King Hintsa enters the British camp under safe conduct

A British invasion defeated Batavian troops near Cape Town and began the second British occupation. Colonial rule over the Cape's African and enslaved population changed hands again.

More than 300 enslaved people and Khoikhoi labourers, led by Louis of Mauritius and others, attempted to end slavery and marched toward Cape Town. Colonial forces defeated the uprising and executed...

Makhanda led thousands of amaNdlambe fighters in a daylight attack on the British military centre at Grahamstown. The assault was a major attempt to resist British invasion and land dispossession on...

The Cape government promulgated Ordinance 50, formally ending compulsory passes for Khoikhoi and other free people of colour and recognizing equality before colonial law. Economic coercion and land...

Slavery legally ended in the Cape, but formerly enslaved people were compelled to serve a four-year apprenticeship. Slave owners received compensation while the emancipated received none.

Hintsa was shot while attempting to escape British custody. His killing became a lasting symbol of colonial betrayal and Xhosa resistance.

Four years after formal abolition, the enforced apprenticeship period ended. Formerly enslaved people gained legal freedom but generally received neither land nor compensation.

A fortified Voortrekker commando defeated a much larger Zulu force, consolidating settler expansion into the interior. The battle later became central to Afrikaner nationalist memory.

The colonial proclamation pushed the Cape-Xhosa boundary to the Kei River and placed more African land under British authority. It followed the War of the Axe and intensified dispossession.

AmaNgqika fighters attacked a colonial patrol at Boomah Pass and military villages after Governor Harry Smith deposed Sandile. AmaGcaleka, AmaThembu and Kat River rebels joined the wider resistance.