Battle of Majuba Hill: Difference between revisions

* 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.

* Coupled with the defeats at [[Battle of Laing's Nek|Laing's Nek]] and [[Battle of Schuinshoogte|Schuinshoogte]], the third crushing defeat at the hands of the Boers ratified the strength of the Boers in the minds of the British that would be ingrained in the memory of British troops in the [[Second Boer War]], when "Remember Majuba" became a rallying cry.

 

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 either forced into acknowledging the independence of a prewar possession or to sign 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 marked the first time since the [[War of 1812]] 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> This position fails to take into account the fact 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 the State in the Transvaal which was declared a self-governing, not independent entity, under British suzerainty. Though never the situation in any way but on paper and abrogated by the 1884 Pretoria Convention-Britain was still able to avoid formally acknowledging their defeat.<ref> The Boer Wars, By Professor Fransjohan Pretorius. Last updated 2011-03-29. Section: "Uneasy Peace". ndhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/boer_wars_01.shtml#four. Retrieved March 17, 2021. </ref> Prior to the discovery of gold in the Transvaal in 1886, it was widely presumed that the Transvaal Republic would not survive economically in the long term anyway.<ref> Pretorius. Last updated 2011-03-29. Section: "Nationalism and unrest". Retrieved March 17, 2021. </ref> Furthermore, emerging powers, namely the United States, were already acting in open defiance of British hegemony at the time and there is little evidence Britain’s defeat in this brief low intensity conflict had any significant effect on the foreign relation of the British Empire.<ref>{{cite book|author=Michael J. Hogan|title=Paths to Power: The Historiography of American Foreign Relations to 1941|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rcKEwnVi_IYC&pg=PA76|year=2000|publisher=Cambridge U.P.|pages=76-77|isbn=9780521664134}}</ref><ref>C.P. Stacey, "Fenianism and the Rise of National Feeling in Canada at the Time of Confederation" ''Canadian Historical Review'', 12#3, 238-261.</ref> The First Anglo-Boer can at best be called a temporary setback for the British Empire, which would continue to expand for several decades,<ref>A.J.P. Taylor, "International Relations" in F.H. Hinsley, ed., The New Cambridge Modern History: XI: Material Progress and World-Wide Problems, 1870–98 (1962): 554.</ref> eventually recovering all territory that was lost in 1881 in the [[Second Boer War]].