Bechuanaland Expedition | |||||||
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Part of the Boer Wars | |||||||
Town hall of modern-day Vryburg | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Stellaland South African Republic | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Gerrit Jacobus van Niekerk Paul Kruger | Sir, Charles Warren Cecil Rhodes |
The Bechuanaland Expedition or Warren Expedition, of late 1884/1885, was a British military expedition to the Tswana country, to assert British sovereignty in the face of encroachments from Germany and the Transvaal, and to suppress the Boer states of Stellaland and Goshen.
In December 1884, Major-General Charles Warren was sent as HM Special Commissioner to command a military expedition to Bechuanaland, to assert British sovereignty in the face of encroachments from Germany and the Transvaal, and to suppress the Boer states of Stellaland and Goshen, which were backed by the Transvaal. Warren's force of 4,000 British and local troops headed north from Cape Town, accompanied by the first three observation balloons ever used by the British Army in the field. On 22 January, Warren met the Boer leader Paul Kruger at the Modder River where Kruger sought to bring the expedition to a halt on the basis that he would take responsibility for maintaining order in the Tswana country. Warren did not abandon his march, however, and on reaching the area he dissolved up the republics of Stellaland and Goshen without bloodshed and in July proclaimed a British protectorate. In September he halved the size of the protectorate by proclaiming the Crown colony of British Bechuanaland, its northern border following the Molopo and Nossob rivers. [1] Warren was recalled in September 1885.
An interesting sidelight on the expedition is related by Jose Burman, who writes that when Warren’s force reached Orange River station (at that stage the terminus of the railway line to Kimberley, as the bridge over the river had not yet been built) the general had a transport problem.
“At this stage Warren’s difficulties were solved by a number of farmers who arrived at the river and offered their services as transport riders. Warren accepted their services gratefully, and they were paid £2 a day. With their help the expeditionary force advanced cautiously into Bechuanaland. Stellaland accepted British rule – but Goshen did not, and Warren headed for Mafikeng. When he arrived he found that the Goshenites were no longer in residence, having mysteriously disappeared. Goshen was then proclaimed part of British Bechuanaland.
“Later it transpired that the helpful transport riders whom Warren had been paying £2 per day were mostly Goshenites who thus earned enough to buy farms at a later stage.” [2]
Scottish missionary John Mackenzie (1835–99), who accompanied Warren, described his experiences with the expedition in an 1887 work, Austral Africa: Losing It or Ruling It . [3]
Mahikeng, still commonly known as Mafikeng and previously Mafeking, is the capital city of the North-West Province of South Africa.
The Cape Colony, also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. The British colony was preceded by an earlier Corporate colony that became a Dutch colony of the same name, the Dutch Cape Colony, established in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). The Cape was under VOC rule from 1652 to 1795 and under rule of the Napoleonic Batavia Republic from 1803 to 1806.
Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and President of the South African Republic from 1883 to 1900. Nicknamed Oom Paul, he came to international prominence as the face of the Boer cause—that of the Transvaal and its neighbour the Orange Free State—against Britain during the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. He has been called a personification of Afrikanerdom, and remains a controversial figure; admirers venerate him as a tragic folk hero.
The Orange Free State was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Empire at the end of the Second Boer War in 1902. It is one of the three historical precursors to the present-day Free State province.
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The First Boer War, 1880-1881, also known as the First Anglo-Boer War, the Transvaal War or the Transvaal Rebellion, was a war fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal. The war resulted in a Boer victory and eventual independence of the South African Republic.
The Republic of Stellaland was, from 1882 to 1883, a Boer republic located in an area of British Bechuanaland, west of the Transvaal. After unification with the neighbouring State of Goshen, it was the United States of Stellaland from 1883 to 1885.
The Boer Republics were independent, self-governing republics formed by Dutch-speaking inhabitants of the Cape Colony and their descendants. The founders - variously named Trekboers, Boers and Voortrekkers - settled mainly in the middle, northern, north-eastern and eastern parts of present-day South Africa. Two of the Boer Republics achieved international recognition and complete independence: the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. The republics did not provide for the separation of church and state, initially allowing only the Dutch Reformed Church, and later also other churches in the Calvinist Protestant tradition. The republics came to an end after the Second Boer War of 1899-1902, which resulted in British annexation and later incorporation of their lands into the Union of South Africa.
The Bechuanaland Protectorate was a protectorate established on 31 March 1885, by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Southern Africa. It became the Republic of Botswana on 30 September 1966.
British Bechuanaland was a short-lived Crown colony of the United Kingdom that existed in southern Africa from its formation on 30 September 1885 until its annexation to the neighbouring Cape Colony on 16 November 1895. British Bechuanaland had an area of 51,424 square miles (133,190 km2) and a population of 84,210. Today the region forms part of South Africa.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Bechuanaland Protectorate.
General Sir Charles Warren, was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of the Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of the Temple Mount. Much of his military service was spent in British South Africa. Previously he was police chief, the head of the London Metropolitan Police, from 1886 to 1888 during the Jack the Ripper murders. His command in combat during the Second Boer War was criticised, but he achieved considerable success during his long life in his military and civil posts.
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Ethnic, political, and social tensions among European colonial powers, including indigenous African peoples, with British, Irish, and Dutch settlers led to open conflict in a series of wars and revolts between 1879 and 1915 that had lasting repercussions on the entire region of southern Africa. Pursuit of commercial empire as well as individual aspirations, especially after the discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886), were key factors driving these developments.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of British Bechuanaland.
Goshen, officially known as the State of Goshen, was a short-lived Boer Republic in southern Africa founded by Boers opposing British rule in the region.
The flag of Stellaland was the official flag of the short-lived southern African Republic of Stellaland, which existed from 1883 to 1885.
John Mackenzie was a Scottish Christian missionary who worked in Southern Africa, and who argued for the rights of the native Africans.