behind on tax collection and a war with the Pedi under the leadership of Sekhukhune in the North-East Transvaal had commenced. Sir Theophilus Shepstone was sent by Lord Carnarvon (British Secretary of the Colonies) as a special commissioner to the Transvaal. Shepstone did not initially disclose his true intentions to the Transvaal government, but at
19596-472: Was limited strategic value. The Boer positions were also out of rifle range from the summit. Once the Battle of Majuba Hill had begun, Colley's command and understanding of the dire situation seemed to deteriorate as the day went on, as he sent conflicting signals to the British forces at Mount Prospect by heliograph , first requesting reinforcements and then stating that the Boers were retreating. Thus poor leadership, intelligence and communications resulted in
19738-464: Was made at an outcrop on a large ridge some 30 miles (48 km) south of the Boer capital at Pretoria, it reignited British imperial interests. The ridge, known locally as the " Witwatersrand " (literally "white water ridge" – a watershed), contained the world's largest deposit of gold-bearing ore. This discovery made the Transvaal, which had been a struggling Boer republic, potentially a political and economic threat to British supremacy in South Africa at
19880-424: Was similar to the system of indentured workers, which was simply another form of slavery, with the exception that children so registered had to be released at age 16. The commando would return all such children to the nearest landdrost district, for registration and allocation to a Boer family. As there were slavers and other criminals dealing in children, any burgher found in possession of an unregistered minor child
20022-403: Was that in 1876, war broke out between the Boers and the Bapedi chief Sekhukhune. Initially, the Boers faced heavy defeats: the Republic was close to bankruptcy and its siege of Sekhukhune's stronghold failed because commando members objected to Burgers's theology, calling him a heretic, and abandoned the siege in droves. Sir Henry Barkley exaggerated this failure as a major and decisive defeat of
20164-415: Was the field cornet who was elected by the local burghers and performed both military and administrative functions in his district. The field cornet was responsible for collecting taxes, performing the census, training the male burghers , collecting arms and with upholding the power of the state over the local black population. The commander of the ZAR's military was the elected commandant-general who like
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