First Boer War
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The First Boer War also known as the First Anglo-Boer War or the Transvaal War, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881. It was the first clash between the British and the Transvaal Boers.
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[edit] 1877 annexation
The war was precipitated by Sir Theophilus Shepstone who annexed the bankrupt South African Republic (Transvaal Republic) for the British in 1877. The British consolidated their power over most of the colonies of South Africa in 1879 after the Anglo-Zulu War. The Boers protested and in December 1880 they revolted.
[edit] 1880-81 war
The war began on 16 December 1880 with shots fired by Transvaal Boers at Potchefstroom after Transvaal formally declared independence from Great Britain. It 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 the Transvaal became besieged.
The Boers were dressed in their everyday farming clothes, which were a neutral or earthtone khaki clothing, whereas the British uniforms were still bright scarlet red, a stark contrast to the African landscape, which enabled the Boers, being expert marksmen, to easily snipe at British troops from a distance. Other significant advantages to the Boers included their widespread adoption of the breech loading rifle, which could be aimed, fired, and reloaded from a prone position, and the Boers' unconventional military tactics, which relied more on stealth and speed than discipline and formation.
The besieging of the British garrisons led to the Battle of Laing's Nek on 28 January 1881 where a British force composed of the Natal Field Force under Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley attempted to break through the Boer positions on the Drakensberg range to relieve their garrisons. But the Boers, under the command of P.J. Joubert repulsed the British cavalry and infantry attacks.
Further actions included the Battle of Schuinshoogte (also known as Ingogo) on 8 February 1881, where another British force barely escaped destruction. But the final humiliation for the British was at the Battle of Majuba Hill on 27 February 1881, where several Boer groups stormed the hill and drove off the British, and Colley was killed.
[edit] 1881 peace
Unwilling to get further involved in a war which was already seen as lost, the British government of William Gladstone signed a truce on 6 March, and in the final peace treaty on 23 March 1881, they gave the Boers self-government in the Transvaal under a theoretical British oversight.
