British pressures on the Dutch-speaking population of…

British pressures on the Dutch-speaking population of the South African Republic had become intense in the aftermath of industrialization.

In seizing the diamond fields in 1870, the British had swept aside many Boer land claims

In 1877, fearing a collapse of the South African Republic in the face of defeat by a Pedi army, the British had formally annexed the Boer state, as the Transvaal.

They had then set about destroying the Pedi to obtain laborers for the Kimberley mines, and they completed the task in 1879.

In 1880, however, the Transvaalers had risen, and at the Battle of Majuba Hill in 1881, they defeated a British army.

The British had then withdrawn, leaving the Boers victorious in what they would later call their First War of Independence.