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| image = Battle of Majuba Hill.jpg
| image_size = 300px
| caption = An illustration of the battle, showcasing the [[British Army]] in action
| date = 27 February 1881
| place = Majuba Hill, [[
| coordinates = {{coord|-27.4768|29.8505|display=title,inline|name=Battle of Majuba Hill|type:event_region:ZA }}
| result = Boer victory
| combatant1 = {{flagcountry|South African Republic}}
| combatant2 = {{flagcountry|UKGBI}}
| commander1 = {{flagdeco|South African Republic}} [[Nicolas Smit|Nicolaas Smit]] <br> {{flagdeco|South African Republic}} [[Stephanus Johannes Roos|Stephanus Roos]] <br> {{flagdeco|South African Republic}}
| commander2 = {{flagdeco|UKGBI}} [[George Pomeroy Colley|Maj Gen. Sir George Pomeroy Colley]]{{KIA}}
| strength1 =
| strength2 = 405
| casualties1 =
| casualties2 = 92 killed <br> 134 wounded <br> 59 captured
| campaignbox = {{Campaignbox First Boer War}}
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==Battle==
The bulk of the 405 British soldiers occupying the hill were 171 men of the [[Northamptonshire Regiment|58th Regiment]] (
By daybreak at 4:30, the 92nd Highlanders covered a wide perimeter of the summit, and a handful occupied Gordon's Knoll on the right side of the summit. Oblivious to the presence of the British troops until the 92nd Gordon Highlanders began to yell and to shake their fists, the Boers began to panic for fear of an artillery attack.<ref>Martin Meredith, Diamonds Gold and War, (New York: Public Affairs, 2007):162</ref> Three Boer storming groups of 100–200 men each began a slow advance up the hill, led by Field Cornet Stephanus Roos, Commandant D.J.K. Malan and Commandant [[Joachim Ferreira]]. The Boers, the better marksmen, kept their enemy on the slopes at bay while groups crossed the open ground to attack Gordon's Knoll, where, at 12:45, Ferreira's men opened up a tremendous fire on the exposed knoll and captured it. The Boer general [[Piet Joubert]] later noted that the British rifles were sighted at 400–600 yards while the battle raged at about 50–100 yards, as the British officers had not told the troops to alter their weapons. Thus, they shot downhill over the heads of the exposed Boer attackers.
Colley was in his tent when he was informed of the advancing Boers but took no immediate action until after he had been warned by several subordinates of the seriousness of the attack.<ref name="Little Wars" /> Over the next hour, the Boers poured over the top of the British line and engaged the British at long range. Refusing close-combat action, they picked off the British soldiers one by one.<ref>Donald Featherstone, ''Victorian Colonial Warfare – Africa'', p. 60.</ref> The Boers could take advantage of the scrub and high grass that covered the hill, which the British were not trained to do. It was at that stage that British discipline began to break: the troops could not see their opponents and received very little direction from their officers, and they panicked and began to flee.<ref>Donald Featherstone, ''Victorian Colonial Warfare – Africa'', pp. 60–61.</ref>
When more Boers were seen encircling the mountain, the British line collapsed, and many ran pell-mell from the hill. The Gordons held their ground the longest, but once they were broken, the battle was over. The Boers were able to launch an attack, which shattered the-already crumbling British line.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}
Amid great confusion and increasing slaughter among his men, Colley attempted a fighting retreat, but he was killed by Boer marksmen. The rest of the British force fled down the rear slopes of Majuba, where more were hit by the Boer marksmen firing from the summit. An abortive rearguard action was staged by the [[15th The King's Hussars|15th Hussars]] and [[King's Royal Rifle Corps|60th Rifles]], who had marched from a support base at Mount Prospect, but that made little impact on the Boer forces. A total of 285 British were killed, captured or wounded, including Captain Cornwallis Maude, son of government minister [[Cornwallis Maude, 1st Earl de Montalt]].<ref name="Little Wars"/>
Several wounded soldiers who soon found themselves surrounded by Boer soldiers gave their accounts later of that day. Many Boers were young farm boys armed with rifles. The revelation that professionally
==Aftermath==
Although small in numbers, the battle is historically significant for
* It led to the signing of a peace treaty and later the [[Pretoria Convention]] between the British and the reinstated [[South African Republic]] that ended the [[First Boer War]].
* The [[fire and movement]] ("vuur en beweging" in Afrikaans) [[military tactics|tactics]] employed by the Boers, especially Conmandant [[Nicolas Smit]] in his final assault on the hill, were years ahead of their time.
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Some British historians have argued that the defeat marked the beginning of the decline of the [[British Empire]]. The First Boer War was the first time since the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] that Britain was forced into either acknowledging the independence of a prewar possession or signing a treaty on unfavorable terms that yielded a significant amount of territory. In preceding conflicts, even if they suffered initial defeats, instances of the British not ultimately obtaining a decisive victory were very rare. Since [[British foreign policy]] discouraged negotiating from anything other than a position of strength, Majuba was the first time that Britain was defeated in the final engagements of a war.<ref name="Little Wars">{{cite book |title= Queen Victoria's Little Wars|last= Farwell|first= Byron|year= 2009|publisher= Pen & Sword Books|isbn= 9781848840157}}<!--|access-date=12 August 2012 --></ref> That position neglects that the First Boer War, while arguably Britain's first unambiguous defeat since the American Revolution, was largely unnoticed by the general public. Britain was spared much of the embarrassment of defeat through the original terms ending the war.
Under the 1881 [[Pretoria Convention]], the British monarch became Head of state in the Transvaal, which was declared a self-governing, not an independent entity, under British suzerainty. Although that was never more than a legal fiction, soon abrogated by the 1884
{{Gallery|Image:Melton Prior - Illustrated London News - The Transvaal War - General Sir George Colley at the Battle of Majuba Mountain Just Before He Was Killed.jpg|Sir [[George Pomeroy Colley]] at the Battle of Majuba Hill.|Image:Majuba Hill-01 Nov 2008.jpg|Majuba Hill seen from Laing's Nek; buildings on the right include the museum.}}
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* [[John Laband|Laband, John]]. ''The Transvaal Rebellion: The First Boer War, 1880–1881'' (Routledge, 2014).
* Laband, John. ''The Battle of Majuba Hill: The Transvaal Campaign, 1880–1881'' (Helion and Company, 2018).
*Meredith, Martin. Diamonds Gold and War, (New York: Public Affairs, 2007): 162
* [[Morris, Jan]] ''Heaven's Command'', (London: Faber and Faber,1998) pp 442–445.
*Tylden, G. "A
*Ward, S. G. P. "
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