The British send a force under Sir…

The British send a force under Sir Charles Warren into Stellaland in December 1884.

Whether or not the formal independence of either Stellaland or Goshen was ever officially recognized is not entirely clear.

In Stellaland's favor, one can point out that the Montevideo convention which formalized the definition of sovereignty in the modern sense would not be signed until 1933, and that the local chiefs approved its existence.

On the other hand, several British sources refer to van Niekerk and his followers as "freebooters" and "marauders," but de jure recognition from the United Kingdom can be implied from a telegram that was erroneously sent by Sir Charles Warren, military commander for British Bechuanaland, to van Niekerk in which he had endorsed Cecil Rhodes' settlement in Stellaland.

Only later did Warren realize that his wording could be interpreted as an acknowledgment of Stellaland's legality, and he tried to deny the message's implications.

In February 1884, Great Britain unilaterally declares the area a British protectorate.

Stellaland's laws and constitution are practically identical to those of the South African Republic.

It never issues an independent currency, but instead—like all the surrounding states—uses the South African pound; it does, however, print its own postage stamps beginning in February 1884, which are still traded among collectors to the present day.

Due to the fact that van Niekerk's government had announced to levy taxes on all trade going through its territory, both Cecil Rhodes and the British administration fear a setback for their endeavors in the mining-business, since Stellaland lies on one of the main trade routes.

It is also presumed that the small country could eventually be incorporated into the neighboring South African Republic in an effort to circumvent the Pretoria Convention of 1881, which had called for an end to Boer expansionism.

Rhodes had even asserted that the area is of such a crucial nature to the Crown that if the territory held by Stellaland remains under Afrikaner control, British presence "should fall from the position of a paramount state in South Africa to that of a minor state." (Tamarkin, Mordechai (1996), Cecil Rhodes and the Cape Afrikaners, London: Frank Cass & Co., p. 90)

These fears had been fueled when, on September 10, 1884, President Paul Kruger of Transvaal declared the area to be under the protection of the South African Republic and annexed it six days later.