Editing Boers (section)

== Invasion of the Cape Colony ==
{{Main|Invasion of the Cape Colony}}
The [[Invasion of the Cape Colony]] was a British military expedition launched in 1795 against the [[Dutch Cape Colony]] at the [[Cape of Good Hope]]. The Netherlands had fallen under [[French First Republic|the revolutionary government of France]] and a British force under [[General (United Kingdom)|General]] Sir [[James Henry Craig]] was sent to Cape Town to secure the colony from the French for the [[William V, Prince of Orange|Prince of Orange]], a refugee in England. [[Dutch Cape Colony#Commanders and governors of the Cape Colony (1652–1806)|The governor of Cape Town]] at first refused to obey the instructions from the Prince, but when the British proceeded to land troops to take possession anyway, he capitulated. His action was hastened by the fact that the [[Khoekhoe|Khoikhoi]], escaping from their former enslavers, flocked to the British standard. The burghers of Graaff Reinet did not surrender until a force had been sent against them; in 1799 and again in 1801 they rose in revolt. In February 1803, as a result of the [[peace of Amiens]] (February 1803), the colony was handed over to the [[Batavian Republic]] which introduced many reforms, as had the British during their eight years' rule. One of the first acts of General Craig had been to abolish torture in the administration of justice. The country still remained essentially Dutch, and few British citizens were attracted to it. Its cost to the British exchequer during this period was [[£]]16,000,000.{{Citation needed |date=March 2022}} The Batavian Republic entertained very liberal views as to the administration of the country, but had little opportunity to enact them.{{Citation needed |date=March 2022}}

When the [[War of the Third Coalition]] broke out in 1803, a British force was once again sent to the Cape. After an engagement (January 1806) on the shores of Table Bay, the Dutch garrison of [[Castle of Good Hope]] surrendered to the British under [[David Baird, 1st Baronet|Sir David Baird]], and in the [[1814 Anglo-Dutch treaty]] the colony was ceded outright by The Netherlands to [[The Crown|the British crown]]. At that time the colony extended to the line of mountains guarding the vast central plateau, then called Bushmansland (after a name for the [[San people]]), and had an area of about {{gaps|120|000}}&nbsp;sq&nbsp;km and a population of some {{gaps|60|000}}, of whom {{gaps|27|000}} were whites, {{gaps|17|000}} free Khoikhoi and the rest enslaved people, mostly non-indigenous blacks and Malays.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

=== Dislike of British rule ===
Although the colony was fairly prosperous, many of the Dutch farmers were as dissatisfied with British rule as they had been with that of the VOC, though their grounds for complaint were not the same. In 1792, [[Margraviate of Moravia|Moravian]] missions had been established which targeted the Khoikhoi, and in 1799 the [[London Missionary Society]] began work among both Khoikhoi and the Bantu peoples. The missionaries' championing of Khoikhoi grievances caused much dissatisfaction among the majority of the Dutch colonists, whose views temporarily prevailed, for in 1812 an ordinance was issued which empowered magistrates to bind Khoikhoi children as apprentices under conditions which differed little from [[slavery]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Theal |first=George McCall |title=History of South Africa |publisher=S. Sonnenschein, Lowrey, & Co. |year=1894 |edition=5th |location=London |pages=101–111}}</ref> Simultaneously, the movement for the [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolition of slavery]] was gaining strength in England, and the missionaries appealed from the colonists to the mother country.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

=== Slachter's Nek ===
A farmer named Frederick Bezuidenhout refused to obey a summons issued on the complaint of a Khoikhoi, and, firing on the party sent to arrest him, was killed by the return fire. This caused a small [[rebellion]] in 1815, known as [[Slachter's Nek Rebellion|Slachters Nek]], described as "the most insane attempt ever made by a set of men to wage war against their sovereign" by Henry Cloete. Upon its suppression, five ringleaders were publicly hanged at the spot where they had sworn to expel "the English tyrants". The feeling{{Clarify|reason=What feeling was it?|date=March 2021}} caused by the hanging of these men was deepened by the circumstances of the execution, as the scaffold on which the rebels were simultaneously hanged broke down from their united weight and the men were afterwards hanged one by one. An ordinance was passed in 1827, abolishing the old Dutch courts of {{lang|nl|[[landdrost]]}} and {{lang|nl|heemraden}} (resident [[magistrate]]s being substituted) and establishing that henceforth all legal proceedings should be conducted in English. The granting in 1828, as a result of the representations of the missionaries, of equal rights with whites to the Khoikhoi and other free [[coloured]] people, the imposition (1830) of heavy penalties for harsh treatment of enslaved people, and finally the emancipation of the enslaved people in 1834, were measures which combined to aggravate the farmers' dislike of government. Moreover, what the Boers viewed as the inadequate compensation for the freeing of the slaves, and the suspicions engendered by the method of payment, caused much resentment; and in 1835 the farmers again removed themselves to unknown country to escape the government. While emigration beyond the colonial border had been continuous for 150 years, it now took on larger proportions.{{Citation needed |date=March 2022}}