The Boers & The Great Trek
The Boers were Dutch settlers who went to the cape of Africa in order to find open, available land and to live in their quiet, isolated lifestyle, guided by their strict religious codes. However, with the coming of the British to South African during the Napoleonic Wars, the Boers began to feel their lifestyle was threatened. In 1834, the situation worsened to the point where most of the Boers decided it best to leave the area controlled by the British. This migration, known to the Boers as the Great Trek, took them north to a region called the Transvaal, where they once again took up their independent ways.
However, as the years passed, the British slowly annexed more and more of Africa. In 1879, they conquered the Zulu Nation that bordered the Transvaal. A year later, they also declared themselves rulers of the Transvaal. Although the Boers protested this unwarranted and unnecessary annexation, they took no immediate action. Things quickly got worse as the British began to collect taxes in a haphazard way.
The Boers soon decided they had had enough and after a gathering of 4,000 Boers, sent England a declaration of Independence.
Major-General Sir George Pomperoy-Colley
Although the British government was concerned by this turn of events, they were sure that the Boers could be brought around with the application of military force. To this end, they charged Major-General Sir George Pomperoy-Colley as the head of all military forces in the Transvaal to bring the Boers under control. General Colley was a good officer, but had no respect for the Boers as a military force. It was a mistake that would cost the British the Transvaal, and cost Colley his life.
The Battles of Laing’s Neck, Schuinshoogte, and Majuba
Although General Colley only had around 1,500 men in his command it was deemed sufficient. The Boers had no organized military force, but they did have a complex militia system, which divided the men into groups known as commandos. Although these men were not professional soldiers, they had spent the whole of their lives stalking game across Africa. They were experts at stealth and crack shots with their rifles.
During each of the three major battles of the short war, the Boer Commandos literally took the British army to pieces. In each battle, the British had superior numbers, but found themselves ambushed, surrounded, and without any adequate response to the stealthy, Boer marksmen. British loses in the battles often neared 50%, while Boer loses at their worst were 10%. At the final battle of Mujuba, General Colley was killed.
The End of the Boer War
Despite the crushing military disasters suffered by the British, the war actually ended with a negotiated settlement, where the Transvaal was granted partial independence. Although some Boers were upset by this, it was only a few years later that they were granted complete independence. However, it would only be about 18 years before war broke out again, and this time, the British would be better prepared.
Primary Information for this article obtained from Majuba 1881: The Hill of Destiny by Ian Castle, Osprey Publishing, 1996.
